Beaches

I am no great fan of long stretches of sandy beach, much preferring more dramatic, rocky coastlines or miles of mud flats and reed beds. The Vilamoura area has all of these things. The sandy beaches, backed by areas of dunes with some nice wild flowers growing on them were rather nice, especially when seen with the sun glinting on the water.

Added to that, the dark, glowering clouds of a storm out to sea and the scene was complete.

Further along the coast, there are areas of reed marshes cut through by water channels. These are fine places to watch birds and other wildlife. Sadly, the Portuguese seem to be hell-bent on destroying these areas by draining them and building new resorts and more blasted golf courses.

For the time being however, there is still quite a lot of wetland to enjoy - although not for much longer if published development plans go ahead. It's so sad and so short-sighted of the Portuguese authorities to allow such vandalism.