Monthly Archives: November 2006

01/11/2006

Sagres – if you dont surf, you just dont get it !

By hairygoose
sometimes i just sit back and think about my situation. i have no doubt in my mind that i am one of the luckiest persons alive. Why am i so lucky? well i dont really know.  A few gambles a few lucky chances and bam – i am out of the rat race that so many of you brits find so loathesome, yet impossible to break free from.
 
not only am i out of it but – i find a house on the southwest tip of portugal, overlooking miles of south and west coastline, that is just inside my budget. i find friends from all across the globe who all share similar values and likes as me, i find work within days of arriving, winter work within 6 months of arriving that takes me into a different country fresh and empty sandy beaches all winter long and very few worries indeed.
 
naturally, this stirs my imagination and makes me think far too much.
 
Finally, just the other week, a friend of mine finally made me realise what it is about sagres, with a few careful words. many of my friends have visited now, most of them like the place for what it is, a place relatively untouched by progress and tourism, but my friend martin summed it all up in just a few words.
 
he said
 
sagres – if you dont surf, you just dont get it !
 
The guy was so right too. I cant begin to describe how the place makes a person feel. one visit is rarely enough, many travellers who intend to just pass through, end up staying and staying and staying. Of course for me, i found the place completely by chance when planning a surf trip some four years ago. my plan was to drive the west coast of portugal from lisbon down and stop at some good breaks on the way. when we finally landed i decided to head straight to sagres – where we stayed for 10 days. the folowing year, we did the same again although on the return to the uk, my house was sold, my car loaded and within one month of leaving, i had returned, lock, stock and barrell to sagres.
 
sometimes along the way, i stop and think of all of the events that have happened in my life. think about this for a moment, if any single one of those events had been different, maybe i wouldnt be sitting here now typing, or if i were, would you know of me to be reading? there are times in our lives where we feel completely unhappy, useless or disheartened but if you ask yourself a simple question, there wont be many of you that will have a bad answer.
 
ask yourself, for all of the bad things that have happened in your lifetime – are you happy with where your life is today? it is a simple yes or no answer !
 
my guess is that all of you will say yes, for all of the problems we encounter, we are overall happy with where we are.
 
for some of you , that will mean, marriage, children, mortgages, big mortgages and multiple mortgages, divorces, parking fines, speeding fines, hang overs, stressful jobs with long hours – the list continues. please remember though, before you start moaning about life, you are happy with where it has led you. if you are truely unhappy , change it. one thing everybody posesses is the ability to make changes.
 
Ok, so mine were a little extreme, but at the time i couldnt see why people were making a fuss. looking back , i guess it was a minor upheaval but now, i am happy with my life. 6 months in portugal, 6 months in mallorca, house paid for, classic 1996 peugeot surf bus paid for, two surf boards to ride and a whole shed load of friends from all over the world.
 
Ok granma, i am sorry that i never got married. i have always believed it would be better to spend my life alone than to spend it with the wrong person. can you imagine that i was with someone who didnt really make me happy when out of the blue i met the woman of my dreams ( is that why at 37 i still wake up with a monster hard on most mornings?) and she wasnt interested in me because i was already with someone? That, would be a wounder.
 
While i am still in search of eternal fun regardless of my age, i always keep one eye on the road for dream woman. i am sure she is out there somewhere, i just gotta be in the right place at the right time and that is something that fate must decide.
 
The other week, i was taking a coffee in the dromedario when an old guy walked in wearing a black T shirt. In big white letters across the front it read
 
F**k Golf
 
Normally i am just not into that whole abusive t shirt thing, the whole FCUK thing. If you want to say "FUCK" just have the balls to say it, dont hide it behind something else.
 
Anyway, this T shirt moved me. Moved me so much that i decided to talk to this stranger. The whole golf thing had me mesmerised. Any middle manager out there that has been shafted by senior management or directors because of who they played golf with the day before will appreciate that T shirt.
 
So i spoke to the dude who also turned out to be french and on holidays in sagres. The dude was 54 years old and still surfing. 54 years old, just when you might think he would be taking up golf as a hobby he was still peddling his trade on a long board. i just hoped and still do today that when i am 54 i am still able to paddle my way out back and hit the waves that i want. i was envious of this guy but that was stupid. i still have at least 23 years of surfing infront of me, he has much less. maybe he was jealous of me, but i doubt that, he knew that he had done much more surfing than me and probably seen much more.
 
anyway, i waffled a bit there and now there is some english fool behind me talking too loudly so it is time to leave.
 
i have a temporary number at the moment, it is +34 697 458 736 but as soon as i can fix my phone problem i will revert back to my original. Today is a holiday in mallorca, " Day of the Dead" hardly anythingis open so no chance of fixing phones or buying groceries. for those of you that know how to use it, my address here is on my contact card.
 
finally, max, what is going on in your life?
 

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01/11/2006

from the algarve to andalucia and beyond

By hairygoose
so i made it safe and sound again. something really attracts me to the life of a roaming gypsy, moving around every few months and doing something different, but let me fill you in on the journey.
 
i landed in faro at around 4,30 on monday afternoon and headed stright to raposeira to pick up my insurance documents from russ at the garage. After a quick beer i headed onto sagres to meet with english anna for dinner. The weather was warm again after nearly two weeks of rain but i didnt have time to surf or hit the beach. After dinner i went to see frannie and kati to say goodbye, luckily they were both at work in the bossa nova so could get them both in one hit.
 
By now it was dark and getting on for 9pm. i got home, emptied all of the crap out of my car (as usual, there was a lot) and headed indoors to start my rapid packing session. Ms Beckenbauer coaxed me into another beer and then i started. Frantically grabbing everything and trying not to forget anything i worked through each room in the house. XBOX, CDs, maps, shower stuff, clothes, work clothes, shoes, pumps everything i needed. crammed it all into my bags and squeezed it into the car. Stripped the bike down and got that inside too, lastly, mikes kiak on the roof.  within two hours i was ready to leave. ran through a few things with julia before i left and at three minutes past eleven local time, i hit the road.
 
My first tune would be madonna, confessions. I still think she is something of a goddess so it seemed a good choice. as l left the house, the cargo straps that were holding the kiak on started to vibrate and resonate, and they wouldnt stop again until i hit valencia some 12 hours later.
 
My first stop would be Olhao services just before the spanish border for some fuel and red bull. Anna had given me some herbal uppers to try out too, with just one warning, they turn your pee orange, so i bought some water and mixed it all up. hit the road again without delay and popped a couple of cans of redbull without warning. At 7am that morning, i was just getting out of bed in maastricht to fly home so now some 15 hours had passed. travelling is mentally tiring, and sometimes boring so i knew i needed to do my best to stay awake. i wanted to catch the 4pm ferry from valencia on tuesday afternoon, dont forget, spain is one hour in front.
 
when you look at the map, the major towns dont seem too far apart. my first checkpoint in spain would be sevilla but that is a good three hours from home. next stop is cordoba but as you leave sevilla and you pick up the signs for cordoba, your heart sinks when you see the distances, 160kms to my next checkpoint and that still wouldnt be half way. luckily , its all good roads, fast dual carriageways and the reason for travelling at night is the roads are empty.
 
cordoba soon appears but as you push though the other side you begin to look for signs to albacete, my next checkpoint. This stretch is by far the longest and hardest but will also take me past the halfway marker of the roadtrip. this leg is 300km long. already the cargo straps have drummed my mind into a state of semi closure, the stereo is on loud and i am singing to myself to stay awake. Coldplay, chili peppers, sade, foo fighters, all of them were graced with my singing ability and i didnt hear anyone complain.
 
by the time i made albacete, i was in good time. i had stopped for an hour to catch a few forty winks, i was completely shattered, now over 24 hours of concious travelling. time to eat and take a big caffeine hit. Anna was right about the herbal medicine, my pee was bright orange, never seen anything like it before, as orange as if i only ever ate orange peel.
 
the last leg was short, around 170 kms and a breeze in reality. the sun was out, the skys clear and blue, my skin burning in the late october sun.
 
One more stop for fuel on the outskirts of valencia and then i would be there. I had now been driving for almost 12 hours but the end was clearly in sight. one wrong turn in valencia which i corrected completely by fluke, saw me on the main road into the city that also ended at the port where i needed to be. Sometimes, i have more jam than hartleys.
 
at 12,30pm i arrived at the offices of trasmediterenea in the port of valencia. i had made it with over three hours to spare, just enough time to walk into downtown valencia and buy credit for my telephone, take money out of the bank and find somewhere to eat.
 
the fast ferry would leave at 4pm and have me in mallorca just a few minutes after 8pm – journeys end
 
so all in all, around 1000kms, 638 miles door to door. sixteen and a half hours total travelling time, a tank and a quarter of diesel (that bloody kiak again!!!) and i made it in one piece, no problem
 
life is one great adventure

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