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In Which I Come Home -- Well, Micaela's Home
October 7, 2007 by Mike
São Martinho do Porto
Route: Costa Nova - Praia da Mira - Pedrogao - Nazaré - São Martinho do Porto
Happy birthday Smanf! x
This has been one of the very good days of the trip.
I left my friendly little campsite and rode quiet, windy roads through pine forests. I stopped in Mira and enjoyed a visit to the Ethnographic Museum. Simple, unpretentious, positive, (free!), modest, this was everything a small museum should be. Fishing has been the lifeblood of the region but it didn't make anybody rich. The little models of little houses and little boats were charming. The models of people, wearing the distinctive clothes of the region, were made of pillow cases stuffed with straw -- and why the bloomin' hell not? Loved it.
Thereafter the road turned as blotchy as Brian Clough's nose: pockmarked and potholed, brickwork showing through -- even the local drivers were slowing down, not that there were many people out and about. Maybe they were all on the motorway. I slowed right down, stopping and switching the engine off a couple of times to breath in the silence of the forest.
Suddenly the road crested a low hill and the horizon opened up completely: pine was replaced with low scrub and the road stretched out for miles straight ahead of me. A positively Patagonian panorama. The condition of the road even improved.
Pedrogao was one of the nicest looking seaside towns I've seen in the country. But still I pressed on. Praia da Vieira - likewise. Still I rode. San Pedro do Moel? Lovely, seen from a moving motorbike.
And why did I pass straight by the celebrated resort of Nazare, shimmering, ladies and gentlemen, in the autumnal sunshine, with views from the hill at the end of the beach that You Would Not Believe -- just the most inCREDible sight. I stopped long enough to register it.. then hopped back on the bike.
Because.. a year ago I bumped into a crazy Portuguese woman in Arctic Norway whose grandparents have a house in the small resort town of Sao Martinho Do Porto. Micaela offered me somewhere to stay when I got to Portugal and.. ahhh.. yes.. better let Micaela take up the story:
"My grandparents' place is in São Martinho do Porto, south of the very
famous beach of Nazaré, where fishermen wives wear 7 skirts -
seriously. But we posses a problem in our hands, which is the reason
why I didn't offer the house right away, this time. We always rent it
out in the summer, but this year were able to get a couple who will
stay for 6 months, until December, thus the "unavailability" of the
house. It's good for my grandparents, coz the rent is PATHETIC, but
horrible for me and you and anyone who wants to enjoy a lil bit of sun
and tranquility. I spent a few weeks camping in São Martinho and it
was good, 2 feet from the beach! he he!"
(She writes exactly like she speaks. It makes me smile just to read the words.)
So I came anyway. It's very relaxed in October (it would be a little louder if Micaela was here) and its setting on a wide curve of beach, in a small bay enclosed by pincer-like cliffs, facing the setting sun, feels like it was designed by a perfectionist. Nice people, too.
The campsite is at *least* 20 feet from the sea, but apart from that all is well.
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