After our ‚unreal mallorca‘ trip the year before, we, that is to say all the lovely photographer ladies, decided that this should become a ritual for us, a yearly pleasure to get away, celebrate our creativity and to simply have a good time together and enjoy each other’s company.
Although our group of female photographers was cut down to three this year (due to very positive news concerning travelling the world, nursing a newborn and being pregnant – so exciting!), we had lots of fun planing our trip. Actually, the Algarve didn’t pop up first while planning … We had (and still have – there are more trips to come, you guys!) other destinations in mind, but we wanted to explore something new – some place none of us had been before. Rebecca, Kathrin and I went on this adventure and we had so much fun 🙂
Arriving
We arrived in the evening and were greeted by beautifully golden light – the perfect setting for driving to our AirBnB, which was basically located in the middle of nowhere in the hills near Estorninhos.
A beautiful morning / new friends
Each morning we woke up to the first sunrises – after our first night at ‚Le Moulbot‘, we were able to explore our beautiful AirBnB with its huge garden (with fig and olive trees), the interesting architecture (sleeping in a tower was quite fun!) and the pool. Also, we got to experience one of the most beautiful sunrises I have ever seen – the sun crept up right between two hills with some lonely houses and everything was so quiet, it was amazing.
Each morning we were not only greeted by sunlight but also by two four-legged (and very cute!) guys who made my day. These dogs were so darling and although we didn’t know where they came from, we cuddled them and gave them love – to me, this is how a day is supposed to start!
Tavira
On the first day after arriving we decided to drive to Tavira, which is said to be one of the most beautiful cities in the Algarve. We had a lush breakfast among (beautifully!) run-down buildings, bright colours and bought some very delicious chocs before heading to the local castle. We climbed up the stairs to the fortress and when we started hearing a guitar playing and a guy singing. We listened to the song these two locals were playing and I was really touched by the song since the singer was singing about his mother and he even started crying. I just love when people put their heart and soul into their art and when they tell stories that really matter.
If you’re looking for a fun city trip in the Algarve you‘ should definitely visit Tavira and its beautiful little shops and architecture 🙂
Exploring the beach / low tide
After wandering through Tavira, we wanted to see the beach so badly that we drove to the ‚Ilha de Tavira‘, which is basically a sand island on the coast of Tavira. We didn’t expect to see the water gone but with all the tiny and bigger boats lying on the beach at low tide, it was such a beautiful scenery.
We took off our shoes and as soon as my bare feet touched the sand and I saw the palm trees swaying in a light breeze, it immediately felt like being on holiday to me. We took the time to shoot portraits of each other in the golden light and we were so mesmerised by the landscape that we didn’t even notice the tide coming back in again 😀 We had to rescue Rebecca’s backpack and her shoes (thank God she kept her camera hanging around here neck!) and drove back home after trying to get rid of all the sand between our toes – which didn’t work that well to be honest!
Road trip along the coast
Because we wanted to see as much as possible of the Algarve, we took our time to drive along the coast (3 hrs to the edge of Portugal). Our first stop was a quite lonely field with a decayed bridge BUT unfortunately I didn’t take any photos there because suddenly we were witness to a guy in a van getting stopped by 10 police man including one with a huge machine gun (Yep, you read that right) and we made sure to back up slowly and drive away as if nothing had happend 😀 True story.
Our next stop was a very unique ceramic store near Sagres with lots and lots of colourful and strangely shaped plates decorated all over the place. Of course, we had to stop here and take some photos. They had some lovely mugs that I would’ve loved to buy but I was afraid they’d break on our journey back to Germany, so we headed on to the cliffs that are literally the end of the world – it’s the most southern west place in Europe! The vibrant orangy colours was so fascinating in combination with the blue water (and the waves were HUGE!).
On our way back we stopped at Algar Seco, one of the most beautiful cliff formations that the Algarve has to offer. We saw some images on the internet and wanted to have a little photo session there (take a look at Rebecca’s dress – so gorgeous!) but we weren’t really impressed with the tiny ‚pool‘ that we saw on instagram (it was rather a puddle). Instead, we went down some stairs on the other side and climbed the cliffs and ended up finding ourselves in the midst of an AMAZING view – the light, the waves crashing against the steep cliffs and a larger pool – of course I had to get in there (all for the one shoot :D) – and despite being quite uncomfortable in there, it was worth it!
A fun day in the pool / at the beach
On wednesday it was so hot outside that we decided to have a large breakfast in the garden (I bet it would’ve looked quite funny seeing us three girls trying to carry the huge tray down the steep hill of our garden :D) and jumping into the cool – VERY cold but we had so much fun, really! We had the most amazing view into the lonely valley and we played music and enjoyed ourselves while being silly with a huge inflatable cactus Kathrin brought (how on earth did she manage to fit this into her suitcase?!).
After that we drove to the beach again, a different one this time – and it was even more beautiful! Everywhere you looked you could find huge shells in the sand, I’ve never seen anything quite like this, really!
We had a lovely couple shoot there (coming soon!) and we were so happy because the weather was just perfect and the couple was just too cute to be true 🙂 Thank you again for doing this, N+V!
In the Eucalyptus forrest / Olhao
On our last day befor heading home, we wanted to stop at an Eucalyptus forest we had seen along the way some days before and we took our time to admire the differently shaded trees and the fragrant branches. We drove on to Olhao, which is said to be a cute little city with lots of white houses. To be honest, we had to look quite hard to find these alleyways, but we managed to and it felt like being on Santorini, everything was coloured white and blue.
We ended the evening at the harbour, seeing the sunset turn the ocean into a painting of pastels and watching the planes fly over our heads. The next day we went to the airport early in the morning while it was heavily raining, but having arrived at the airport, the sun rose and we even got to see a rainbow, which was beautiful and a nice way of saying Goodbye to us form the Algarve 🙂