I left my home in France in early November 2024, with no plan to return until mid-March 2025, hopefully avoiding all of the cold and wet weather. This is becoming a regular trip, with this being my fourth year of spending months at a time away from home. I load the van up with all the “toys” I’m going to play with while I’m away and this year these included :
– Trek electric mountain bike
– Sirrus road bike
– KTM enduro motorbike (with spare supermoto wheels for the road)
I spent about four weeks in Alvor before heading off to Maroc for the whole of December : https://v2xs.com/maroc-2024/.
In previous years my activities had revolved around running, walking, cycling and motorbiking and this year was shaping up to be much the same. Nothing wrong with that but, during my trip to Canada to visit Georgina earlier in the year, I had taken a surf lesson and made a note that it could be an interesting activity to pursue in Alvor. Alvor itself is right on the Algarve coast so there are plenty of options regarding water based activities. And as it turned out this year was rather dominated by water sports, in addition to the usual morning beach run, walking and cycling. I had used the KTM and Trek quite a lot in Maroc, but they barely got a look in once I was in Alvor.
I had taken a few surf lessons at Praia de Rocha in November and had a few more in Maroc. I was slowly improving, but with a long way to go – catching and “popping up” on the majority of waves, but only staying upright on the board for about 50% of those. Back in Alvor in January I decided to buy my own surf board to give me more flexibility on timing and location, compared to taking a lesson, or renting a board. I felt I had completed enough lessons to grasp the basics, what I needed was practise – and lots of it.
Over the Winter the surf conditions around Alvor are pretty good and usually allow surfing a few days of the week – depending on wind direction, wave sizes and the state of the tide. However, there are still opportunities to get out on the water even when the surf’s not up. I had initially booked my surf lessons through Carlos at the Rocha Surf Shop, above Praia de Rocha – they do great made to order Poke Bowls too ! He also offers “SUP Tours” – this is an abbreviation for a Stand Up Paddleboard. These are much bigger and more stable than a surf board and allow you to stand on top and paddle along with a single long paddle. They don’t get much demand for the tours in the winter and with the higher winds and rougher seas the conditions are not often suitable. However, he did manage to find an appropriate window and we met at the end of the beach in Alvor early one morning. There was hardly any wind, the sun was shining and the sea was like a mill pond – perfect.
He predicted it would take about 15 mins or so to gain a bit of confidence and get past the wobbly legs stage, and he was right. We paddled along the cliffs between Alvor beach and Praia de Vau, exploring some sea caves along the way – these were amazing and only accessible from the water.
The tour lasted a couple of hours and as we were nearing the end the wind started to get up and the sea became a bit choppy which made everything a lot more challenging. Carlos had fun surfing some of the waves, but I was in survival mode and eventually got caught out by a wave near the shore and fell in. Definitely worth doing it again – I was hoping to be able to persuade Sara to have a go during her forthcoming visit and had already told her to pack her wetsuit.
During another SUP session with a different instructor (Guilherme) we talked about other water sport options in Alvor. He mentioned windsurfing (been there, done that), kitesurfing (had lessons in Egypt but too risky for me) but also WingFoiling, which spiked my interest. The last windsurfing trip I did was to Narbonne last year and I was struck by the fact that the Wingfoilers outnumbered the windsurfers. So I asked Gui (pronounced Gee) about a Wingfoiling trial lesson…
Wingfoiling is apparently a lot easier to learn than windsurfing and, according to Gui, if you have a windsurfing background it would be no problem – I wasn’t so sure. Rather than going out on the sea he prefers to use the much calmer and safer environment inside the Alvor lagoon.
The lagoon can also be used at low tide, but you have to watch out for the exposed sand banks. The first lesson was learning to control the “wing” – this is similar to the kite that is used in kitesurfing, but you hold on to it directly rather than controlling it with long lines. This gives you much more control and direct interaction with the wind, but took some getting used to. I would have been happy to spend a lot longer practising with the wing, but Gui decided I had grasped the basics and went to get a board to get me out on the water. This was a large SUP board with lots of stability and was fitted with a centre fin. For the first couple of runs Gui was in the water, being dragged along behind by the board, in a perfect position to give advice and encouragement. For the next runs I was flying solo, but with a helmet intercom, so he could still give advice. In no time at all he went to get the real foil board, feeling confident I would be able to manage it. Up to this point I hadn’t got wet, but as soon as I started on the tiny foil board I started falling in. I could manage to get the board moving in a straight line but fell in every time I tried to turn it at the end of the run. Despite my failings it was great fun and reminded me of all the things I used to enjoy about windsurfing, without the major disadvantage of having to uphaul the sail after every tip-off. Instead, the inflatable wing just sits there bobbing about on the surface ready to go again.
Other than the water sports, life in Alvor followed a familar routine of a morning beach run, followed by coffee in the Plaza Cafe and then out for a long walk or bike ride. I would often meet up with Tim and Helen for lunch or dinner in one of the many Alvor restaurants.
This year I had two visits from family, Felicity (#2 daughter) came out for a few days to get a break from the cold and dreary Manchester weather and sister Sara came for her usual 10 day winter break. Felicity and I managed a bit of walking and a trip up into the hills to Alferce to explore their “aerial walkway”. With Sara it was business as usual – morning run, followed by lots of walking, although I did persuade her to do a couple of SUP sessions and a cycle ride. I had hoped that she would be interested in trying her hand at surfing, but she refused – couldn’t see the appeal of getting soaked splashing around in the surf and she’d only just washed her hair ! Sara’s favourite walk is from Alvor to Portimao along the beach, but that’s only possible at low tide. It’s a long way 30,000+ steps, but the reward is the best mint choc chip ice cream you’ve ever tasted…
Well that’s about it for another year, I’ll have been away from home for over four months – I’m hoping it will be acceptably warm by the time I get back. It was another fantastic winter break, and I’m looking forward to doing it all again next year – in fact I’ve already booked my apartment in Alvor !
I wonder if Hebe will remember who I am ?
