Transcript
[00:00:00] Kelly: Hey welcome. It's another experience with us telling you about this place, we just think you need to know about. Joe, Cabo da Roca. Tell us about it.
[00:00:10] Joseph: Cabo da Roca is also known as Cape Roca, which, is situated to the Western edge of Sintra, or the Sintra mountain range. It's a 40 minute drive West of Lisbon. It's a 20 minute drive Northwest of Cascais. And it's 30 minutes Southwest of Sintra. And none of that, did we know when we went there the first time.
[00:00:36] Kelly: We were, we were just looking for a, a sunset. It was our first trip to Portugal, January, 2017. You randomly decided to buy a drone in the Amsterdam airport and, we decided it better for us and society, if we found a place without buildings or humans. So we, we picked a spot on the map that had good westerly views and we went for it. Turned out to be Cape Roca, just an incredible, incredible place. You drive through a little village and you end up, headed towards a lighthouse.
[00:01:12] Joseph: Right. Now. I, wouldn't have anticipated all the buses that were there. And remember looking forward the first time we were there and, and going like, ah, we're not going up there and found what was a muddy little track to the right. And, there was another. Car there. So it seemed like, okay, well maybe we can do this. We got the car in far enough to feel like we weren't gonna get it stuck, but then stopped and started hiking.
[00:01:40] Kelly: And you walk through, which we would later on another trip, try to drive through you, walk through this little hedge of trees and bushes, and it opens up to a point and awe inspiring is the only description I can give it. You've got, the expansive Atlantic ocean, you're on the westernmost tip of Europe. You've got 300 foot cliffs going down. There's these beautiful ground cover with these bright purple flowers. Turns out to be an invasive species by the way, but still beautiful. And I remember just standing there looking out over the Atlantic, just shaking my head, just, oh my goodness. This is. Wow.
[00:02:28] Joseph: Yeah, the lighthouse built in 1772 is to your West. The wind coming up off the Atlantic. We were there with plenty of time, the first time, you know, before sunset and I just, no, no, there are times where you gotta hustle. But I remember just giggling, like oh my goodness. Like Kelly, look at this place. This is ridiculous. And then being able to just keep exploring, right. As you cut down to the right, that little path, that kind of comes up to the point, and then you gotta drop into that valley.
[00:03:04] Kelly: Well, we got to the end and there's a picture of me standing there. And then we look down to our right and there's a path and we both look at each other, no preparation, right? No water, no nothing. And we just start heading down into this little valley.
[00:03:19] Joseph: Yeah, it frames. I remember, you know, not wanting to fall and, uh, and then needing to look up. Because the, the rocks are like glowing. Right. And you've got the foreground. And then the rocks just bright and you're trumping through these little paths hoping it's like the first time it was like, does this go down to the, it must go down to the beach. Right? Is there a beach down there? I hope there's a beach down there. I wonder if this is positioned positioned in the wrong way, we won't be able to see the sunset. Is the wind, the wind is pretty strong. Will the drone handle it? And we had,
[00:04:01] Kelly: Talk about the voices in our head.
[00:04:03] Joseph: We had not had the drone hadn't been in the sky yet. Right. I mean, we had.
[00:04:07] Kelly: No, no, it had, it had been up a couple times. We tried to get it, there is a photo of you a
[00:04:11] Joseph: Well
[00:04:12] Kelly: ... You, and I trying to light landed on the side of the cliff before we found this path down to the beach.
[00:04:16] Joseph: Oh, well, save it in downtown Lisbon or barracks, the old army barracks. So.
[00:04:24] Kelly: We never did that.
[00:04:25] Joseph: I don't know what you're talking about.
[00:04:27] The, beach though opens up, the waves are coming in. You've got these spires of rocks, to the sides. Right. And, uh, it just, just giddy. I mean, that first trip was, a confluence of wonderful, right?
[00:04:45] The, the sun, the timing that everything else in January of 2017.
[00:04:50] Kelly: Yeah, January of all of all months. And you, you come down, you end up on this beach called Praia da Ursa or bear beach. There's these two giant spires coming up out of the water that you mentioned, and it will include some really cool photos of those. Apparently that if you look at it from the North, I've never seen it from the North, but it looks like a bear holding her cub. Yeah. That's, that's where the name comes. For us, always been deserted, except for maybe a couple of other, people there. And I think maybe, and you pointed this out, cuz we did it in January. Did in April, maybe when it's warmer, it's much busier. I've actually read that since it's so isolated actually can have some nude sunbathing going on there, which brings some pros and cons when traveling with kiddos.
[00:05:35] For me, I, that first one, especially, and the other ones, you know, we should get into, but that first one, I had all the cameras. I was still stumbling through trying to balance getting incredible shots on the drone, on my camera, on the GoPro and just running around and balancing, enjoying the moment. And taking the shots.
[00:06:03] There's a, there's a video you took of me. I climbed up one of these tall rocks that are out in the water and I'm sitting there trying to get, get the shot with the GoPro. And I think I'm setting up a time lapse or something. And five years later, me, I would've sat down. I would've just sat on the top of that rock and I would've sat there for 20 minutes and I would've just enjoyed it.
[00:06:27] And that's an interesting story of growth for me.
[00:06:31] Joseph: Yeah. That was with the drone descending. Right. And you're. It's, it's a weird balance, but these adventures, like we find it an excuse to be in a place. And just light up the shutters on the cameras.
[00:06:46] Kelly: Now the, the way back up, I love how that one trip ended and we should talk about the other ones to the same spot. There was one car parked at the top. And we saw somebody way out when we were coming down on a boogie board around the rocks and we didn't understand it. When we got back up, he was there, boogie board and all, and he had a giant bucket, of what I we'd figure out are gooseneck barnacles or percebes. Which is what he was collecting. And these are apparently a delicacy.
[00:07:28] Joseph: I had no idea. I think it was the maybe because we had such an incredible time the day before we went back, during the day. And, I remember looking out and seeing the water coming across the rocks, going like what, why, that guy is crazy. He also turned out to be just delightful and he had, what was a tray full.
[00:07:52] I think we might have eaten some of these on a separate dinner, but, um, it, it was really cool. He was super kind too.
[00:08:01] Kelly: So nice and not knowing at the time, but research is they're the most expensive seafood in the world because of how hard they are to harvest. And we absolutely saw that.
[00:08:13] Joseph: Yeah. Like that, he must, he's very motivated to be out there doing that.
[00:08:20] Kelly: They can go for as much as $120 a pound or even some reports $500, I guess. I'm, you know, this is me and, and the Google machine, figuring this out.
[00:08:32] Joseph: I watched a, chef preparing them he compared it to like all of the other. It's not fishy, apparently, but it more melts like a really well prepared lobster.
[00:08:47] Kelly: Really?
[00:08:48] Joseph: We'll have to,
[00:08:49] Kelly: We have to go back.
[00:08:49] Joseph: ... find some of this.
[00:08:51] Kelly: We have go back
[00:08:53] Hey, Joe, any, any tips for this, this place you would give friends going to enjoy it?
[00:09:01] Joseph: Time it, well. Give yourself a little more time than you think you'd need because you just, you know, so you're not rushed. Enjoy that process. Maybe stop along the way up in the little village on the way there there's this restaurant hope it's still open called Maria's.
[00:09:18] Maybe you can grab some wine, but bring some water. Grab the cameras. Plan on lingering and if you can time it with the sunsets, it's really incredible.
[00:09:28] If you're gonna do the rest of that part of, Western Portugal, you can pair it with Sintra or with Cascais before or after in either case.
[00:09:41] And there's this crazy... two castles up there. The Moorish castle, which we've been to on a separate trip and, the crazy painted doll castle is there as well.
[00:09:54] So there's, other stuff to pair with this, but boy, this one's the highlight for, for us. Beautiful hike and we hope wonderful weather for you.
[00:10:04] Kelly: I agree with all of that and the proximity to Sintra and Cascais, and there's a whole bunch to unpack about both of those places, maybe in another chat.
[00:10:14] So in, summary, Cabo de Roca, it is, just outside of Lisbon, short drive, you can even take a bus. There's a beach next to it. Praia da Ursa. It's a lovely hike.
[00:10:26] Give yourself time. You're gonna experience just this expansiveness of these massive cliffs and the view to the west and maybe a, sunset. And it's, close to all the good things. So take a trip out there, enjoy it, enjoy it with your people. And. If you like us and you take cameras and stuff, put 'em down for a minute and enjoy the moments.
[00:10:48] It's all about the moments.
[00:10:50] All right, Joe, I think it's a wrap
[00:10:52] Joseph: So wrap. Next time.
Sunset near Lisbon, Portugal - Cabo da Roca