The Cabo

There's a point at the southwestern tip of mainland Europe where the land simply ends. Cabo de São Vicente, Cape St Vincent, is a flat headland above cliffs that drop straight into the Atlantic, and standing there on a clear day with the wind coming off the ocean you understand immediately why people once believed this was the edge of the world.

It is not a subtle place. There's a lighthouse, a fort, the cliffs, the sea and very little else. In winter the wind can be violent. Even in summer there's a force to it that's different from anywhere on the south-facing coast.

I drove out there once with someone who'd been living in the Algarve for a year and had never made it to the western tip. We went in late afternoon so the light was right. The drive from Lagos along the coast road, past Sagres, past the fishing beaches and the surf schools, is worth doing slowly.

She stood on the cliff for a long time without saying anything. Which is the appropriate response.

There are places you take people not because there's anything to explain or interpret but because standing somewhere like that does something to your sense of scale. The Algarve has a lot of beautiful coastline. Cabo de São Vicente is something different. It's where the continent finishes, and the Atlantic continues for as far as the eye can work out, which is not far enough.

We drove back along the south coast and arrived in Lagos in time for dinner. Neither of us felt the need to talk much on the way back. Some afternoons are better respected with quiet.