Cliffside Climbing

A short while ago I wrote a post about a boat tour through the caves of Carvoeiro, but what I didn’t mention, was that on the way back, we saw this.

Update: This is how the magic people got inside.

This picture peaked my curiosity slightly more than the boat trip itself, because it gave me so many questions.
Like, why are there holes in this middle of this sheer cliff edge?
How did they get up there?
How do I get up there?
Because you bet your ass I needed to photograph it!

So S and I went on a little quest with his sister and her boyfriend to find it.
To be fair, it wasn’t actually that hard to find.
If you look out of Carvoeiro bay towards the sea, and head to the top of the hill on the left hand side you’ll find a wooden walkway that runs along the cliff edge.

It’s stunning, with undisturbed views of glistening waves stretching out as far as the eye can see and nothing but the soundtrack of waves crashing against the rocks below to listen to.
But located on this walkway are stairs, and these stairs lead to something much more fun.
A natural playground.

A playground where the waves and sea breeze have spent centuries carving tunnels and holes in the cliff side, but also where some people have helped nature along too. Because I’m pretty sure nature doesn’t carve stairs this perfect.

It’s a winding walkway of natural and manmade beauty that cascades from cliff edge to water.

There’s even a part that has been formed to create the perfect cliff diving spot, with stairs built along the edge so that once you have jumped in you can get back out safely.

I skipped this part.

Partly because I’m a great fat chicken shit, but mostly because we are on route to the airport and I didn’t want to get all sea-salty when our flight back to England wasn’t for another 11 hours.

Dipping in and out of rocks and stumbling across views that took your breath away, it was a morning spent like no other, with each formation we came across more impressive than the last.

This cliffside playground stretches across the width of the cliff with caves, cubby holes and winding tunnels stretching alongside the great blue just waiting for your inner child to come out and play. Unfortunately we never did make it to the place where I first saw those people, but it was pretty damn fun all the same.

This will be the last of my Portuguese posts for now, as I have so many posts about England that I’m just dying to share with you. But I wanted to take the time to say, Carvoeiro was totally unexpected for me.

It wasn’t a place I would have necessarily picked for myself, but it was a place I enjoyed stupendously.

It just goes to show that the size of a place doesn’t directly correlate the amount of enjoyment you’ll find in that place.