After driving from Bordouex, along the coast of Biscay, and down through Spain, we crossed into Portugal late at night, set up camp at Camping Canelas and went straight to sleep. In the morning we woke to a friendly kitten who accompanied us for breakfast.

Then we set off on the search for Benagil Sea Cave. We drove down to Benagil Beach, parked the car and decided to go for a walk along the coast to see if we could locate where exactly this sea cave was from the hole in the cave’s roof. We walked up the road and found a car park with a path leading past an abandoned house toward the coast.

It was a beautiful walk, and we did find the large hole where we could look down into the sea cave, but no apparent way to get down to it. A little disappointed, we headed back to Benagil Beach to relax and paddle in the sea. My travelling companion being a better swimmer than me went for a swim and returned excitedly explaining that to get to the sea cave ‘all you had to do’ was swim around that cliff face sticking out into the sea. Despite my poor swimming ability, she convinced me we could make it and that she would be near me at all times in case I got tired or felt unsafe. If you knew me you would understand what an undertaking I just agreed to, but we did it, we swam around the cliff, avoiding the speedboats (the usual way to get a sighting of the cave), and got to the cave. It was totally worth it! Not only is this place stunning, but I accomplished something I never thought I would by doing that swim.

Of course, then I had to swim back! Already tired from the way there, it was a tougher swim, but we managed that too and celebrated with food and wine by the beach before driving along the coast a little to find our camping spot for the night. This was our easiest wild camp of the trip, there’s an area by Pria De Marinha, just before you get to the actual car park, that is used by many for overnight parking/camping. So we found a spot and pitched up for a beautiful cliff-top sunset, and woke to a stunning sunrise.