pool and gardens

arriving at Casa Ginjeira

When you first arrive you come to the courtyard, with a typically Portuguese pavement of marble mosaics. To the side is a high retaining wall of granite stones, broken by a waterfall that trickles into a basin. This is the rock that the mountain is made from, and everywhere the slopes have been formed into terraces to create the food-basket of the Algarve, where the fertile soil is watered by numerous streams.

From the courtyard, a curved flight of steps leads you up to the swimming pool.

The 10x5metre swimming pool enjoys magnificent mountain views. Looking back, the garden continues upwards, with a pergola hung with grapevines on the terrace above, and further terraces leading to the very top of the garden, where there is a writing shed with a wooden balcony.

There are plenty of places to sunbathe between dips, and the pool shares its broad terrace with four olive trees, which also provide the shade for another place to eat. There is a large built-in barbecue with a sink and running water.

At the other end of the pool is the Pool Cottage with its kitchen, so you can easily prepare the food close by.

The salt-water pool has an automatic safety cover, is heated by an air-source heat pump.

Above the pool is a decked area surrounded by flowerbeds providing another place to relax on sun-loungers under grapevines clambering over a rustic pergola.

Exploring further upwards, you come to the coolest spot in the garden, a grove of acacias between which a hammock invites you to rest.

Finally, at the very top of the garden, you come to the writing shed, which has a balcony where the views are at their most expansive.

But that is not the end of the story, the garden also extends down below the house. When you descend from the veranda you enter a beautiful secret garden of mature plants and exotic flowers.