Opportunity is always a wonderful thing. I never thought that I would live in Portugal, a strange country I first arrived in, for more than two years. The Alentejo region in the south-central part is filled with endless rolling fields. It has the largest cork oak forest in the world and is an important supplier of cork to the global wine industry. Under the oak trees in the fields, there are also You can always see the black pigs that roam naturally in the Iberian Peninsula, pacing around and looking for wild acorns.
At first, I lived in the small town of Ourique, and later moved further south to Faro, Alcoutim, near Faro. Public transportation was extremely inconvenient, and the countryside Life has unfolded into a daily life that has never existed before. The calm pace of each day is slow, but the months that are looked back are as fast as flying. Lisbon, Porto, Cabo da Roca, egg tarts, yellow trams... these were keywords when Portugal was a far away country. But after living here for a long time, the Portugal in the private map is dotted in the southwestern corner of the European continent. The coastline of different shades of blue is strung together by beaches and surrounds every corner of the coast of Algarve, the southernmost region of Portugal.
The ocean does have extraordinary significance for this country, where half of the country’s borders are coastlines. Five hundred years ago, it was here that mankind bid farewell to the land in an organized and planned way, sailed to the mysterious and vast sea, and began the adventure of exploring the world. For modern people living in Portugal, the ocean has become a gift in ordinary life. It uses vastness to remind you of your own insignificance, uses various blue colors to brighten your nervousness, and uses rough and fresh food to satisfy your appetite.
On weekends, we often set off on Sundays near noon, and the way we choose our destinations becomes very casual - just drag Google Maps to a lighthouse at the junction of the North Atlantic and this continent. Cape, there is no need to read the experiences shared by travelers on the Internet, and you will always encounter unexpected and wonderful stories of skylight and sea in half a day, as well as such diverse colors that can only be perceived after immersing yourself in nature.
The most southwesterly lighthouse in continental Europe (Xu Qi/Photo)
Speaking of which, Camilo Beach and the nearby Ponta da Piedade are considered Our first trip to the ends of the earth in more than two years, we drove from the dazzling silvery blue of Portimao at noon in winter to the southern coast of the small town of Lagos, where we began to explore the Algarve region of Portugal. Exploration of the Algarve.
Compared with the lazy Cote d'Azur in France and Italy, the Algarve coast in southern Portugal is a holiday destination in the minds of Europeans with lonely souls. There are more than 3,000 hours of sunshine a year here, and the beaches in summer are always filled with naked people. And when the summer vacation is over and the weather gets colder, the Algarve returns to its true colors. For me, Camilo Beach and Cape Pedade in winter are a place with healing properties, much like the remote country and remoteness imagined by the Portuguese poet Fernando Pessoa in his words, listening to the wind. , sitting on the cliff, watching the sun sink little by little, and the full moon illuminated the dark sea white. It was a great peace that belonged only to oneself, just like what Hiroshi Sugimoto recorded.
There are also lazy but elegant tourists on the beach. (Xu Qi/Picture)
Standing on the cliff of Kemilo Beach and looking out, after the last ray of sunlight on the reef moved away, the tiny peaks scattered on the calm sea made me experience it for the first time in the Western world. When you feel Zen, you feel like you are back at Ryoanji Temple in Kyoto during the rainy season, sitting in front of the stone courtyard and looking at the mysterious dry landscape scene in front of you for a long time.
The beaches in Algarve are very friendly. You can reach the seaside by following the wooden steps from the cliff. The changing tides create different beaches throughout the day. Fossils of seabed organisms deposited on the reef. Barnacles find a stone and never move away. They live there for thousands of years, leaving behind densely packed round mouths like the pores of the reef. Through the "tunnel" on the reef wall, you can walk to the small beach of Yanwan next door. There are several small rocks here that seem to come from another space. When the tide is low, you can also crawl into a mini cave to enjoy the changes in the sky framed by the natural opening on the top of the cave.
Cape Pedade, adjacent to Camillo Beach, is a collection of strange peaks and rocks. Being surrounded by the sea on three sides, this is the best place to enjoy the sunrise and sunset. In the evening, the scenery here is the zero constellations formed by the natural concavities and convexities on the cliff, leaning against each other and enjoying the sunset. In May, in the morning just after six o'clock, I watched the sunrise wrapped in a beach towel from a nearby hotel. The fresh light pink that faded from blue in the morning was completely different from the affectionate pink that turned from orange in the evening, just like There is a difference between peonies and roses stained with morning dew.
There were only two of us on the entire cliff that day until we walked to the cramped reef at the foot of the mountain and met several photography enthusiasts from all over the world. These photographers, who have traveled around the world and visited bays and beaches everywhere, are excited about this little-known corner of the North Atlantic. They praised the Portuguese sea for its wild nature, and its uncanny craftsmanship far surpassed that of the famous "Twelve Apostles" of Australia's Great Ocean Road. In the early morning, the sun shoots out the first ray of light from the "arch" in front of you. After a while, the gentle waves will cover the rocks around you with layers of gold, explaining what the "sacred nature of nature" is.
Kemilo Beach (Xu Qi/Photo)
There are at least seven or eight weekend excursions in this area. Apart from the mountains and sea, there is another reason to come to Camilo Beach - the cliff restaurant O Camilo. Different from the old-school family-style feel of most restaurants in the Portuguese countryside, O Camilo is young and energetic, with an elegant and modern environment. Whether on the terrace overlooking the coast or indoors surrounded by floor-to-ceiling glass, you have the relaxation and pleasure of an island resort and the coldness of the North Atlantic Ocean. Transformed into a sloppy place by the Mediterranean Sea. The independent O Camilo specializes in traditional Algarve dishes. The freezer that greets you when you enter is the symbol of the restaurant. It displays the ocean fish caught that day, such as Iberian red shrimp, oysters, barnacles, golden sea bream, etc., which exudes sexy brilliance, we often wonder for a while which beautiful fish to choose. The inspired and creative appetizer tapas platter is different every time, and the homemade seafood stew, grilled mushrooms, fish sauce, meat pate and chicken liver pate are always surprises. As for desserts, I always go to the transparent refrigerator when I arrive at the restaurant and ask a familiar waiter to keep the cheese lemon tart in case it is sold out. For such a high-quality restaurant, the prices are very friendly, and the Iberian-style wine collection is unique and very cost-effective.
Cabo Sard?o, a black cliff at the end of the land, needs to be reached through a romantic football field under the sky. The most recent visit was at eight o'clock in the evening in midsummer. The air around the world was filled with water vapor from the fierce waves of the North Atlantic that crashed onto the rocks. The light lingered like smoke in this dusk. The setting sun finally turned into a pink feather and disappeared at the end of the horizon.
This is a landmark on the "Fishermen's Trail", a popular hiking route in southwest Portugal. In front of you, jagged cliffs form the outline of the European continent, stretching as far as the eye can see and covered with wild flowers. In March, this cliff is always shrouded in rain. The blue waves condensed into a force in the strong wind and crashed into the cliffs carved with black horizontal stripes, casting white mist and leaving a trembling echo between the sky and the earth. The seabirds glided on the cliffs following the wind, flying effortlessly. Following the landing path of a snow-white stork, I found its nest on the top of a sharp rock wall. Two pairs of snow-white wings stand side by side, watching the huge waves rolling, the sun rising and setting, and the light of the sky disappearing in such a remote home. It is really a romantic and magnificent thing.
The stork’s nest on the cliff (Xu Qi/picture)
Returning in early summer, the stork’s nest is already a different scene. There is only one left standing on tiptoe at the end of the world with its slender feet, but if you look carefully, you can see that there are three or two more baby birds beside its feet. The rain is getting heavier and heavier, and the mother stork's wings can't help but spread out to protect the child. She has changed from a lover three months ago to a mother. Sometimes she looks into the distance, perhaps waiting for her partner to find food. return.
But if you use one sense to recall this sea, it is not visual, but an indescribable smell. Along the road, the succulent belts on the coast spread wantonly, with pink and yellow flowers dotted in large swaths of deep green. When watered by the rain, it was like the scent of soap in the room waking up from the depths of the soil after taking a bath in the summer of childhood. Floating in the air lingering. On a sunny day, this familiar fragrance that is thicker than the fragrance of flowers gradually begins to spread after sunset, as if the flowers and plants are taking a deep breath after strong photosynthesis.
On that afternoon in late May, we took a walk along the mountain path along the cliff. Stopping in front of the dusty bicycle in front of the tent at the end of the road. Then, I met a man who seemed to come from the depths of nature. He was naked and could vaguely smell the smell of seaweed emanating from his body. We chatted. "I slept here last night, in the tent, and couldn't see anything, but at night I could hear the tidal fluctuations in the depths of the sea so clearly. It was like the frequency of a radio. It was regular and quiet." He was wet. His face was full of energy. I guess he must have raised his head last night when the moon was not shining brightly, and had a close relationship with the stars in the sky. His muscular, naked body, like a Renaissance sculpture, must contain many other animal-like superpowers.
"I don't like wearing clothes! Human beings are born in nature. Even in winter, exercise can warm up the body. For example, if I live here for the past two days, I can swim at any time." He really You are not afraid of the cold. When the rain comes, embrace the rain. And his body was already densely packed, as if wrapped in his own fur, and on his chest hung two beautiful shells collected from the ocean and rocks.
Wanderer (Xu Qi/Photo)
The bicycle carries his entire family. I pointed to the lovely cushion. "This comes from the sheep raised by my parents. It works. Especially in summer, my seat cushion never gets hot after direct sunlight." We chatted happily for a long time. He told us that in addition to doing architecture, he was also a musician. "Then what instrument do you play?"
He walked to the bicycle, took off the long wooden pipe, and brought it to his mouth. The very deep music slowly spread out as he stretched his body vigorously, and the lingering sound reverberated with the sound of the ocean tide.
After meeting people who wander around the world, I also see more possibilities in life. I have always enjoyed chatting with them, and listening to Zai Yiyi's stories brings a little bit of good luck. They bid farewell to prosperity, just to return to the original nature and grow together with the world.
Raging Sea (Xu Qi/Photo)
When I first arrived in Portugal, I first encountered this strange-looking and even scary-looking shellfish-the goose in a seafood shop in Lisbon. Neck barnacles (local dialect: percebe, known as "ghost claw snails" in our country), that little monster that costs sixty or seventy euros per kilogram, look like a bunch of sharp claws gathered on a plate. If you look carefully, you can see that there are bright red marks like blood seeping between the sharp "fingers". The edible part is hidden in the softest "neck" made of rainproof canvas and about two to three centimeters long. With a twist of your fingers, the fresh salty sea water will always splash all over your face, revealing a body of crystal-clear and elastic flesh. What about the taste? It's like taking a bite of the sexy sea.
"Ghost Claw" Gooseneck Barnacle (Xu Qi/Photo)
The edible "neck" of the Gooseneck Barnacle (Xu Qi/Photo)
< p> Even in a country rich in seafood, gooseneck barnacles are still a delicacy on the plate. After careful research, Vila do Bispo has the best products in Portugal. Driven by greed and curiosity, we deliberately went to visit this seaside town in the southwestern corner of the European continent.It is a small town worthy of its name! Narrow alleys run through high and low white houses, and the central area can be walked in less than 20 minutes. Discovering Ribeira do Po?o, a small restaurant with a high rating on Google Maps, later became the reason why we drove two hours to come here every month.
This restaurant, which has been in business for more than 20 years, attracts diners from far away with its fresh seafood and superb local cooking methods, and is well-known in the small town. The refrigerator at the door displays the seafood served that day, including black ribbon fish, oysters, my favorite jewel-like limpets, various clams, and of course the must-order goose, which the locals call "Ghost Legs from Hell" Neck barnacles. Even in its country of origin, this precious seafood sells for 45 euros per kilogram. The reason is, of course, because it requires climbing over cliffs and fighting waves to capture it. Today, there are only a dozen people in the town who are qualified for this most risky offshore fishing job.
Jewel-like limpets (Xu Qi/photo)
As a rare local Chinese customer, we have become familiar with the enthusiastic restaurant staff after several visits. The old waiter called Paulo Barata, a neighboring barnacle hunter, to meet with us.
Since he started fishing with his father at the age of fifteen, Balata's career has been accompanied by the sea for more than thirty years. The violent waves sculpted his back as broad and hard as a rock and his courage. Drinking the glass of port wine we offered him, his eyes sparkled on his dark face when he smiled. Balata told me that this kind of crustacean grows on a reef eighty meters below the cliff. After the hunters climb with bare hands to reach the fishing area, they need to avoid the fierce attacks of waves at any time to cut this crustacean from the thick reef. Rows of sharp "ghost feet". Barnacle is a seafood product regardless of season. He works almost every day except on days when the wind and waves are particularly strong. Balata shared with me the videos he occasionally recorded while working in the early morning. Sometimes there were huge waves, and sometimes there was a rainbow after the rain. It was like scenes of a magnificent and dangerous epic drama. He obviously deeply loves this dangerous nature, "Will Just like my father, I will work on this job until I can’t do it anymore.” He said that intimacy and wrestling with the sea were an integral part of his daily life.
On Cabo de S?o Vicente (Cabo de S?o Vicente) in the small village of Sagres, ten kilometers away from the center of Bishop town, stands the southwesternmost lighthouse on the European continent. Compared with the well-known Cape Roca, this canyon hanging alone above the sea, where one can no longer go forward and can only look back, is more extreme. The annotation on the map is: Sagres, the end of the world. What, the end of the world).
Since ancient times, this has been an important passage for ships from the Atlantic Ocean to the Mediterranean Sea, and the European Coast Highway E9 also ends here. Along the way to the end, there is a stall called "The Last Sausage Before Arriving on the American Continent", and the title is also in German. Yes, if the earth was flat and you looked across the ocean in front of you, you would be the United States.
Sausage Shop (Xu Qi/Photo)
The cliff plunges straight down at a 90-degree angle. On the way down from the mountain road to the beach, people holding wave boards come towards us. A man who smells like the North Atlantic. The sunny April day and the vast sea with magnificent waves make this place a paradise for surfers. They walked alone into the deeper and deeper blue, standing on the wind and waves that surged like mountain peaks over and over again. Because their bodies could not resist the force of nature, they were swallowed up by the thick white waves over and over again, but they never tired of it. Just to enjoy a "flight" where the body, wave board and wave are integrated into one for a short moment.
At dusk at the end of July, the light is ambiguous and warm, the clouds chase each other, and huge waves crash under the cliff. The sea water is heavy, like lead when silent, and turns into mercury when stirred. The wrinkles on the sea surface spread out little by little, which are visible shadows left by the invisible wind. The sun sank little by little in the ever-changing skylight, became huge, and suddenly fell into the ocean. People applauded in unison and cheered for this wonderful sea and sky performance. The British people on the side told me that this was a magical place considered by the ancient Greeks and Romans, and the sunset was greater than anywhere else in the world. When the sun sinks into the ocean here, it means it has fallen into the end of the world.
Uncle from Sichuan and Chongqing traveling across continents in an RV (Xu Qi/picture)
In February 2020, before the arrival of the unusual spring, there was still a peaceful atmosphere in Europe . People who come from far away, together with the cats here, enjoy the late winter sunshine and warm wind on the North Atlantic coastline at this coordinate of the end of the world.
On the way out, the large RV with the "Sichuan A" license plate in the open space next to the St. Vincent Lighthouse was a bit surprising. Among the group of station wagons with EU license plates, it was as big as a white house with aluminum food storage cabinets installed in the back. We were a little surprised to meet the rare Chinese people here at the end of the world. I curiously asked them how they drove all the way here. "It's been more than half a year. In fact, the road trip visa is not very strict. We also drove this guy to Morocco. We stayed in Africa for twenty days, leisurely and not in a hurry. Then we returned to Europe, from Spain to Portugal. "There were four or five uncles and aunties from Sichuan and Chongqing in the car, who could barely speak English, so they bravely traveled all the way to the end of the world with the help of the navigation system. If you are not used to foreign food, don’t be afraid. Just enough oil, salt, soy sauce, vinegar, and dried chili peppers. Just light a fire and cook rice, vegetables, and stew. Even though the mountains are high and the rivers are long, Chinese people can live comfortably wherever they go, with hot and spicy dishes available every day.
The lonely and warm travelers in the ends of the earth (Xu Qi/picture)
There are always a few RVs from neighboring countries parked on the cliffs of Cape St. Vincent, and when the moon rises, At the rising moment, the sky and the sea will connect into an affectionate blue curtain, and their flowing white home will become a candlelight presence in the field of vision, lonely and warm. This long, happy-go-lucky journey is a poetic rite of passage for many Europeans in their later years. When resting in the car, they often sit across from each other by the window and drink coffee. They look calm and don't chat. They just look at the ocean and sky not far away. The world in the RV is simple and well-equipped. There are fresh wild flowers in the glass bottles on the small shelf, the small old speaker sings the old ballads of John Denver, and two bicycles are strapped to the body for another kind of hiking. The sunrise and sunset sky is projected on the window glass, becoming an ever-changing car body paint.
For travelers, sunrise and sunset are a poetic ritual. (Xu Qi/Picture)
These weather-beaten wanderers from the end of the world who still shine with innocence are the most beautiful scenery at the end of the world.
Xu Qi