(View from the car park)

We’re on our way back… we went to the edge of Europe and turned around. The edge was very lovely. It was hot and yet a slight breeze kept us cool. The edge is at an old defence fort near the town of Sagres. No military there now just flora and fauna and some rusty cannons and… a wall, of course.

(Can you see Sagres? The little toe below it is the fort. And to the west at the end of the N268 is Cabo de São Vicente and the lighthouse)

But really Sagres isn’t the edge edge there’s another little peninsula of land jutting out further west, called Cabo de São Vicente but they have no wall (they do have a little wall but it doesn’t following any of my guidelines for wall building…) and the car park has potholes (we are being very gentle with Ruby since the operation…) they do have a lighthouse though. Anyway, the fort at Sagres has loads of interesting things to see… for one, fearless fishermen. They stand on the edge of the cliff that runs around the inside of the fort, leaning over the edge to… well, I don’t know why they were leaning over. Why do fishermen lean over very dangerous cliffs?

(A fearless fisherman)

There wasn’t just one fearless fisherman, but I stopped taking pictures of them because although I could see the steep drop, the pictures don’t show it. Plus I didn’t want to catch them off guard, one false step…

(Another fearless fisherman)

There were also fearless tourists. They had to climb over a fence with a very descriptive warning poster to get into position.

(Can you see the fearless tourists? And the drop to the sea? Via pointy rocks?)

There was also a piece of art, sound art… I don’t mean it was sound (although it was) but it was a place to hear (and feel) the ocean in the middle of the land. Isn’t that creative? So, there are naturally occurring chambers (caves, I suppose) leading from the sea up to the middle of the peninsula and as the waves come in, sea water is blown up through the caves. They built a kind of maze but not the kind you get lost in, the kind you walk around in until you get to the center. Where there was a grid platform you can stand on… and wait. Then suddenly there’s a huge gust of wind up through the grid and you can hear the water roaring. It is so surprising. It was like being a child again seeing a funny magic trick… but I could see nothing. Very sound and all the feels.

(Here’s some of the flora. Doesn’t it look like paper that’s been cut with a pinking shears?)

We parked in the fort’s car park that night and saw the sun set over by the unwalled lighthouse in the distance at the edge edge of Europe. So that’s it, we can’t go any further. It’s time to head north and home. There’s still lots of time until we board the ferry at Cherbourg and I have to be very careful not to miss this last bit. Missing something when it’s right in front of you is a bit of a pity. Oh and we’re actually coming back early too but I’ll tell you about that tomorrow.

From the middle of a thunder-storm in Portugal, Mairead.