The End of the Earth

Depending on your viewpoint, Sagres is either the start of Europe or the end of the earth.  Either way, it's the westernmost point of southern Portugal and the Atlantic Ocean slams into it with impressive power.   As I'm now mid-coast, and in two weeks will be heading East, I wanted to get in a trip to the Western coastal destinations.  As much as I'd like to see Lagos, I'm leery of going to a city (covid!) and when I drove past, the urban landscape didn't seem appealing.  I kept going, right to the end of the road. Fun fact:  according to wikipedia, Sagres is at the westernmost point of a continuous land route that ends near Jinjiang, China.   

Here it is, the middle of January, and there were a lot of surfers dotting the waves, getting up, crashing down and van camping in the area.   The whole surfer dude (and I only saw dudes, maybe there were women suiting up and I missed them) vibe was evident throughout the town, where even the guys at the ATM were barefoot. It seems in the summer that all the shops loaded with surfboards to rent and surf instruction are very very busy.  

I toured the the point -- one wall and three cliffs make up the massive fort there -- and the wind was howling.  I can't imagine what a day of nasty weather would be like out there.  In addition to the fort and lighthouses, there's a fishing marina with colorful boats in a protected cove.

No painting today, I don't know how any plein air painter could work in that level of wind.  But I have a lot of photos for reference for future work.