We’d had a taste of things to come when we visited the cliffs of Cabo de São Vicente, but we still weren’t quite prepared for the unspoilt, rugged beauty of the south western coast of Portugal. The entire area is a national park (Paisagem Protegida do sudoeste Alentejano e Costa Vicentina – try saying that after a bottle of Blog wine!), and so the small towns and fishing villages are far and few between and there are none of the high-rises of the southern Algarve coastline. We’ve spent days and days exploring the beautiful beaches and cliff walks. I could spend years here!

On one of our first outings near Monte Clérigo beach, we met a lovely English lady who gave us plenty of insider tips on the best beaches in the area. His Lordship even managed to follow her directions and boy, am I glad! Amoreira beach was just wonderful. I really enjoyed being in a dune in January!

Another great tip was Zambujeira do Mar, with its pretty little chapel high up on the headland directly over the beach, and the typical Alentejo fishing village just down the road at Porto das Barcas.

The Oldies booked into another apartment in Vila Nova de Milfontes in the province of Alentejo. I really like this quiet coastal town which has fewer tourists than the towns on the Algarve. It lies on the estuary of the river Mira, but even though our apartment is one kilometre from the open sea, at night we can hear the crashing of the waves through the closed windows. Better still, our apartment is only one minute’s walk from the local fish market. Yummy!

I like the fact that life for the locals is spent so much outdoors, even now in this unseasonably cool weather – by Portuguese standards. By Irish standards it’s like summer! All around town there are groups of people sitting outside in sheltered spots, chatting, joking, arguing, playing cards or dominos. Great stuff!

One of our best outings ever was our cliff walk from Cavaleiro. Her Ladyship was happy to see that there are properly marked out walking routes the full length of this cliff as she is a little on the nervous side when it comes to sheer drops onto rocks. Even I understand her concerns. You humans can be a tad clumsy and careless at times and a fall from these cliffs would be the end of the line for you wingless humans. As we say in Ireland, ‘Careful now!’

This soccer pitch is right at the cliff’s edge, next to the lighthouse. I hope the local club has a decent budget for footballs. A ball kicked too high or too wide and it’s a case of ‘next stop, America!’

The weather was glorious during our walk and we practically had the entire cliff to ourselves. In the course of three hours, we only encountered a couple of dozen seabirds, three storks, a pony, a herd of goats and five humans. Our picnic spot was idyllic: a lovely sheltered spot close to the cliff edge overlooking a series of islets, one of which had a storks nest on top. Complete with a stork. Who remained standing in his nest for the Oldies admiration for the entire duration of their lunch. The big show off!

Other gems were the beaches at Almograve and Furnas, not forgetting the beaches at Vila Nova de Milfontes as well, of course. Don’t ask me to choose my favourite. Impossible!

NEWSFLASH: Snowfall in the Algarve!

I spotted this television news bulletin while sitting with the Oldies in a café the other day. The item ran for several minutes and included amateur videos which apparently captured the snowfall, one showing a back garden with two or three white spots fluttering above the lush green lawn. A second showed a smiling young person waving about her gloved hands. Even my beady bird eyes couldn’t make out the snow in that video, but they showed it three times, just to be sure, to be sure, to be sure that you got the message. There were also extensive interviews with snowflake eye-witnesses, although the fact the interviewees were all lightly dressed, wearing sunglasses and standing out on sun-drenched streets somewhat undermined the seriousness of the situation. I was horrified, however, to learn, that this dramatic event had taken place in Tavira, a town we had visited just a few days earlier.

And there sat the Oldies with their backs to the television, sipping their drinks and gazing out the café window at the local scenery, oblivious to the narrow escape they’d just had.