An easy walk along a boardwalk by the lagoon that is home to many birds : herons, flamingos, and even purple swamp hens have been spotted, along with a myriad of smaller ones.

Degree of Difficulty: Easy 1.

Duration : about 1 hour in each direction, but depends how long you loiter looking at the birds and the sea.

Directions to start : drive on N125 from Lagoa to Alcantarilha. Go down hill past Aldi on your right, turn right at roundabout at bottom of hill signed Armacao de Pera.
Go over next roundabout, but left at the next signed Albufeira. Go over bridge and straight over next roundabout.

Turn right at next roundabout, signed Praia Grande. Drive past Agapious cafe on left. About 200m past the cafe, carry on to a sandy track and park in carpark after about 500m.

GPS of start point: 37.095630 N, 8.336405 W

Walk directions . Behind the carpark, furthest from the sea, are some benches and a “ hide” where you can watch the birds in the lagoon. You can then walk along the board walk, past a higher hide and over a bridge on the lagoon : the Os Salgados cafe is there. You can then either walk back along the boardwalk or back along the beach....or further along the beach towards Gale.

If walking along the beach towards Armacao, you can get back to the carpark by walking along the boardwalk leading from the beach. If you walk further towards Amacao, you can turn inland just before the Ribeira de Alcantirilha estuary, and take a longer loop back to the carpark.

Please note that whilst this estuary can be crossed, sometimes by wading, and you can walk to Armacao, it may be in deeper water on your return when the tide comes in!

Eating. Plenty in Pera or Armacao or, in season, on the beech.