Surfing has been one of those things where I always think: ´I could have been sooooo good by now, had so many opportunities, if I just would have made some other decisions´. Because yes, I have spent time at the most amazing surf locations in the world, mostly in Central and South America, and yes, I would always take up a board, but first of all, with just some days a year, you´ll never actually improve. Secondly, never having learnt the actual technique, always having different boards, most of them way too small for a beginner, and all kinds of different people telling you different ways to do things also doesn’t help much. So, now that we are down in Southern Spain I was really hoping I could finally dedicate some time to surfing. I had already read that down in Southern Portugal is some of the best beaches in Europe to learn. And, finally I got my dear boyfriend convinced to go on a little road trip. And finally I would be taking classes.
From Salobreña to Sagres (which in the Algarve) it’s about 600 kilometers. With our little car and plenty of stops in between this took around 8 hours. Also, Portugal is an hour behind to Spain, so we basically gained another hour.
We had looked into hostels, but having our little tent with us, we thought it wouldn’t make much sense to pay for a hostel (and they weren’t extremely cheap either, or at least not to what we are used to). But even the campsite we found only seemed to be way too fancy for us surfers that just want to sleep there and don’t need anything more.
On the IOverlander app I found a recommendation for a basic campsite, camping Ingrina. If you´ve never heard of this app before, use it! Absolutely recommended. Have been using it for all of my road and cycle trips through the different continents the past years and it always provides recommendations for places I don’t think I would have known otherwise. (And then read some more about the campsite on this blog, and we liked his descriptions)
When we got to the campsite, this little old grandpa, without teeth but with a cigarette in his mouth, greeted us and in his very fanatic English explained us that it´s 8,- each, we can put the tent where we want, and the building is the bathroom and shower, and yes, they do have hot water.
So, this is for us with a little tent, this area seems to be complete campervan and van area though. Vans in all different sizes, shapes and states seemed to be parked everywhere. For what we saw there do not seem to be very strict rules on where you can or cannot park. We saw people camped out on parking lots overlooking the sea, on deserted fields, in official parking lots, etc. For now I was very happy with our tent, but when I would come back in spring or later in the year, I would consider renting a little van somewhere, for I guess it can get a little cold and windy.
Something I didn’t expect is that it’s actually not that warm at night, or at least, not anymore in September. So, luckily last minute I had thrown a little blanket in the car, so together with the sleeping bag, it was ok. But definitely a bit chillier than at our own Spanish Costa Tropical.
The next day we decided to go look for surf classes and visited various schools to ask for their prices and the way they teach. There seem to be around 6 or 7 schools, however, not all of them seemed to be very excited and enthusiastic when they were explaining me how their classes work. Ok, I can understand that they must have explained it over a thousand times already, but hey, that’s your job! I am excited, and I want somebody who is also excited about teaching me, and me not having to be afraid to ask a question or whatever. So both of us were very relieved when we got to the International Surf School, they guy was all happy and excited, explained us everything and we had a good feeling. So, we signed up for classes to start the day after, right away! The good thing is that they have different levels, so depending on where you are in your progress, they will teach you. So I actually ended up learning to turn, which I’ve never learnt in my life! Also, every day they go to the beach (most of them off-road) where the swell seems to be best for learning that day, so not that you´re always stuck to the same place.
Anyways, all in all we were pretty excited!
After this, we toured a little bit around Sagres and ended up on a nice beach, watching some people learning how to surf, and the ones that actually know what they are doing.
Before we knew it, there it was. Surfing day 🙂 For Thomas it was really the first real time ever, so he was a bit nervous about the strength of the waves. It soon turned out that everything I had ever taught myself did not make much sense at all, and that I would have to start from scratch again. Bummmerrrrr… and not great for someone as impatient as me, but also good to finally learn! And this is what happened over the next few days. Being in the water 3 hours, trying and trying to reset the mind and relearn the actual correct techniques, followed by a nice break and taking a rest or a little siesta on the beach, while watching the more pro´s conquer the waves.
In the evenings we would do some groceries at Lidl and ´cook´ ourselves at the campsite with a little rewindable light I had, or get a coffee at a nice coffee place called Espresso, which has nice soy milk hot chocolate, electricity outlets to charge the bunch and wifi. We had a burger once at the Dromedaris, a vegetarian one for me. It was, mwhhaaa.. I’ve definitely had better vegetarian burgers in my life, luckily, one of the last days we actually discovered this place called ´the Laundry Lounge´, and yes, they have laundry machines there, so potentially you could do your laundry while having a coffee. The vibe felt nice right away, with happy people (be it a little ´hip´, but ok… it felt pretty genuine), and we treated ourselves to some great sushi there.
Our best spot was Pao Quente, right in front of the International Surf School, nice coffee for 80 cents, of course the little hot bread or cakes, and it opens at 6.30am! So a nice coffee before going off into the waves.
And then there was this day in which the swell was not right, so we had a day ´off´, yeay! To explore a bit more of the city, we had heard of these really cool caves of Benagil. So, off we went. We first made a little coffee stop in Lagos, and it was here that we first really felt that the Algarve is quite a popular tourist destination. We had our nice little coffee at a local bar though, and of course I tried all my Portiñol the best I could, because yes, I basically speak some same variety of Spanish that I think could potentially be Portuguese in my head 😉 But everything better than not ever trying at all and just switching to English, that’s not my style!
After this, we made it a game to find the tiniest roads ever to the little beach and potential caves of Benagil. When we got there, it was full, packed, completely smacked with tourists. A big parking lot had absolutely no spot free and the sight of the little boats going on and off, packed with people, made us both hyperventilate.
So, we turned around right away, followed the first sign to whichever ´praia´ we could find, and found a parking spot in what seemed to be some kind of villa park, close to Praia Carvalho. We were a bit confused, above all because there was just a few cars parked, it was Sunday and the apparent mass tourism was just 5 kilometers away, but we went for it anyways. In our quest to find the beach, we actually found a little hiking trail, apparently the Seven Hanging Valleys Trail, which we had read about somewhere, and which goes all along the cliffs. We started walking down this trail a little bit (dear Thomas in his flip flops and towel around his neck, because yes, in his defence, he thought he was going to the beach). The trail turned out to be super beautiful, going alongside all kinds of crazy rock formations, unreachable beaches and green waters. And down we could see the many full boats pass, and we were just só happy we were walking up, passing some people every once in a while (all of them with steady shoes and definitely a bit more prepared for this hike than us).
After a while we turned around and started looking for this little beach we had seen the signs for, and when we found it, super close to where we had parked our car, we had a nice, cold swim (yes, the Atlantic is wetsuit ocean when surfing, and very quick swimming when going for a dip) and our picnic lunch. All in all, a super nice day, and although I am sure the caves are absolutely amazing, unless you don’t hyperventilate when seeing big crowds, only consider going there on a week day in the winter it seems like.
So yes, here the little re-cap of surfing in the Algarve, and what to do when it is a non-surf day. If you´re not a surfer, there is still lots to do, such as diving, cycling, stand up Paddle surf, and general touring around. Or just hang in the different little bars and pretend to be a surfer 😉
I will definitely be back in the spring, so let me know if you want to join me! 😉
