27 Jan 2009

19 Jan 1989 - Cabo Espichel

We check out of the Setubal campsite this morn­ing and head west through the Serra de Arrabida to Cabo Espichel, a remote western promontory with windmills and small white houses, marble quarries and donkey carts, and small stone‑walled fields of beans and corn. The hamlet of Cabo Espichel itself comprises two rows of houses facing each other across a large rectangle with a church at the far end. Behind the church are some curi­ous 'totem' poles of blocks of stone, some with carved patterns, and one pole topped with a stone head. The blocks are fairly recently cut, making the poles look even more peculiar.

The Cape area is mostly open rolling land­scape of stony fields with fairly sparse vegeta­tion at this time of year. On a fence post not far from the road, a little owl enjoys the sun, and further away a medium sized glossy black but untidy-looking bird with yellow bill and orange legs sings to the world ‑ a spotless starling.

The cliffs here are over a hundred metres straight up and not ideal for sea watching. Things might be better the other side of the light­house, though we do not check there. Watching, under the right weather conditions, is said to be good, but, in today's calm sunny weather, we see only a few gannets, herring gulls and razorbills.

Jim sees a peregrine sitting on the cliff, and keeping an eye on us; the buff edges to its mantle, scapular and tertial feathers gave it a mottled appearance - it is probably one of last summer's chicks.

A sardinian warbler flies into a bush about four metres from us and feeds quietly amongst the foliage without coming into the open to be photo­graphed. A butterfly patrols the cliff top and doesn’t settle to be identified properly, though we believe it to be a green striped white.

Most of the birds around us are black redstarts and stonechats, with a few linnets, gold­finches etc. Two birds fly in and land in front of me, I just get the binoculars on them when Jim speaks ‑ about something through the tele­scope in another direction ‑ and the birds fly off with a loud and unfamiliar call. I am left with the impression of something resembling the field guide picture of calandra lark. From then on we check almost everything that moves but see nothing more of these birds.

There is one bird that did turn out to be something new ‑ a male blue rock thrush. It stood more upright than a blackbird, had drooping wings, a shorter tail and a dark bill. It kept disap­pearing behind a strange-looking building - Senh­ora do Cabo's sanctuary, I think - and then reap­pearing near to where we first saw it. We went round behind the building hoping for a better look but without success. Later we saw both male and female blue rock thrush fly past us.

Having been warned about bandits and break‑ins, we have always made a point of leaving nothing of value in the camper and locking it properly. Since we were out of tourist season and out of tourist areas, there had been no problem, but that changed here at Cabo Espichel.

There had been a policeman here this morn­ing, and the camper had been quite safe. In the after­noon we set off for another walk, but after a while Jim sees a guy walking towards the van; next time he looks the guy is trying to force a lock. Jim whistles loudly, and the guy looks around. At the second whistle he saunters off, not quite sure but not wanting to take a risk. We lose nothing except the confidence to leave the van unattended.

Albufeira

The map shows a lagoon at Albufeira a short way northwards along the coast. The AA book says there should be an open campsite there, but as happens so often, we find several campsites all closed. The lake is disappointing too. The marshy inland end is fenced off with no obvious access points, and nowhere along the road where we can stop and scan it.

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