holy shit, and a great canoe trip

Yesterday was one glorious, muddy adventure. Here is the evidence of me struggle to get out of a canoe.

This attractive photo below was taken after the feat of getting to shore, but before the preceding treck through an entire field of cow shit.

All in good spirits, of course… but our sense of accomplishment was slightly crushed after returning to Tipi Valley only to learn that we had no running water.


Starting from the beginning…

After some good food and wine at this cute café in Aljezur last night and some failed attempts at finding a taxi to get home (not too much going on in the village on Saturday nights), Jodie and I made the journey back to the valley on foot. In the pitch black, arms loaded with grocery bags, and a few glasses of wine in us…this takes about an hour. We headed to bed after our crazy night on the town, ready for the canoe trip we’ve been looking forward to all week.

The skies didn’t look too promising when we woke up this morning but we had to take advantage of our full day off. Laurie came down with a truck to help us get the canoe to the water. This involved off-roading through a cow field, which we then got stuck in before hauling it the rest of the way down to the river.

Rowing down the river took us maybe an hour and a half… and I think the best way I’ve ever arrived at the ocean.

We pulled the canoe across the beach and had some coffee at another café overlooking the water, enjoyed some lunch we had packed and spent the afternoon reading (and napping) on the sand…ah, Sunday.

On our canoe ride back, we pulled off so Jodie could collect some mussels.

The trip back up the river was a little more tiring but so peaceful. When we arrived back at the spot we had pulled out of, I jumped out to pull us on shore and quickly sank into this quick-sand like mud…laughing so hard at this point that I’m not sure how I managed to avoid a complete face plant. So now we’re so covered in mud that our flip flops won’t stay on feet, trying to make it through this field of cow shit, just dreaming of the shower that awaits us. But that would have made the night too boring.

After failed attempts at turning on the generator and trying pump more water, we resorted to boiling pots of water from the hose that fills the frog pond, and somehow bathing with that. I also forgot my one and only towel at Laurie’s yesterday, so needless to say, I've felt cleaner. But a good fire warmed us up and now it’s off to my humble abode for some mucho needed sleep… we changed the clocks last night… yay for an extra hour of beach time starting tomorrow!