A walk on the wild side (December Reflections 25)

Today’s December Reflections prompt is: Today is…

Today is (or was) a good day for a hike and a picnic. it was also a good day for laundry.

I washed our bedding in readiness to depart from Sagres tomorrow, made some ham and cheese sandwiches, then pegged out my laundry and off we went – though not before I managed to fall over and twist my ankle as I was backing away from my duvet cover. Dusty has been digging holes in the sand outside the van. He likes to hide in them. He seems to actually believe that he becomes invisible to view when crouched in a hole. Well, he’s not, but the hole itself seems to have been so this morning. Ouch.

Our target was a nearby beach, known for its remote position and its peaceful nature. The walk of around 7 kilometres took us mainly off-road but when we arrived on the cliff top above the beach we were disappointed to find several vehicles there. We did not have the place to ourselves. Nor did we have any beach as the tide was in and all of the sand was covered. It was also rather breezy up there.

I took a few photographs, which I am still unable to share here (see Blipfoto for a few) and we then decided to move off in order to find a sheltered spot for our picnic.

Our plan was informed considerably by (a) the thirteen barking dogs that we had walked past to reach the beach and (b) the dog that we met in the car park there, which bit Nell on our arrival. We wanted to walk home by a different route.

We found what at first appeared to have been a former quarry but in fact turned out to be a area of old and eroded dune system. It gave us shelter from the wind and turned out to be quite a sun trap. I took more photos. We ate our meal in splendid solitude.

After lunch we followed our noses, more or less, across the moorland of the peninsula until we reached familiar territory and the road that runs from Sagres to Cape St Vincent.

We clocked up something like 15 kilometres and poor Nell was clearly feeling the pace by the time that we arrived back at camp (as was I, my hips were very sore by then.)

I took my washing in, made up the bed and am now eagerly anticipating flopping into it!