|
Impatient Divers can descend to the diving bit by clicking here! |
April 2008
Wednesday 2nd April: My birthday! Rode to Praia de Luz, walked along the sea front and had a lovely Birthday treat - lunch sitting outside a restaurant overlooking the beach. We sampled the traditional Portuguese coverts (hors-d’œuvres) of bread, cheese, fish paste and olives, followed by the famous Piri-Piri Chicken. After a long lazy lunch I sat on the flat sandstone rocks to catch some sun whilst Paul went Fossil hunting. Just along the seafront promenade we came across some Roman ruins, again open to the public and free of charge to see.
Thursday 3rd April: Picked up hire car and drove to Faro Airport to meet my mum and dad! It was great to see them; they arrived armed with goodies, including belated Easter eggs which they had brought in their hand luggage!
The next week just flew by. We talked and laughed lots and enjoyed days out exploring the Algarve, visiting the mountain spa town of Monchique, the desolate windy cliff tops at Sagres, Cape St Vincent, the walled town and harbour in Logos, Silves Castle and some of the beautiful beaches along the way to include a wonderful boat trip around the eroded rocks at Ponta da Piedade. All too quickly the week came to an end and before I knew it we were dropping them back at the airport! We shared a special week and I missed them as soon as they had gone!
Click here to download Video (9.42MB)
Thursday 10th April: On leaving Faro Airport we drove back along the coast; stopping near Albufeira for a break, we walked down a flight of steep steps, blanketed by wild flowers to a beautiful beach and I wouldn’t look up in the sky in case I saw Mum & Dad's plane…it would have made me cry (again!)!! It had been strange going out for days in a car being so used to travelling in Nel; I had to think what to take with us each day, sunnies, kags, camera etc! The car felt tiny in comparison and I kept telling Paul to slow down as he nipped through the lanes…….
As I sat thumbing through a free tourist information magazine, I came across an interesting article about local shipwrecks and archaeological investigations in the Algarve. At the bottom of the piece it read "More information on: http://nautarch.tamu.edu/shiplab/"; From there I wrote to a Texas A&M University address, introducing myself and enquiring if there were any active maritime archaeological projects currently being worked on in the Portuguese Algarve area. To my pleasant surprise I received a reply the very next day from a Filipe Vieira de Castro of Texas A&M University giving me the contact details of "the person to talk to" being a Tiago Fraga, to whom he had also forwarded my email to. Before I even had time to write to Tiago, I received an email from him explaining that he was currently conducting a survey of the underwater cultural heritage in the Lagos area and should I wish to attend, was also speaking at a Maritime History workshop conference to be held in Lagos the following week. By complete chance we were staying in the Lagos area and the conference date was the day after Alison's parents returned home, so I didn’t even have to make awkward excuses to my guests - a case of right place at the right time!
Friday 11th April: Moved to Trindade campsite right in the town at Logos for Paul to attend the Conference and to be closer for diving……
The conference to be held in Lagos City Hall was the second Lagos Maritime History Workshop jointly organized by the Municipality of Lagos and the Centre for Overseas History (Universidade Nova de Lisboa). Entitled - From the Mediterranean to the Indian Ocean: Sailors, Ships and Life on Board (1500-1700) There were various speakers over two days and I had been invited to attend on the afternoon of the second day when Tiago would be presenting: The trade/warfare duality in Portuguese ship construction of the 17th century in view of archaeological evidence. I arrived early having previously established where the Lagos City Hall was and made my way to an upper floor conference room for the afternoon session to commence at 3.30pm. I sat through the first presentation by Andrew Murteira, frustrated and ashamed of my lack of language skills as the whole talk was in Portuguese and I am sure missed out on a very informative talk about Portuguese and Dutch naval Losses around the Cape in the first half of the seventeenth century. Fortunately for me, Tiago (himself Portuguese) would be making his presentation in English. I sat enthralled as he discussed his ongoing work, exploring the evidence and reasons for the Portuguese Caravel of Discovery's evolution into dual purpose warship/merchant vessels. There then followed a very interesting and informative presentation by Dr Timothy Walker entitled: Health and profit at sea: Medicinal exports from Asia aboard the carreira da Índia, in which he discussed the importance and impact made by a trade route that enabled the integration of cultural beliefs and knowledge in medicinal plants and practices; making medicines a valuable cargo and transferring plant species between continents. At the end of the conference I introduced myself in person to Tiago who in turn introduced me to Filipe Castro. Filipe had been speaking at the conference the previous day and I soon realised that I had seen his name beside various articles and references I have read since becoming interested in Maritime Archaeology. Filipe explained that he is a professor in the Nautical Archaeology Program at Texas A&M University (USA) and it soon became obvious to me that he was both inspirational mentor and close friend to Tiago, whom had been one of his students. Tiago invited me to meet some of his current team at a nearby bar but first needed to accompany Filipe to his car to pick up some books. So I found myself walking through the streets of Lagos in conversation with two known & respected Portuguese Maritime Archaeologists. Arriving at a Hotel car park, Filipe reached into his car and from a large stack of books on the rear seat, took two copies of a newly published book entitled Edge of Empire; he gave one to Tiago and presented a copy to me as a gift. The book, contributed to and edited by Filipe is a summary of research being carried out by various Texas A&M University students in their study of Iberian Seafaring, in which Tiago has written a chapter on the story, excavation and reconstruction of the 17th century Portuguese frigate Santo António de Tannà. (I have since eaten the book up, devouring its contents in record time; Its summary of topics coupled with my own journey of discovery through this region have opened my eyes to the wide-ranging impact Iberian Seafaring has had on the world and highlights the role that archaeology plays in our knowledge and understanding of the age of sail and discovery.) I thanked Filipe, said goodbye and leaving him in the car park, Tiago and I walked to a bar in the Harbour where I was introduced to Alan Wilson, one of the divers employed by Tiago to assist him in his current work. Once happy with my dive qualifications and motives, it was arranged, that subject to the weather I could join them the following week to assist in the ongoing search and survey of anomalies on the seabed in Lagos Bay. (A project funded by the Câmara Municipal de Lagos (City Council) who not only want to map, study and protect their Nautical Heritage but also explore possibilities for expanding Dive Tourism in the Algarve by opening up selected new wreck sites to the public.) With a limited budget and team of mostly volunteer divers, Tiago is enthusiastically and systematically searching Lagos Bay and nearby coves, always in the hope of finding a Caravel of Discovery, his "Portuguese Mary Rose", in which case he would receive further funding from the Council to continue with his work. Tiago offered to give me a lift home to the nearby campsite, affording me still further opportunity to ask him more questions about his work as we walked across town to where his car was parked. Over the weekend I received a text message confirming that diving was on for Monday morning and to be ready with my kit at the campsite entrance for a pick up at 10:30.
Saturday 12th April: Walked back into the old walled Town and I had fun spending my birthday money from Mum & Dad. Paul and I discovered lots more shops as we further explored the network of cobbled streets akin to the Lanes in Brighton. Unfortunately (or fortunately) Mum and I had missed these last week.
Monday 14th April: Paul diving……
We arrived at the projects equipment store appropriately located beside the Fortaleza Ponta da Bandeira, a 17th century Fortress at the mouth of the estuary where we met up with Alan and the DSO (Diving Safety Officer) Chris. With dive & safety briefs done, the four of us were soon kitted up, loaded into the RIB and on our way to the first target. Alan & Chris were to dive first on a position that needed to be re-checked due to poor conditions on a previous dive. Unfortunately their dive also returned negative results as poor visibility hampered their radial search of the area.
Moving to a different position in the bay listed as MPG A25, Tiago and I then descended to the seabed at 27 metres. With two metres visibility we headed south from the shot line and soon came to a section of old rolled up fishing net, lines and octopus pots laying across our path in an east-west orientation. We swam the entire length of the section finding nothing more than various fishing gear and debris caught up on some lengths of plastic pipe. We returned back along the section then crossed over to the other side to continue our search. As I turned to follow Tiago I noticed a conical section of pottery pointing up at me from the silty sand. I carefully lifted the object to see if it was attached to a larger find but sadly it sat alone on a patch of shells, the home to various molluscs. I got Tiago's attention and he carefully checked the immediate area. Nothing else was found and the item was raised to be later identified by Tiago on the surface as part of a 16th century Iberian sugar pot. Tiago had finished with this position for today at least and as Chris returned the artefact's prehistoric inhabitants to the sea, (being the first Chitons I have ever seen) I wondered - could there be more to be found at this location? - Perhaps now buried? - Why else would fishermen shoot their gear in an area of otherwise flat uninteresting ground? My thoughts were interrupted as the RIB's engines started and we sped across the bay to the final coordinates of the day.
We were soon anchored above a wreck site that the team had only discovered two weeks previous - that of a steam powered Portuguese patrol boat. Alan and Chris were excited as they had dived the site a few times and were today keen to see if recent storms had exposed more of the site. I was to join them for a quick tour that would be limited by my remaining air. We descended to the dive RIB's anchor at a depth of 24 metres and in poor visibility of less than 2 metres Chris reeled off a line toward the wreck, making contact at the rudder section that lay over on its port side. From there I followed Chris and Alan to the fairly intact boiler, passing over various sections of hull plating. It very much reminded me of diving one of the many steam vessel wreck sites back home - poor vis and cold water t'boot! With my air getting low I signalled to Chris that I needed to start my return and she led me back along the port side of the wreck to the reel line and anchor. I ascended making a pre calculated deep stop (a new initiative being used by "Scientific Divers" to further reduce the risk of decompression sickness) and returned to the surface a very happy diver. Back on the boat we all noted how the storms had created large ripples in the sand along side the wreck and Alan & Chris commented that ammunition observed on previous dives had not been seen by any of us this time. The wreck of the nicknamed "Steam Star" may be further surveyed and possibly excavated by the team following the official confirmation of the vessels identity by the Portuguese Navy.
With winds picking up, I was just able to join the team for one more dive the following day to help conduct a radial search on one of the deeper targets. After a bumpy ride out to sea, Alan, Chris and I descended the shot line to the two concrete filled buckets at 33 metres and were pleased to see that their combined weight had been enough to keep them on position despite the increasing swell above. Alan attached a tape measure to the shot line and we spread out along the tape to the limits of visibility with myself at the 2 metre mark, Chris at 4 metres and Alan at 6 metres. We marked our start points with lines drawn in the soft silty seabed and maintaining our radial positions, began to swim slowly in an anti-clockwise rotation, carefully searching the area within our fields of vision. The first 360° sweep yielded nothing. Moving respectively along the tape to 8, 10 and 12 metre positions, we were just able to complete one more circle before approaching our no decompression limit dive time. Although our search found nothing more than a few small stones, I found the dive very educational; and exciting to think I had been diving where it was unlikely anyone else had ever dived before and could have, at any moment, come face up to anything from an old car tyre to an ancient shipwreck or artefact. We made our ascent (with safety stops at 19, 12 and 5 metres) and surfaced to a worsening sea state. Tiago and I hauled the drogue-like concrete filled buckets to the surface, then Alan navigated through the swells, surfing the RIB back to the harbour. With the kit rinsed off, we sat in the cafe bar above the Sailing Club where we filled out our log books and project report forms over lunch.
Tiago was also holding evening classes for his team members. A free course (in English) on nautical archaeology and underwater techniques and had invited Alison and myself to attend the next two sessions. That evening Alison and I walked into Lagos, to a building known as the Janela Manuelina, being the location of a small cultural centre and venue for tonight's class. The building is located close to the Praça da República (town square) where a large statue of the famous Infante de Henrique (Henry the Navigator) sits looking out over the waterfront - a perfect location for nautical archaeology classes I thought. We met other team members and enjoyed Tiago's presentations and talks. Over the next two evenings we covered mapping techniques in nautical archaeology and artefact typology looking at ballast, ceramics, anchors and armaments. The classes were fun & educational, adding greatly to the knowledge already gained on our N.A.S. Intro and Part One courses. With new friends made and much learnt, it was time for us to be moving on and probably a good thing that the weather conditions for Diving had deteriorated, or I may have never left Lagos!
Thursday 17th April: Met Alan in the Harbour for him to give Paul a CD with Archaeo stuff on and bumped into Rui, also from the evening class who said if we ever needed anything in Lagos Harbour, just ask for him! (Rui works for a yacht charter company and in his spare time takes handicapped people sailing). Walked back past the statue of Henry only to find half of the Square dug up! - They had found the remains of the Ancient Harbour Wall and were now excavating the area. Strolled back to the campsite passing the Old Harbour and Fort then along the beach and up to the cliffs from where we could see the rocks at Ponta da Piedade where we had been on the boat ride, I couldn’t believe how close the campsite was to both the Town and beach.
Friday 18th April: Left Logos. We had both had a great time and made friends here - it was hard to leave. Heading up the west coast we stopped at Carrapeteira where huge Atlantic waves crash into a vast landscape of cliffs and sand dunes. Moving on through lush green valleys carpeted with bright coloured wild flowers and cork oak forests before eventually parking up for the night in a car park on the sand next to a lagoon, behind the beach at a remote place called Logoa de Santo Andre - all you can see is sand, sky and water. Woken by a massive storm during the night - it poured with rain and Nel rock’n’rolled through the early hours as Paul (obviously concerned about our watery location) kept looking outside with a torch to check that the car park had not become part of the Lagoon! By morning we were surprised not to have been washed away and were instead met by a bright sunny morning.
Click here to download Video (7.75MB)
Saturday 19th April: Got lost in large suburb south of Lisbon when the Sat Nav got its knickers in a twist due to a new road system! Few scary moments on the same large roundabout that we revisited more than a few times! Nightmare place, awful road signs or rather awful lack of road signs. Eventually getting on the right road we found ourselves queuing up at a Toll Booth to go over a bridge. Not just any bridge, a huge bridge called the 25th April with three lanes of traffic in both directions and a train track suspended beneath. It was really high and really long and really scary! “Oh my goodness” I said, “There is a cruise ship below us!” I took some photos but they didn’t come out too well seeing as I had my eyes tightly closed at the time!! Having got over getting over the bridge we headed to our next chosen campsite Orbitur Guincho, near Cascais, chosen for its location next to a National Park amongst huge sand dunes. Driving along the coast road we watched waves about 5 metres high crashing against the rocks. Fantastic, really exhilarating. We chose a sunny pitch at the top of the site, beside a low branched pine wood behind the sand dunes.
Thursday 24th March: Having spent a few days reading, writing and doing Sudoku puzzles we drove to McDonalds to update the website and check emails. It took ages to upload all the March photos and we stuck out like a sore thumb in their car park! Found a Lidl to stock up before the Bank Holiday tomorrow – was very busy and reminded us of shopping on Christmas Eve at Tesco. Got a lovely fish weather vein – well I love it anyway! Have named him Michael.
Friday 25th April: – Liberty Day Our hottest day so far, our weather station recorded 35.9º! Walked across the sand dunes to the beautiful golden sandy beach, it was packed, cars and people everywhere and a lovely atmosphere. Putting our towels down and securing the keys in our handy waterproof pouch we went into the sea! The waves were huge with a very strong undertow, it was unbelievable, neither of us had felt anything like it, it was far too rough to swim. Paul got knocked off his feet, a heart stopping moment for me as he disappeared beneath the breakers – and possibly for him too. We climbed back out with our feet and legs feeling like they had been sandblasted. It was scary but great fun. We have since heard people often drown there!
Sunday 27th April: Waited outside campsite for the bus, ready to jump on the 405 or 415 which ever came first, either side of the road! Lucky for us it was the opposite side of the road which meant that we would be taking the scenic route to Cascais, along the coast with sand dunes one side of us and the cliffs and sea the other. On arriving at the bus terminal we walked down through pretty cobbled streets and strolled around the town and marina, past fishing boats with their pots & nets neatly arranged on the quay side. We stumbled across an excellent Light House museum - Farol Museu de Santa Marta, housed within an old fortress. Admission was free and also included a tour of the nearby Casa de Santa Maria, a beautiful house built by architect Raul Lino between 1902 and 1918 with tiled religious scenes on the walls reclaimed from a 17th Century chapel and sailing ships painted in oils on the Caravel Room ceiling. Further along the seafront we came across Boca do Inferno, translating to the Mouth of The Devil - a huge blowhole in the cliff face and having witnessed the power of the Atlantic along the west coast, surely an awesome site on a really windy day. We made our way to the bus stop and having waited half an hour decided the time table wasn’t correct and we must have missed the last bus - walked miles back to the campsite then sat with feet in bucket of hot soapy water – heaven!
Monday 28th April: Planned to go to Lisbon today but changed our minds on looking out of the window, a horrible windy, cloudy and chilly day, so decided to stay in. Just as well, as later found out the museums shut on Mondays in Lisbon.
Tuesday 29th April: Waited at bus stop, this time the other bus came along first! Ran from the bus terminal in Cascais round to the train station, got train to Oeiras then changed for Belém where the Maritime Museum is. Exiting the Station we were drawn to the huge 25th April Bridge that we had recently crossed and soon found ourselves walking along the Tagus River in the totally wrong direction to stand beneath the bridge – awesome, really noisy and saw a train on the suspension below. Dwarfed by the bridge, the huge cruise ship Queen Victoria, sat along side the quay below. Nearby was a small marina lined with many restaurants; they must have to shout at their customers to be heard above the incessant roar of traffic and trains passing overhead. Paul went into Harbour Office asking for directions to the Maritime Museum and came out armed with a map and a big grin, saying we have to get a tram back to Belém as the museum was the other side of the station! A subway and long raised tunnel eventually linked us up to the busy streets where we took a tram back to Belém (I hadn’t realised how far we had walked in the wrong direction) We walked past the cake shop Pastéis de Belém famous for their Pastéis de Nata (Custard Tarts) with people queuing out of the doors. Before arriving at Mosteiro dos Jerónimos (Jerónimos Monastery) with its palm tree vaulted ceilings and wonderful carvings, the final resting place of Vasco da Gama……
The western wing of Jerónimos Monastery houses Lisbon’s Maritime Museum (Museu de Marinha). Recommended to us by Tiago and his team members, we enjoyed a few hours strolling through the magnificent rooms and corridors that take you on a voyage of discovery through Portugal’s rich maritime history. We observed wonderful models of Portuguese ships from the earliest Caravels of Discovery through to 20th century vessels. The museum has many artefacts and collections including wonderful paintings and naval charts, a display of royal Barges and Galliots and a complete Royal cabin salvaged and preserved from the yacht Amélia in 1938 as used by King Carlos and Queen Amélia. Our brief visit only scratched the surface and many more hours could be spent looking through the museums archives, drawings and ship plans.
……Leaving the museum we headed under a subway to the Padrão dos Descobrimentos (The Monument to the Discoveries) that I had read about in a book and wanted to visit. The monument unveiled in 1960 to mark the 500th anniversary of Prince Henry the Navigator’s death stands proudly beside the Tagus river as a memorial to the great men of Portugal’s age of discovery. A few photos and we were back under the subway to the custard tart shop - divine! Served warm, sprinkled with cinnamon, warm gooey egg custard on light crisp pastry similar to Filo. Then back to Belém station and train to Cascais, where we made the last bus back to the campsite.
Wednesday 30th April: Time to move on! We have both loved it here, picturesque, secluded pitch, wonderful beach, mighty ocean and a lovely town only a bus ride away. Left site and drove through the nearby village of Azola and on to Cabo da Roca, the most westerly point of mainland Europe. Stopped for photos, and then continued up the coast aiming for one of three sites chosen from our faithful discount book. With none of them really grabbing us we passed the third and saw a few other vans parked up in a car park close to Sao Pedro de Moel. Pulled up for the night on top of the rocks next to a spectacular cove where the surf turned to foam as it crashed in through the rocks.
|
