As I mentioned in the food post, we took a bus from Lisbon out to Cascais, and then we walked to Boca do Inferno. It was stunning.
On the last leg of the trip, we stayed in Carvoeiro.
We drove to Benagil and rented a kayak. We then paddled through some caves along the coast. I will never forget this, it was truly a wonder.
The water was very choppy, and it made exploring some of the smaller caves infeasible (at least without helmets and flashlights).
But, we got to visit this gorgeous large cave.
We landed on two different beaches. As I was trying to push us back into the Atlantic from the first beach, I lost my footing (it actually just disappeared into a drop) and I went under. I was wearing my iPhone on a lanyard around my neck. The water was so rough that I couldn’t stop to turn the phone off until we landed at the next beach.
I thought we were alone, when a man appeared out of nowhere. He told me he had just come from a cave I hadn’t noticed as we landed. He told me “this will make your adrenaline go” and he was not wrong. I wandered in part of the way – it was full of bird droppings, and smelled terrible. It also got claustrophobic very quickly, and I decided the sunny beach seemed like a better plan. Because my phone was drying out, I was not able to get any photos of the creepy cave, which is my other regret from this trip (besides the fruitcake).
These puny photos only hint at the beauty and wonder of this place.