The summer is now in full swing with the temperatures rising and the long sunny days upon us. Today the temperature got up to 37ºC so we decided to head out to Aldeia do Mato, which is about a 40 minute drive from us. It’s about 10 minutes more than the beaches on the coast but the water is warm and fresh, and without the Atlantic swells to cope with. The coast is lovely here, but if you want to swim comfortably then a river-beach is a better bet. We really wanted to have a shaded area to pitch our camping seats as the only thing that’s hard to come by on the beach area is sun shade. Luckily the area under the trees was empty when we arrived so we quickly staked our claim and pitched our chairs.
It was a very relaxing day, divided up into short and long swims, picnicking in the shade, a beer at the cafe (or coffee in Netty’s case), a bit of light reading and just general chit-chat. We even bumped into some more Brits from Newcastle (you can’t miss that accent in Portugal) who lived a bit closer (Tomar) and who also loved coming to the beach.
The water, as I said is lovely and warm and I believe supplies the domestic water to our village. It is also full of fish, both large and small and provided us with a display of the larger fish hunting the smaller ones, corralling them into shallower water to catch. Luckily there do not appear to be any ‘nippers’ and swimming is completely fine.
Why not visit their website to find out more about the beach.
Tomorrow we are getting ready to travel north to stay in a pousada for a couple of days to celebrate all the get-togethers we unable to because of the strict lockdown measures over the last year.
I’ll let you know what it’s like next week. Stay tuned…
Our Portuguese Life 