Big clawed crabs of São Pedro Santa Luzia, dragon tails and the great train crash!

Another great story title I think, but also snippets from the day. 

Let me explain. 

We left our new friends from Belgium Gerd and Marc who gave us a lovely send off, once they'd helped guide us out of the tight confines of our pitch. It was quite a clumsy balletic forward backward dance thing going on. 

Once on the road, we made good progress and pulled off in the direction of Tavira. A slight problem with the map scale and poor road signs led us to São Pedro Santa Luzia. A sleepy 'beach fronted' town, which seemed to have no beach. It was actually hidden beyond the water directly in front of us and beyond a nature reserve. Anyhow, we sat, lunched on some lovely fresh and cheap Portuguese bread and watched the river bank in front of us. Hunger had enhanced the focus on the eating, so we were all a little quiet.

However, a strange vision was happening in front of us. It appeared that the sand banks were moving. With stealth, we crept forwards to investigate further, and found the land to be covered with Fiddler Crabs. Crabs with one BIG claw!

They all had their own little hole of a home in the sand, which they duly retired to once approached. So patiently and quietly we waited, and they returned. The land appeared to continue to move. Quite a fascinating thing to observe and we did so for a good half an hour!

The crabs were left behind as we went to go around the village. Beautifully tiled buildings, quiet streets and a real genuine Portuguese quality about it left us feeling very content in this place. Quite the antithesis of Praia Da Rocha (neighbour of Portimao) yesterday.

As we returned to the van for the next part of the journey, Maya came walking up behind me along the river frontage. In her hands she had a huge palm leaf. She carried it, shared it with Jasper, swept the floor with it, dragged it etc. She came to the conclusion though, that she had found a dragons tail. Sadly, the size prohibited her from bringing the dragons tail back with us.

A lovely thing happened then. We were almost back at the van, but we noticed just around the corner a tilted sun brolley, and an old man quietly and carefully working away. An investigation was required. Upon closer inspection and with a bit of explanation, we discovered that he was making small boats out of mussel shells, adding seats, sails, rigging, masts, rudders, etc then painting them. The end result was super!

The photograph doesn't really do it justice as the scale of it is so small. The children both bought one each in the colours of their choice. A proper momento of a lovely little place rather than the usual seaside tat. A lot of time and care has gone into each, and the old gentleman was adamant that the whole idea was his.

After an afternoon snack, it was then a short cycle into Tavira itself for a look around this very unspoilt riverside town. Lots of lovely shops, river side walks, bridges to cross, churches, and a castle. Time was knocking on though, so we set off home. About 500 yards from our home for the night, (municipal campsite at €9.90 per night!) a train track crossed the road, not at a right angle, but at about 45 degrees. It had been a slightly sticky moment going down the hill and into town, but it turned out to end with a splat on the return uphill journey. Maya's front wheel slid across the track rather than going over it and the resulting impact with the road brought on a bout of shock and tears, but also resulted in traffic stopping in both directions. Firstly, traffic behind waited as we all picked ourselves up off the floor, and secondly, as it just so happened a Red Cross van was passing on the other side, stopped, and out jumped a lady paramedic to examine Maya. All was fine, but the shock of the unexpected was why there were tears. It was however a confirmation that the Portuguese people have been very warm, welcoming and helpful throughout our time in their country.

A momentous and eventful day then. Our final day in Portugal, and with some sadness we venture back into Spain tomorrow.

Ed