Day 59 (Friday, November 26, 2021)
Costs for the Day are in the Table below:
Today I woke up at 5:30am and had a simple breakfast of toast and jam with coffee. Then I packed up my surf gear and walked a few blocks to meet up with Dom and Beth to drive to Praia do Tonel for a morning surf. Dom picked us up in his van which is fully converted for living and done very well inside with wood paneling on the walls and ceiling and sunlights, etc.
Tonel had 3-5ft waves but the water was a bit choppy. When we arrived there weren’t too many people but it was crowded by the time we got out of the water. The 4 second video below was from when we arrived.
I caught some nice rights and lefts when we first arrived so I was very happy about the first hour of the session. In the second half of the session the periods between the larger sets were longer and the crowd was pretty thick so it was more difficult.
After surfing, we went to Caffe Espresso for coffee and brunch. (Cost: 11.80 EUR for 2 Capuccinos, 1 Coffee, and a ham and cheese croissant) Dom and Beth did some work online and I just relaxed and chatted.
In the afternoon, we went to the Dog Shelter near Vila do Bispo called Mayday Algarve. Dom goes there often to walk the dogs and pet and play with them. He usually likes to go alone but he invited Beth and I to come along this time. The operation is in a rural area with randomly sized wire pens for the dogs. Most pens included 2-7 dogs that seemed to get along well together. There were probably around a hundred dogs there all told ranging from puppies to older dogs. Some were friendly and approachable and others were skittish and scared. A few seemed potentially dangerous. We hung out in different pens for a while and played with the dogs. Then we took a couple for a long walk through the hills. It was fun but also sad so see so many dogs at the shelter and it would be horrible if they had to live out their entire lives in the pens.
