We went to Portugal for the first time in August. Our boys wanted to go to the Peniche area because of the excellent surf there. With peninsulars at Peniche and Baleal there are beaches pointing in different directions within a few kilometres of each other. This means that there is a good chance that one beach will have great surfing regardless of wind direction.
The hinterland consists of sand dunes and quite a bit of pine woodland with some cultivation. At Cascais do Baleal there are low cliffs ~10 metres high in a very soft sandstone. There is obviously quite a bit of erosion from both high seas and heavy rain.
The Isla do Baleal is now a peninsular. It was once a rocky island but is now joined to the mainland by a strip of sand and a road.
At the tip of Isla do Baleal there are two further islands the first of which is shown above. In this area the sandstone is much harder and there is an oblique strata.
The cliffs on Isla do Baleal are also about 10 metres high and can take a fair battering from the waves. This was not a stormy day!
The rock of the Peniche peninsular is also hard but has a somewhat darker colour. I estimate that the cliffs are about 20 metres high. In comparison to Cornwall or especially the Inner Hebrides there was not a lot of bird life. There were a few shags on an offshore stack and amazingly few gulls around the fishing port of Peniche.
This picture shows the coast leading north towards Nazare. There the cliffs are much higher - more than 100 metres was indicated at the top of the funicular railway.
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2007-09-15 @ 14:34