I'M WALKING

TUESDAY 25th JULY

  Booked my flight to Malaga for the 8th August so I'll be spending 10n days with Adam, Karen and Leia. After doing some work for Charly and listening to/watching the last day of the 1st Test against India (what a great victory), I set off for distant parts.  My first objective was the Post Office.  According to the thermometers along the beach front it was 32 degrees.  It seemed a long way in that heat, but eventually I reached it.  The stamps were over a £1 each, not that I begrudge paying the money to sent the cards to the grandchildren.  The one man Post Office took my cards and duly stamped them then and there.  I didn't even have to post them.  Incidentally postmen here wear a uniform of yellow shirts and blue trousers.

I then carried on along the coast line until I reached the Iracema statue which is just before the port.

Just down fom the statue is where the lobster fleet are anchored.  The boats have lobster pots attached on each side and they expect to catch six lobsters in a pot.  There is a beachside market that seems to do a roaring trade.

    I then took a right turn and headed in the what I thought was the direction of the shopping centre I saw on our tour.  It was a long walk and I wondered several times if I had lost my bearings.  I passed a church with a large statue of Our Lady outside.  I carried on and eventually I came to the street quite close to the shop-

ing centre.  It was pleasantly air-conditioned, but still no CD shop.  I stopped to have a coke, and then set off for home.  I passed through Placa Portugal again, and took a shot from another angle.

  It was a long walk back to the hotel right into the setting sun.  The ankles were pretty stiff by the time I got back.  I think I will have an easy day tomorrow.