A Week for Firsts

Amazing to realise that it will soon be three years since we moved to Colares.  The time has flashed by and we love this area more and more.  The local people are so friendly and helpful and we find more and more that when we are out and about shopping or having coffee we get greeted with a smile and cheery “bom dia”.  Recently it has been a period of ‘firsts’.

We frequently shop in Mucifal and use the road from Nafarros. A pretty route with great views of Monserrate and the Serra da Sintra.  Every time we take this route, we always say we must stop at a little café on the outskirts of Nafarros as it looks interesting.  It has a tiny wooden deck outside with silver chairs and tables for the smokers, ladies for chatting, men for gossiping but until this week we have never got round to going inside.  So, after passing it yet again saying the same sentence, we determined to visit on our way back.



O Baeta café is decorated with beautiful blue and white traditional tiles; has about five tables, the standard TV up on the wall in the corner, a vast array of cakes and savouries and a good selection of spirits lined up on shelves along the walls. When I took the photograph it was a bit windy, hence the front door being closed and no-one on the deck.  The door to the right, l believe, leads to the upstairs apartment and to the right of that is a tiny gem of a local shop similar to one I used to use in Kettleshulme in the 1950’s, with a wonderful choice of fresh fruit and vegetables in their wooden boxes, various household needs etc, etc.  A real find and somewhere I can drop into within five minutes of home.  I really do enjoy a shopping expedition with a coffee combined.

Here’s another view showing the café at the side of the road leading down to Mucifal.



We had our usual coffee but decided to experiment with a different cake.  If we are in cake mode, we normally go for a pastel de nata or a broa but we decided on a Millefeuille for him and a slice of Bolo Marmore – marble cake for me.  Both were absolutely beautiful – light and obviously low in calories (tongue firmly in cheek).  We will definitely visit again.



The interior of the lovely shop

We keep finding these little jewels of cafes dotted around and I hope that tourists take the time to visit them and to get a feel of real Portugal.  I can count on one hand the times I have had a bad coffee in over 30 odd years of visiting and living here.  I seem to have an in-built sensor now and find, without looking, that I have chosen a Delta, Nicola, Segafredo or Sical coffee bars.

Another first in coffee bar visits was today in Almocageme.  Again we always say we will visit and never do as being loyal to another café further down the main street but today, and using the excuse of buying next week's Euromillions ticket we chose O Moinho Verde – The Green Windmill.  It has a nice, covered exterior seating area overlooking the market place and it is much larger than it looks from outside. Traditionally tiled walls and floors. it also has a large counter with cakes and savouries, soft drinks, draught beer etc.  A concession for the lottery and Euromillions tickets, a tiny newsagent area and a very large TV screen – ideal for watching football!

Photograph 'borrowed' from another wonderful blog riodasmacas@blogspot.com

Continuing the theme of firsts was a visit from some lovely friends of mine who were touring Spain and came to call on us on their way back up to Bilbao.  I had the pleasure of working for both of them during the eighties and we have stayed in touch.  Their touring was not just by car, but with attached caravan.  This was a new one.  We knew there was no problem accommodating them here but to enter our drive involves a steep hill and a rather nasty sharp bend.

As someone (who will remain nameless) read the mileage wrong, they arrived in the dark rather than daylight.  Glenn went down to meet them down by the main road and then he drove them up to the house to see how complicated it would be to negotiate the bend with the caravan.  They decided it was ok so off they went again to get the caravan. 

Well getting up the hill and round the bend went well – not so well getting through the gates.  After much pushing, shoving, unhitching the 4x4, hitching it up again, a successful entry was effected.  Parked up safely much to the delight of the estate guard dogs who thought all this excitement in the evening was brilliant plus they got something new to sniff and christen! That’s the caravan, not our friends!  We had a wonderful time catching up on news and realising how long ago we had worked together.  It always seems so recent in our minds but it appears that a silver anniversary of one part of their business will happen shortly – amazing.  It is also nice to hear of changes to where I used to live – good or bad.

The following evening we did yet another first of the week.  Very much like the story of the cafés, we pass the Estalagem de Colares every time we drive into Colares.  For the first few months we lived here, we used to think it might have been a fish shop as it has a swinging sign of a prawn outside.  We were corrected fairly quickly and learnt it was a small hotel with restaurant.

The entrance to Estalagem de Colares

Typically we had been saying we would go and check it out, have dinner, etc, but never got round to it until my friends arrived and I pondered on where to go for dinner.  So nearly three years later we made it and were very cross that we have never been before.

What a fabulous little hotel and restaurant.  As you can see from the photo, there are outside tables for coffee etc in the morning next to the river and inside it has a lounge with bar and offers an area for meetings upstairs.  The dining room is decorated in traditional tiles and unusually, they were not blue but wine coloured ones.  It has a massive fireplace burning logs so even though it was tiled, it was just the right temperature. 



We were looked after by Carlos, who kindly showed me around after the meal and told me that the hotel has 3 stars and is very popular with English and French tourists – hence his excellent English.  A double room is 80 euros a night and a single 60 euros.  They are also offering an afternoon tea with scones which I have a feeling we may just test drive very, very soon!

What I loved best was the meal.  Always a worry trying somewhere new with visitors, but this was impressive.  There is an extensive menu of starters, fish, salads, pasta, meat and desserts.  We sampled Canja de Galina (traditional chicken soup), Sopa de Tomate com Basilico (tomato soup with basil) and a grilled goat cheese with salad leaves.  We all then went traditional with Bacalhau a Bras – one of the best recipes for salt cod.  Simple but very filling. 

A photo of Bacalha a Bras

We felt we should try a dessert even though we were rather full.  We sampled a chocolate marquise, a semifrio of orange with chocolate sauce and a crème brulee.  All delicious.  We finished with mint tea.  We also went for a traditional Colares wine which was excellent.  Our friends left the following morning with very positive feelings about their visit and an easier exit out of the gates than their arrival.

I think the words 'tight squeeze' come in here

Now we have to have a good look around for more ‘firsts’ to celebrate our first three years in this beautiful part of Portugal.

The joys of a veggie box

Every Friday, unless it is a National holiday, means veggie box delivery day. Around 3.00pm I head off down to the Cooperative in Colares and pick up my black plastic tray of veggies, still damp from the ground and occasionally take home a few hitch hikers in the way of slugs, snails and the odd worm.  Proves the freshness though!
 

Each week there tends to be the usual staples of a lettuce (so big it can take up the whole of one salad box in fridge), bunches of parsley, coriander, spinach, watercress, and about a kilo of carrots.  Alongside these I may get a red peppers, turnips, beetroot, cabbage, a slice of pumpkin and whatever else is in season.

The first time I got beetroot I did eye it up with some suspicion.  This was a proper root vegetable; long greenery attached to a rather grubby looking round thing.  This was not from a jar - whole or sliced - in a strong vinegar solution. Hmm.  Beetroot used to be a staple of salads when I was a child.  Most of us have vivid memories of the old style classic English salad - flat (Webbs) lettuce, a radish or two (burp), sliced over-ripe tomato, cucumber and a few slices of vinegary beetroot that stained everything in its vicinity bright red, not forgetting the ubiquitous sliced, hard boiled egg.  This was served along with a couple of slices of boiled ham or tinned salmon.  The only way to cope with this was to dive for the bottle of Heinz Salad Cream before your mother - who only allowed polite spoonfuls - whereas if you got it first and hammered the bottom of the bottle correctly, you could cover the plate in a puddle of the stuff - you had to suffer the telling off for manners but it was worth it. I have had a hatred of tinned salmon since those days and it took me a long, long time to like vinegary beetroot.

As I had never done anything with 'real' beetroot it was lucky I had just treated myself  to the Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall book, River Cottage Everyday, and had seen a recipe for Beetroot and Cumin Soup with Spiced Yoghurt.  Now would be the right time to experiment. However the recipe called for more beetroot than I had got so I trotted off to my local shop in Colares and bought a couple more. Following Hugh's words diligently I produced an amazing brightly coloured soup which is now a firm favourite. I have also mastered simply boiling it and serving dizzled with olive oil and lemon.  Fresh rules.  There is a side effect which can be a bit startling if you are unaware.  I will just say, do not panic, you are not bleeding to death in the loo!!!

The huge bunch of watercress brought back memories of the peppery leaf being used in egg mayonnaise (bit of an exaggeration as everything was Heinz Salad Cream in those days) sandwiches but it was better than the fiddly, wispy fairly tasteless mustard and cress popular of that time that we grew at primary school.  As this  watercress  has large leaves it lends itself beautifully to mixing with the crispy lettuce for a great green salad.  In fact, watercress features in all my salads now, the added bonus being it is also incredibly healthy for you.

Carrots have always been a favourite but having so many meant a bit of research for something different to simply boiling them or grating for salads. This called for re-reading my handwritten recipe books (carefully noted down over the last thirty years), browsing my extensive selection of hardback recipe books and the odd browse on the internet and various chefs on Twitter. 

Carrot and Ginger, Carrot and Tomato and Carrot and Apple Soup have all turned out to be popular as well as a lovely winter coleslaw recipe which uses carrot, cabbage (both red and green), onion and sunflower seeds.  This dressed with a lovely vinagrette is a welcome change from our usual lettuce and watercress based salad in the evenings and goes well with fish and poultry.  Yesterday I found an old Rose Elliot receipe, in my first vegetarian cook book from the 70's, called Golden Slice that uses carrots and oats so that is down for a reboot later this week as well as one Nigel Slater posted via Twitter today.  In fact there are so many ways with carrots it becomes quite fun choosing a new one.

Pumpkin is very versatile.  Pumpkin and Chilli soup, that takes hardly any time to put together, certainly warms the cockles - especially if I have been a bit liberal with the dried chilli seeds!  I have also experimented with Pumpkin and fresh Ginger Soup - again a winner.  I also love roasting it along with other winter veggies like turnip, beetroot and carrot.  The turnip wins not just a side vegetable, but goes beautifully with roasted aubergine, peppers and onion and grated in a coleslaw adds a bit of bite.

All in all, my box of locally grown veggies at 7 euros is a joy and challenges me to come up with something new and healthy each week.

Abandoned Animals Need Our Help

Fear not,  I am not about to detail nasty stories but just to highlight how we can help.  Instead of that expensive and unnecessary Christmas gift for a family pet, how about using that money to help the abandoned?  Or better still, give a deserving animal a new and loving home for the rest of their lives. 

I have not had that many cats since I was small as most lived to great ages but all came from similar backgrounds - not wanted or abandoned.  Before I moved here I lost my two favourite cats so was not able to bring them with me - something I had planned and talked about.  Prudence Kitten was 21 when she died and Pebbles was 16 but they ARE are here - in the sun - as I brought their ashes with me so I did not break my promise to them.

So when I arrived in Lisbon, cat-less I lasted three months before someone told me of a kitten desperate for a home, having been rescued from the street outside El Cortes Ingles in Lisbon.  I went to meet her in a tiny apartment in Alfama where she was being cared for by a lovely Italian man and his partner.  We checked each other out and later that week she arrived tucked in his leather jacket and on the back of a motorbike! I quickly changed her name from one that was certainly controversial and Pansy Potter joined the house.

(Princess) Pansy Potter

A year later, now living in Cascais, I heard a sad tale of another kitten looking for a home.  Someone had taken him but it had not worked out so he joined us and was promptly christened Pompey Bum, after a character in the Shakespeare play Measure for Measure.  Now the pair of them share our life here on the hills of Sintra and I would not be without them and if I could, I would adopt more but common sense prevails so I try to help the charities in some small way when I can on their behalf.

Pompey (Tubs) Bum

There is a crisis worldwide as people struggle to feed and clothe themselves and their families.  A casualty of this is the family pet.  In the UK, the RSPCA - www.rspca.org, The Blue Cross - www.bluecross.org.uk, the PDSA - www.pdsa.org.uk , Battersea Dogs and Cats Home  www.battersea.org.uk, The Cats Protection League - www.cats.org.uk and various other charities, do wonderful work in this field with bands of volunteers selling goods, baking, giving up their time to help.  Here it is rather different.

In the UK we are far more aware of the care of animals thanks to advertising campaigns and not forgetting the wonderful programmes shown on TV over the years like Animal Hospital, Vets in Practice etc.  Those programmes did teach people a lot about animal welfare although, sadly, there are still appalling cases of cruelty in the UK not least of which are badger baiting and dog fighting.  The more people report people for these vile practices and get them prosecuted the better.  Out of the UK, animal welfare is a vastly different concept.  What we take for granted is no necessarily how it happens here or elsewhere in Europe

Remember the old saying:  "A dog is not just for Christmas but for life"? This applies to any animal adopted as a family pet from mice upwards.  A pet is a commitment not something to be disposed of because you are bored or can't afford to feed it. 

Think before you give in to a child's demands - all animals need feeding, exercising, holiday accommodation or someone to take care of them, regular trips to vets for injections against disease, worming tablets, flea treatments etc etc.  With larger animals like horses etc, this bill can be astronomical.

 

We have some wonderful voluntary associations who do sterling work in rescuing animals from horses, donkeys, goats, rabbits, dogs and cats, as well as raising money to neuter/sterilise dogs and cats to try to solve the never-ending problem of puppies and kittens.

I try to do my bit and have bought some things from the wonderful www.animaisderua.org which has a very informative website. They raise money for sterilisation, medical bills and rehoming.  They have frequent on-line auctions to raise more money. Another good one is BIANCA - Association for the Protection of Homeless Animals www.bianca.pt.  Again a wonderful organisation doing what it can to help the animals get a better life.  They also offer a service to find someone to take an adopted animal to another country if lucky enough to find a home out of Portugal.  A very clever idea.  I have knitted some blankets and donated reworked blankets to help keep the animals warm.

Medical supplies for treating the animals comes at a large financial cost and details are on many of the websites of the types of product required.  Many vets here give tremendous support to the organisations for free.  However more medical help is always valued.  Many times you see volunteers collecting pet food in supermarket entrances - a great idea.  Another idea is animal adoption days in  shopping centres or popular meeting places.  You can check out the animals, ask questions about their stories, the cost of keeping one etc or even give a donation - all will be gratefully received.

I cannot mention all the organisations here but these are some who have pages in English as well as portuguese but ALL need help - financially, medically, physically and not forgetting old blankets, towels etc to keep the animals warm and comfortable.

For horses, ponies and donkeys:
www.Theirvoiceportugal.com
A group of animal lovers with a common interest in the rescue, rehabilitation and re-homing of horses, ponies and donkeys in the Silver Coast region of Portugal.  They support and educate horse owners by sharing and providing information on all aspects of horse husbandry and stable management.  They work with local veterinary clinics and authorities to provide a safe haven for maltreated or abandoned equines.  They also adopt horses, ponies and donkeys from those experiencing financial difficulties until suitable foster or permanent homes can be found as well as forming relationships with local schools and the general community to educate and raise awareness of equine and general animal care.

For cats and dogs:
www.dogsofportugal.com

A group of young, multicultural, highly motivated, men and women that devote – on a voluntary, non remunerated basis – their short free time to improve the living standards of abandoned and mistreated dogs in Portugal.

www.uppa.pt

The Union for the Protection of Animals. UPPA is a non-profit organisation, made possible by the generosity of donors and fee-paying members. All money raised is used for the bettering of the lives of animals most in need, through the offering of medical treatment and the search for new owners willing to adopt an animal.  The following do not have an English option.

www.grupovoluntarios.hive-creations.com - have frequent collection days for food and other donations, in supermarkets.

http://errantes.org - (Patas Errantes) another great example of raising money holding markets and car boots to raise much needed money.

www.uniaozoofila.org - established in 1951 runs various campaigns, one of which being reducating people into not abandoning their animals when they go on holiday.

www.lpda.pt - Portugal's representative in Eurogroup for Animal Welfare, World, a member of  World Society for the Protection of Animals (WSPA) and  Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA).

Many more can be found on the web or on Facebook.

Please help if you can.

Hooray. The tram is running until the end of October

Yesterday whilst driving up to Sintra, I noticed workmen doing some work on the lines.  I thought it strange as the tram had finished its shortened stint at the end of last week.

Today I heard the familiar sounds of it trundling along in the valley below me and had a quick check on a fellow blogger's site (www.riodasmacas.blogspot.com) and saw that someone has had the sense to continue the tram until 28 October.  Wonderful news.

So for those who have not travelled on it yet this year, or are visiting Sintra, please, please do take a trip along the line from Sintra to Praia das Macas and enjoy the wonderful views.

It would be even better news, if the tram could run all year unless the weather was too bad.  There are tourists in the autumn, winter and spring after all!

Here's the new timetable:

Tingling Tastebuds

Over the past few months we have been lucky enough to discover new restaurants and cafes in our local area.

People often ask for recommendations but it can be a bit of a minefield.  What one person likes, another might hate.  A style of cooking could be too 'out there' for someone visiting the country for the first time, or a simple restaurant that has no frills might not be the preferred choice but I am a great believer in recommending when I have found something I would like to share.

I drive through Nafarros frequently but it was only fairly recently that I realised there were two restaurants - O Padeiro and Adega do Saraiva.  We had eaten at O Padeiro previously but the Adega do Saraiva was a totally new experience. 

The restaurant was previously an adega and therefore is a bit of a warren.  The menu (in portuguese) is very traditonal with an emphasis on the really good dishes that only the portuguese know how to cook and present.  Taking the time to choose, we were able to spy on other diners to see what everyone was having.  The table behind us with four gentlemen in varying ages, were tucking in heartily with lots of praise for the food.  Always a very good sign.  Considering it was a mid-week visit, it certainly did not lack customers. 

I could not resist Filetes de Pescada (fillets of hake) and Glenn went for the Lombo de Porco (pork loin).  Both dishes were fantastic. As was the house red wine. The specialities of the restaurant include Bacalhau na Brasa, Caldeirada mista, Feijoada de Chocos, Cabrito no forno and the portuguese favourite, Cozido a Portuguesa.  The desert menu was also very good but special mention must be made of the bread!

Now bread is a good topic of conversation here.  People have their favourite bakeries, type of loaf - that even includes what to chose to have for your toast in certain cafes!  Now where we live we tend to stick with bread from the bakery in Janas, which is sold in most local shops or you can visit the bakery and buy direct.  Fatal really, considering the smell of bread is so irresistable.  However when I asked the waitress where this particular bread came from she told me it was from a village on the road to Ericeira.  I still have to find this bakery as the bread was divine.

The restaurant is a joy and although we were the only estrangeiros, we were made to feel very welcome and another visit is due to be made in the next month.

Another wonderful find, but at the other end of the spectrum is Refugio do Ciclistas in Penedo.  Tucked away at the top of the village, with spectacular views to the sea and over towards Mafra, this restaurant is reminiscent of the restaurants I used to love in the Algarve before it got 'glammed'.

You enter along a passageway and the door opens on to a large room with a smaller room at the back.  There is a counter with the days selection of fish, meat, poultry etc and a huge grill run by Antonio.  The tables are all laid out in a school canteen style.  Long benches run along the tables - always take care if you are on the end and the person at the other end gets up - you can suddenly take off!  It is decorated with framed Tshirts of famous cyclists, photographs and other memorabilia to do with cyling.

It is an amazingly friendly place as you share the tables with whoever is sitting there - local builders, forestry boys, phone engineers, pool maintenance guys, tourists, walkers or locals and this week, our local lifeguard and his girlfriend (lifeguard duties having finished in case anyone is wondering why he was not at his post).

In fact if anyone remembers 'first and second sittings' at school, it is a bit like that as about 13.15-13.30 you have to be aware that trucks, vans and cars are heading out of the village along the practically single track roads which lead to the village from Colares in one direction and Almocageme in the other, with few passing places but quite a few mirrors.  This makes it rather interesting or for the nervous, white knuckle. 

The menus are 6 or 8 euros.  For that you get bread, olives, soup, main course, a bottle of red wine, a bottle of 7UP (or you can opt for white wine, water or similar), a main course with veg, chips, rice or salad if you wish and dessert.  Everything is fresh and grilled to order so no worries of the dreaded 'ping'.

Antonio's wife serves and controls the tables, sometimes assisted by other members of her family and there are two other ladies in the kitchen keeping on top of washing up and preparation.

What we love, apart from the wonderful food, is that you meet new friends because of the layout of the tables.  One interesting encounter was with a very nice man who was having lunch with his very beautiful daughters and their friend.  We got into conversation and I discovered that he was involved with promoting portuguese food.  He has kindly allowed me to share his website on my blog and I am hoping to take part in one of the courses in the not too distant future.  The site is www.insider-cooking.com.

A few weeks ago we had to go up into Sintra for a meeting and I had been told by a friend that there was a wonderful cafe that we should visit close to the terminus of the Sintra-Rossio train line.  What a find.   If you are up in Sintra do please check out Cafe Saudade.

The building is beautiful and was originally one of the factories that produced the lovely Sintra cheesecakes (Queijadas de Sintra).  It has been restored and is a fascinating place to go and have coffee, cakes, snacks or even a drink.  Beautifully decorated with some rather comfy armchairs, it also sells a good range of teas to take away with you.

 

And before I finish, I must make mention of a site that has just come to my attention today.  A couple of very enterprising ladies - Amelia Macedo and Margarida Jordan have set up a lovely site called Belas Tartes.  All freshly made by themselves with deliveries to Cascais, Estoril and Sintra.  Choose from savoury or sweet.  Here are a couple of examples to wet your appetite:

 

 

Asparagus and cheese pie (with or without ham)

 

Lemon and raspberry tart

 

The girls do not have a website or shop as yet but can be contacted for more details of their lovely wares via www.facebook.com/BelasTartesSintra or by telephone:  Amélia Macedo: 919614527 / Margarida Jordan: 914561136.  I really hope this takes off for them as it is a fabulous idea and everything is freshly made by them on a daily basis. 

 

The valleys are alive with music

The summer is always a fun time for people.  There are festivals here, festivals there and music everywhere (sorry). The season starts normally in about June and gets going seriously throughout July and August.

Living on the side of a hill we get the benefit of the music without having to venture out to the event.  Sometimes this can be highly entertaining and other times slightly annoying - a lot depends on the wind direction, the time of the concert, volume/level of musicians.

There is also a wedding venue on the other side of the valley so when you hear music out of season, that is usually the reason.  This music tends to be much lower in volume though so unless there is a particularly loud bass note, we tend not to notice it.

A typical concert stages looks like this

This was the stage for the celebrations in Sao Mamede in 2011

Note the banks of speakers - these are frightfully important.  You have to be able to reach the WHOLE of the village/small town and outlying areas! 

The music can be kicked off as early at first thing in the morning but this is normally recorded and just plays away merrily to entertain whoever might be in the locality not forgetting the long suffering dogs who howl along with it if they don't particularly like a track.

The afternoons tend to be fairly quiet and then early evening you have band practice.  Universally known as "One, two.  Testing.  One, two" in any country. Then perhaps the enthusiastic bass player has a bit of a go with riffs and then the drummer and then a full practice but not at full volume. More like a rumble with the odd bit that starts you wondering what the tune might be.

Depending on the type of occasion, there is a strict agenda of happenings. Normally an opening, a pause for eating, music, pause for the stripper (!) and back to the music and general frivolity.  Food stalls sell tasty snacks to soak up the alcohol and there is always some form of attraction for the children who never seem to go to bed in the summer - possibly because sleep will not be an option with the musical volume.  Accordian music is a feature and can be extremely bouncy and loud.

A tasty bifana

A typical van selling scrummy doughnut-like treats

Made in a round like a Cumberland sausage then cut and sprinkled with sugar and cinnamon.  Seriously addictive.



Some parties are larger (both in size and length of time) and others are just small gatherings.  All will be eagerly attended by everyone with much gossiping, drinking and dancing.

A recent one was just outside Ericeira.  It only happens every 17 years (somewhat like the once every 20 year Preston Guild) which, for a friend was probably just as well, as the event took place in front of her house and was seriously well attended to the tune of thousands. It went on for a week.  We had a laugh when she Skyped up to let us hear one of the amateur groups rehearsing.  They weren't bad actually.

One of the noisiest events near to us takes place every year in celebration of the motorbike fraternity.  You have the blare of bikes and then the blare of music.  To be fair, they usually have extremely good bands on, mainly doing covers and you can go to bed and bop along with it although it can wake you up when they get to the Freddie Mercury section.  This event is over three days but the interesting thing is, there never seems to be any trouble.   

 

The most recent musical event took place a week or so ago at the finale of a cycling event in Nafarros.  The usual music blasted out and then the last act of the night came on and I have to say, were very, very good.  So much so I checked them out on the net and discovered they were called Semibreve.  I can recommend them.

 

Now the season is coming to an end so the hills will become quiet, the dogs will be sleeping peacefully, but I will miss the music.

 

Sun, Sand and Sadness

You cannot have failed to have read in the newspapers of the tragic accidents that have happened along the Portuguese coastline this summer. 

The Atlantic is an unforgiving force of nature.  The coastline along where I live is famous for surfing and bodyboarding due to the height of the waves and most people will remember that wonderful photograph of the surfer up by Nazare, riding that world record of a wave.

BUT the Atlantic is dangerous.  Very dangerous.

In the last few months I have only seen the green flag flying on the beach we use, twice.  The rest of the time it is either yellow or red and as the tide turns, you hear and see the waves increase in size and volume.  It can be amusing watching the unsuspecting sunbathers getting caught by one of the larger waves as they can creep stealthily up the beach quite some distance to submerge towels, handbags and sleepers before retreating at speed leaving chaos behind. 

These waves move at top speed and when they retreat, they don't hang around and the undertow is very dangerous.  This is what catches people out.  It is not easy to keep your feet in these conditions and even harder for a child.

Sitting on rocks can also be very dangerous as the waves can pull you off them very easily and many a fisherman has lost his life in this way.

What I find incredible is the number of people with children on the beach, who seem to be totally oblivous to the dangers.  I have seen children run down to the waves without an adult (more interested in smoking/reading their book/talking on mobile), adults with very small children trying to jump into the waves and being knocked down and complete idiots trying to swim out in the rollers.  Usually this takes place whilst red and yellow flags are flying. This is the official status of the flag system.

Beach flags

A red flag means stay out of the water completely




A yellow flag means no swimming but you can paddle




A green flag means you can swim

During the summer season many beaches are patrolled by lifeguards and will be displaying the safety flags. However from 1st October the lifeguards and the flags may be gone so it is important to take extra care at that time of the year.

We have a wonderful life guard service on the beaches but only in summertime.  They cannot patrol the whole of some of the beaches and that makes it even more important that people observe the flags.

On our beach you cannot raise an umbrella in certain places so that the lifeguards can have a clear view of everything.  They blow whistles to warn people to get out of the water who have ignored the flags.  These guys risk their lives regularly to assist people who have got into difficulties and do not get enough praise for their work.

A calm sea

A less calm sea

A sad thing to see recently was the coastguard patrolling along our piece of coastline, searching for the body of an unlucky person who was lost off Praia Grande.  His two friends were lucky enough to be rescued.  It is not nice to think that someone's loved one is out there somewhere and incredibly distressing for their families to not have a body to bury.

So if you come on holiday and your sea of choice is the Atlantic, do please take extra care and remember there are vicious currents under the waves; waves can sweep you off rocks and out to sea in the blink of an eye.  Stay safe and respect the flags and out of season, be very, very careful.