21st Mar CABANAS – CASTRO MARIM

This morning we used the campsite facilities (only the free ones!), so Brett’s now clean shaven and we’re both clean. Then a bike ride to the Moorish castle to take photos and a relax on the beach while I did a painting – I’ve rather neglected my journal whilst keeping the blog up to date (actually today’s painting didn’t even go in the journal as it’s a bit too big to carry around easily, I wish I’d brought my satchel with me but we didn’t have room for everything).

There was decoration like this all around the walls - I love the angle of this corner

The house within the walls of the Moorish castle

And this is their view!!

Then back on the N125, heading for Monte Gordo; but we came across Castro Marim first where Brett remembered there was an aire that looked ok – there are so many camper vans here, we’ve counted at least 41 so far. Castro Marim is interesting; it’s literally across the water from Spain, a river divides the two. There is a 16^th century castle here and a fort with a wall (at least 15 foot wide at the top) that obviously once surrounded the whole town – we walked up and around both.

The Fort

View of the Castle from the Fort



While we were walking around the parapet of the Castle and looking across the river we noticed this flock of birds; they were grey or white, but when they turned and you could see their underside, they were bright pink, blue or green. We watched them for ages trying to identify them, they were quite fast and impossible to photograph. Finally we realised they were being released from a shack down near the water – they were pigeons!! Their owner had, for some reason, dyed their wings; we guess for identification, perhaps when they were racing or for a breeding programme? – we’ll probably never know.