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Friday 30 March 2012

29th March LOS ROMANES

The van survived the night!!! And whilst I was showering Brett and Henry managed to bring it up the next door neighbour’s drive. And then we got to do our washing.

We had a lovely relaxing day in Torre del Mar with Henry and Claire. We saw parrots in the trees; oh yes, and we saw these little puppies in the window of a pet shop – it was very distressing I wanted to take them all home.
HeHe!!! This sculpture is very witty.
We had a really leisurely lunch of calamares a la plancha (griddled squid), pulpo frito (fried octopus), rosada (fish) and clams; it was very tasty.
 Please note: I'm the one drinking water (with the orange hair!)

Then we went to the supermarket to replenish the alcohol we drank last night and found cava for 1.50 a bottle!!! (it’s very pleasant and doesn’t taste at all like cheap wine).

Tomorrow we're going to be taken to a village up in the hills.

28th Mar VALVERDE DEL CAMINO - LOS ROMANES

Today we had planned quite a long journey, about 160 miles towards Malaga; our friends Pauline and Terry live to the West of Malaga and Claire’s gran lives to the East. Our plan was to head for an aire just above (about 30 miles) Pauline and Terry, so that we could visit them for lunch tomorrow. As the journey was going quite smoothly we decided to scrap the aire and try to find a campsite close to Pauline and Terry that we’d seen on the internet. We found the campsite – it was 18 plus 5 for electricity (I don’t think so!!).

The area where they live in is very beautiful, high craggy rocks and is very popular with walkers, climbers and mountain bikers; but the roads are very twisty, turny, single lane, sometimes with a barrier fencing off half the carriage way (outside edge) as the road is falling away. We drove past our friend’s house (they had only invited us for lunch) looking for a campsite – the road continued for 30 odd miles without any chance of turning around, not a campsite in sight; we got to the outskirts of Malaga – nightmare!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It was horrible, just like spaghetti junction, but with everyone driving like maniacs, on the wrong side of the road, no one giving way to us, with me trying helplessly to navigate. By now Brett had decided that he couldn’t face the prospect of driving back to Pauline and Terry’s the next day, as by this time he had been driving for over five hours; so we decided to continue to Claire’s gran’s. At one point (with Sat Navs help) we were faced with a choice of three roads; I had to make a choice, I plumped for the middle one – WRONG! We ended up heading for Torremalinos (whoops), so we had to turn around (again). We ended up arriving at 9.15, it was dark – Henry had emphasised that we should arrive in daylight as the access to Claire’s gran’s property was rather steep.
We couldn’t get up the drive, we got half way and then the wheels started spinning; the track was not very wide, we couldn’t see to back down, we had no choice we had to leave the van where it was, half way up a very steep, narrow drive – Brett pulled the handbrake on as hard as possible, put it in gear and we put rocks under all four wheels ........................ I didn’t sleep well. I was convinced the van was going to roll down the hill overnight.

Claire’s gran’s house is lovely, right on the top of a hill, overlooking a lake, with absolutely fabulous viewsand we got to sleep in a real bed!
We feel really bad about cancelling Pauline and Terry but poor old Brett ended up driving 275 miles today (over a period of 9 hours), we've promised we'll visit them on our way back to Portugal in a few months time.

Thursday 29 March 2012

27th Mar CASTRO MARIM - VALVERDE DEL CAMINO

Of course it didn’t work, the tyre deflated overnight – so now we’ve got to look for a bike shop (again!).

We saw a flock of pigeons, on the way out of Castro Marim, but they weren’t the coloured ones.
We had an uneventful trip to an aire in Spain; Sat Nav was her stupid self again. I had forgotten to switch off the ‘no motorways’ option; a large river separates Portugal and Spain and the only way across (in this area) is the motorway – usually she ignores our wishes but today she took them on board and calculated a route that went through the river!!!! (Brett thinks that she meant for us to catch a ferry, but I’m not so sure).

As we entered Spain we drove through miles and miles of plastic, as far as the eye could see; this was polytunnels and cloches with strawberries growing under them - it was very unsightly!!

The aire is not very nice; it’s in a car park at the side of quite a busy road, but as there’s not many around we haven’t got much choice. We walked into the town, which is quite ugly, looking for a bike shop and found a ‘Chinese Supermarket’. Chinese Supermarkets are a bit like ‘pound shops’; they sell more or less everything very cheaply. Brett was delighted when he found an inner tube the right size for his bike (but the valve was a bigger diameter), a puncture repair kit (similar to the one we already had, but we hoped it was our glue that wasn’t working) and a cover for his ipod (his one broke a while back) and I bought a ‘waiter’s friend’ (bottle opener). Oh dear ...........................
The inner tube won’t fit his wheel; the valve is too wide to go through the hole in the rim (he says if we were at home he could drill the hole out to make it bigger, but he can’t do that here, fortunately it will be fine as a spare for my bike). The puncture repair kit works just as well as our original one i.e. not at all – the patches just don’t stick to the inner tube. And his ipod cover; the holes, for all the various knobs and buttons, are in the correct places except the volume button which he had to cut out with a scalpel. He’s not a ‘happy bunny’! I have yet to try out the bottle opener – I don’t hold out much hope. If we were in the UK we’d have taken it all back but we don’t think we’d get much joy from a Spanish speaking Chinese man! Note: it did only cost 7€ for the lot (but it’s the principal).


26th Mar CASTRO MARIM

Well that was a waste of two days hanging around for the gas station to open – he said “No” (he only did Portuguese bottles)!!! When we were told about the blue elephant place, by the people at the campsite, they said there was another place we could try, quite close to the campsite, but their directions were rather complicated (which was why we tried to find the blue elephant place). However as we really needed to get gas we decided to try to find this other place – a trip of 30 miles (in the wrong direction!!) – it took us quite a while to find (we nearly gave up) but ....................... hoorah, we got both our gas bottles refilled (we get excited about little things these days!!). It cost us 25€ and we now have gas for at least six weeks; if we’d had to buy Portuguese bottles we’d have had to pay a deposit (which we probably wouldn’t have got back), and we’d have had to buy the Portuguese adaptors, this would have probably cost us a minimum of 70, maybe as much as 100 - so that’s why we’re happy.

So having spent the morning driving away from Spain we decided to spend another night in the aire at Castro Marim (we haven’t seen the pigeons again). We decided to stop off at a beach we had been told was worth a visit at Manta Rota; we parked in a car park just outside the village, after lunch we got the bikes off the van and cycled up the hill to the village, it was a dead end! We turned around and headed off along a track towards the beach – and Brett got a puncture!!! So we decided to walk (and mend the puncture later).
It wasn’t a nice walk; it was through this marshland with lots of little tributaries leading to the sea; the foliage was very scrubby and prickly (cactus), and the water, which we had to paddle through to get to the sea, was smelly and foamy. I wanted to turn around, but Brett was following some tractor tracks that he thought would lead to a road, which would have given us an easier walk back. After ½ an hour he admitted defeat!! And we turned back; but of course by now the tide was coming in!!! So the water we had paddled through originally was now 2 foot deep (and getting deeper) and the rocks we had stepped across were now slippery – I wasn’t happy. However Brett enjoyed the walk because we came across an area by the tide line with hundreds of holes, each contained a small crab; if you stood still for long enough they popped out of their holes, looked around, then went back down, sometimes pulling lumps of seaweed down on top of themselves. We also found masses of samphire growing wild, but we didn’t have a bag with us which was a shame.
 Brett would like to point out that the walk was nowhere near as bad as I made it sound, and at no time were we in any trouble; he says I exaggerate and in fact the water we waded through was very warm and had lots of fish in it and it was worth it just to see the crabs! (Hmm, it doesn’t sound like the same walk does it?!!)

When we got to the aire Brett mended his puncture; WARNING: do not buy Wilkinson’s puncture repair kit – it doesn’t work; the instructions are rubbish and the glue doesn’t stick very well – after four attempts we’re now keeping our fingers crossed that his tyre doesn’t go down over night.


25th Mar CASTRO MARIM

We forgot the clocks went forward this morning and got to the supermarket just as it closed, so all our meals today have to come from the store cupboard – Omelette and salad for lunch, pasta for dinner.

Last year I tried on several occasions to read “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo”; I got it out of the library, I was lent a talking book version and I even had it on my kindle – I couldn’t get passed the first few chapters; I found the names too hard to pronounce/visualise and there were too many threads for me to keep account of. The week before we left home the film version was on at Brynaman cinema (‘Orange Wednesday’, only £4.50 for the two of us!!); I found it rather violent, but it really helped my understanding of the plot. On Friday I started reading “The Girl Who Played with Fire”, which I finished yesterday, I then started “The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest” which I have just finished – now I’m going to have to go back and read the first one (as I don’t know how accurate the film was to the book).
This afternoon we went for quite a strenuous (for me) bike ride; as I have an electric bike I have to keep up a moderately brisk pace (it’s my pride that makes me do this), however I’ve started turning off my motor, unless there are hills, so I’m actually doing a lot of the work myself – this is for fitness rather than trying to save the charge on the battery!


24th Mar MONTE GORDO - CASTRO MARIM

Today we woke up to rain; apparently this is the driest winter Portugal has had in several years, in fact there is great concern about the amount of water left in the bore holes and wells in the Algarve.

We haven’t had many worries while we’ve been travelling, however our latest one is gas; we left Britain with two full gas bottles and a partially used one that we expected to run out before we got to Spain – it last a week into our travels. The next bottle only lasted three weeks; probably as we had been using it to heat water for showers etc and, now it’s warmer, for the fridge (so we’ve been trying to minimise our showers in the van and use the ones in campsite and therefore ‘free’). Our last bottle could last another one or two weeks, by then we will be in Spain again; apparently in Spain you need a contract to buy gas (for which you need a Spanish address, so we can’t get one). Every country in Europe seems to have different size gas bottles and adaptors, which is annoying as we can’t just buy new bottles in Portugal without buying the fittings too and then doing the same in France. Someone on our last campsite told us of a gas station where they can refill gas bottles (few and far between, but brilliant if it’s true). We were told to drive towards Spain on the N125 and look for a car wash with a blue elephant floating above it; Brett also looked it up on the internet and here they say to look for a pink elephant! So we drove along and found a car wash with a blue walrus (or perhaps a seal). Brett had a conversation with the man (completely in Portuguese – he’s getting rather good) who said they no longer did gas but there was a depot 3 kilometres up the road we could try – we passed it on the wrong side of the road so had to travel to the next roundabout to turn round, when we got back it was closed (it was 1.00 – we’d literally just missed it), so now we have to wait until Monday.
As everything is fully charged we’ve come back to the aire at Castro Marim – hopefully we’ll see the pigeons again as I want some photos of them. It’s still very busy here, packed with at least 30 or 40 vans, mainly French and German.

Friday 23 March 2012

23rd Mar MONTE GORDO – VILA REAL

First thing I got Brett to take photos of the plastic bottle windmills – they would make brilliant bird scarers in a vegetable garden.


Unfortunately you don’t get the full impact of this plot from a photo; it’s absolutely jam packed with plants, wind chimes, windmills, hanging lights, shells, pebbles .......................... I love it!

We cycled back to Vila Real de Santo Antonio (I got that wrong yesterday – but I can’t edit it!). It’s a lovely old town with some very beautiful buildings and a huge town square.
Tres shabby chic, n'est pas?

There are absolutely masses of shops here all selling the same things – towels and aprons; it was weird, it was as if all the shop keepers had bought their wares at the same wholesalers. We had a cheap (13) impromptu lunch, at one of the cafes in the town square, whilst being entertained by three buskers (two with accordions and one with a cello).
The orange trees around the square are all in bloom

Thursday 22 March 2012

22nd Mar CASTRO MARIM – MONTE GORDO

We needed to find a campsite today as my bike battery hasn’t been charged since we left home; and as we’re not doing a lot of driving at the moment the campervan battery also needs charging (by campervan battery I mean the one that runs the electrics in the habitation area, not the engine battery).

I keep noticing errors when I check that my posts have been published; unfortunately I can’t edit a post once it’s been published as I’m using the Portuguese version of blogspot and I can’t understand how to do it – it’s niggling me!!
So we’re now booked into the campsite at Monte Gordo 8.83 inclusive of electricity and free internet (the last site wanted to charge 3€ for electricity and 1€ an hour for internet!) so we’re much happier here. Unlike the last site (Colditz) which was very sterile (lots of regulations and charges) this site has a similar laidback feel as the site we stayed on for five day at Olhao; and again there are quite a few full timers with their individualised plots – the in thing here is windmills made from plastic water bottles (I will be taking photos tomorrow). I haven’t used the toilets here but I have it on good authority (Brett’s – he had to go in to empty our waste) that there’s just a hole in the ground that you have to squat over – thank goodness we have our own!!!

Monte Gordo is within spitting distance of Spain; it has a nice feel to it, with a big sandy beach, and lots of restaurants and bars; a 2 mile cycle ride took us to Vila Real de Santo Antonia where the river forms the border with Spain.

There’s a marina with some very nice boats (which we lusted after) and lots of fish (Brett says trout – but that’s what he always says!) in the very clear sea – and “No” Henry we haven’t been fishing yet! We’re going to return to Vila Real and explore further tomorrow.
Marina at Vila Real de Santo Antonia
As I had internet access I googled ‘dyed pigeons’ – apparently it’s a Spanish pigeon fancier’s practise, for bird identification when racing (kind of what we figured).

21st Mar CABANAS – CASTRO MARIM

This morning we used the campsite facilities (only the free ones!), so Brett’s now clean shaven and we’re both clean. Then a bike ride to the Moorish castle to take photos and a relax on the beach while I did a painting – I’ve rather neglected my journal whilst keeping the blog up to date (actually today’s painting didn’t even go in the journal as it’s a bit too big to carry around easily, I wish I’d brought my satchel with me but we didn’t have room for everything).
There was decoration like this all around the walls - I love the angle of this corner

The house within the walls of the Moorish castle
And this is their view!!
Then back on the N125, heading for Monte Gordo; but we came across Castro Marim first where Brett remembered there was an aire that looked ok – there are so many camper vans here, we’ve counted at least 41 so far. Castro Marim is interesting; it’s literally across the water from Spain, a river divides the two. There is a 16th century castle here and a fort with a wall (at least 15 foot wide at the top) that obviously once surrounded the whole town – we walked up and around both.
The Fort
View of the Castle from the Fort

While we were walking around the parapet of the Castle and looking across the river we noticed this flock of birds; they were grey or white, but when they turned and you could see their underside, they were bright pink, blue or green. We watched them for ages trying to identify them, they were quite fast and impossible to photograph. Finally we realised they were being released from a shack down near the water – they were pigeons!! Their owner had, for some reason, dyed their wings; we guess for identification, perhaps when they were racing or for a breeding programme? – we’ll probably never know.

20th Mar OLHAO – CABANAS

Yesterday I decorated my bike basket ......................................
Isn’t she pretty?

We left our comfortable campsite this morning and headed off along the coast towards Spain, looking for this cheap campsite, we’d seen on the internet, at Tavira – we drove into the town and around the town but couldn’t find it. We continued along the N125 until we saw a sign ‘Campismo’ and we came to this campsite – I don’t know how we actually ended up here; we asked the price, it was expensive but before we knew it we were being given entrance cards for the van and pedestrians (it’s a bit like ‘Colditz’ here, there’s a barrier for the van and turnstiles for us!) and handing over our passports. Everything is extra – so no hook up tonight and no internet access!!! We’re both a little bit annoyed with ourselves and it’s only over 12! However ............................

We went for a bike ride, it’s brilliant now Brett’s bike is mended, and found the beach front – masses of bars and restaurants, but also very pretty.
Then as we cycled out along the coastal path we came across this Moorish castle it was beautiful; quite run down yet full of charm – I would love to paint it (I didn’t have my stuff with me, perhaps we’ll go back tomorrow). Unfortunately it was obviously privately owned and wasn’t open to the public – you could see a more modern dwelling within the walls. It looks like it could have had a moat at some time.

Spot the theme in this post!!!

Monday 19 March 2012

19TH Mar ARMONA

We’ve had a fabulous day today, well the past month has been fabulous but today was extra fabulous!

We cycled into town having planned to take a trip around the islands; 1 hour cost 10 each, 2 hours 20 up to 40 for half a day. However, the ferry to the main island  (Armona) was 3.60 return ................... so we did that! Armona was absolutely lovely, so quiet with huge beaches. It is very different from the built up, crowded Algarve (just 10 minutes away). All the buildings were single storey, most of them were empty and none were more than 50 yards from the beach.

 We walked from one end of the island to the other (about a mile) along the main road!!
The main road!!
This is where the main road leads to
And this is where the board walk leads to
There are no cars; everything has to be transported by boat. We ate our lunch watching three men unloading a small motor boat, laden with bags of cement and bricks,  onto the jetty by hand (the down side of island living). They then had to transferred it onto a hand cart, which they had to push/pull themselves, needing several journeys to move it all (we watched for an hour and a half and they were nowhere near finished).

Talking of lunch, as it’s out of season not many of the bars/restaurant were open (in fact nothing much was open); but we found this open (empty) restaurant on the harbour and asked whether he served food; he went out the back to ask what they could do for us and came back saying all he could offer was sea bass, pork chop or squid. We opted for the squid (which he was a bit surprised at, asking us if we knew what it was!!). This is what we were served with ...................................
Griddled squid with garlic and parsley, huge platter of chips, tomato and onion salad; there was enough for four people, but we did our best! It was absolutely delicious; we washed it down with two beers each. When I went to pay it was 25€, just under £21, then he asked if we would like another couple of beers which I politely declined and he said “would I not do him the honour of giving us a drink on the house?” so I had to accept, didn’t I? He was impressed that we liked the squid; he said that the non Portuguese didn’t like their squid to look like squid (e.g. fried calamari – which I love); anyway we achieved some Portuguese credibility!

Then 3 ½ hours after arriving we caught the ferry back to the mainland. We merrily wove our way back to the van on our bikes. We spent an hour washing the van, it gets very dust out here – it was filthy but now it looks very smart. So we’re clean, our clothes are clean, our bikes are clean and now the van in clean and the battery is full charged.
While we were having lunch we were discussing how much we are enjoying ourselves and how lucky we are – we can travel for a year, then go home (to get the van MOT’d) and if we wanted to we can carry on travelling or we can buy a farm, but then there are other options ........ the island today was very like Greece, we love Greece; now we’re thinking a cottage in Greece, with a couple of acres, close to the sea then we could have a boat. We change our minds daily – but I do still love Donkey Quinta.

We’re getting too comfortable here; it would be very easy to stay, so tomorrow we’re going to move on to TAVIRA.

18th Mar OLHAO

Happy Mother’s Day, Mothers. I phoned both my mothers this morning; it’s great now that Story Telecom has sorted out the mobile.

Today we did some chores; we swept the sand out of the van and washed our clothes (by hand) the worst bit of this is the wringing out (my hands get more and more feeble) – we’ll never take our washing machine for granted again!
We cycled into town looking for the supermarche, selling cheap diesel, which we’d been told about. When we found it it was on the wrong side of the railway track – we had to go through a gap in the fence, step over the railway line and through another gap in a fence (all this carrying our bikes – actually Brett took his across first and then came back for mine). It’s not quite as bad as it sounds that’s the route all the locals take too.

When we got back our neighbours invited us round for drinks (from the 5L bottle of wine) and nibbles; so we socialised for an hour or two – when we returned to our van it wasn’t even 6.00!!!!
The final chore of the day was to dye my hair; hair dye is very expensive here, the cheapest I could find was 10. I had to sit on a chair, outside the van, while Brett applied it, and then I went to the shower to rinse it off. My hair is now VERY red, well almost orange really.

I had a lovely phone call from my son this evening!!!! Actually it was rather frustrating as we were Skyping and I couldn’t hear him, so he had to type (which was quite slow), and I had to keep repeating myself, we'd even turned off the video (to help the connection) but it didn’t. I think we’re just a little bit too far from the modem for a strong signal.

Saturday 17 March 2012

17th Mar OLHAO

Happy St Patrick’s Day, Dee!!

First thing this morning we got electrical hook up (2); as we couldn’t buy a 3 pin to 2 pin adaptor (not even from Leroy Merlin!!!! Howard & Pauline) Brett had to change the plug at the end of our cable; we were a bit worried about ‘reverse polarity’. This is something that’s mentioned a lot on camping forums, but we did a bit of research and decided it wasn’t an issue; which proved to be right as now the van batteries are fully charged and so are our phones, kindles and computer.
Today we hadn’t made any real plans, then we got talking to the couple in the campervan next to us – nearly three hours later and we were still talking! Brett wants me to point out that we were (me!) drinking red wine at 11.00 a.m.! The lady was telling me about a shop where you can buy wine on tap; you take a bottle and they fill it up – they had a 5Lwater bottle which cost 5; I was just being polite as she wanted to prove that it was drinkable – it was actually quite nice, not in the least bit rough (now I’ve just got to find that shop!!). Brett says I could fill the water tank up with it (it’s 40L) then I can literally have it on tap (don’t think he meant it).

So after lunch we rode our bikes into town; it wasn’t a very nice ride as we had forgotten it was Saturday. It started off quite quietly then as we got nearer the sea front there were masses of restaurants and bars and the number of people and cars increased and it got very busy – I’m not good on busy roads and Brett worries about me; but then we meet our neighbours (from this morning) who said we could ride on the footpath and, as there was no notice saying we couldn’t, that’s what we did – much better.
We got back to the campsite, washed our bikes (they get very dusty on the back of the van) and by 5.00 were in the bar, watching the rugby (England v Ireland).

There are quite a few people living here full time; in caravans, campervans and even tents. They personalise their plots; marking their space with fences (or 5L water bottles filled with sand or water), masses of pot plants, patio furniture (of course!) oh yes and most of them have tarpaulins down on the ground which they sweep daily. There’s one near us with a bird in a cage outside; lots have dogs and some even have cats. But my favourites are the ones go 'over the top' with lighting ........................
Pretty fairy lights

Some even have garden statues - I haven't noticed any gnomes (I'll have a better look tomorrow).

16th Mar OLHAO

So we had this wonderful morning planned, walking around the nature reserve; we packed the rucksack with my sketch book and paints, kindles, and water, and set off ............we entered the nature reserve ................. and got called over by the guard ‘to search us’ and then tell us that we had to pay to get in (we hadn’t brought any money with us!) so we had to leave. Yesterday we kind of got in illegally (now we realise) walking through a fish farm (where we saw the flamingos) and over a trodden down piece of fencing!!!! So we had a bit of a walk around the village, which wasn’t very pretty and went back to the van.

We’re having a bit of a problem with our utilities; our water is only last for a couple of days – less if we have showers; the gas, three weeks now the fridge is on (and if we’re having showers!); and electricity is running low (as we’re camped up and not travelling very far). We’ve decided to use the campsite hook ups (to charge electricity) but, of course, we haven’t got the right lead – so that was today’s mission. We had to get a three pin (female) going to a two pin (male), we travelled 30 miles and couldn’t find a camping accessory shop so we had to go to a DIY outlet and now Brett is making a lead (I have faith).

While we were driving along the N125 we noticed this girl, at the side of the road, she was dressed in a short skirt, off the shoulder top, high heel and lots of makeup (this was 3.00 in the afternoon); then we saw another one and then a third; the conclusion we came to is that they were prostitutes (they looked like gipsies), (I’ve never seen one in real life), who their customers were we’ve no idea.

We picked up Brett’s bike this evening; it was fixed and it cost ................... 11, so we’re very happy about that. Tomorrow we might do a bike ride.

15th Mar ARMACAO DE PERA – OLHAO

Hoorah, today we found a cycle shop; they haven’t got the right size wheel for Brett’s bike (but they can order one) so they’re going to try straightening the wheel first (this will cost a lot less, so fingers crossed). This means we’ll be hanging around this area for a while, so we’re booked into another campsite for two nights. The Algarve is VERY built up, there are hardly any aires or places to wildcamp, hence all the campsites – but we are staying very clean (using all the free facilities like hot showers!).

Right next to the campsite is a nature reserve (saltmarshes), Ria Formosa; it’s absolutely full of different birds. We turned a corner and there was a flock of .......................
Real wild Flamingos!!
We didn’t realise they were indigenous to Portugal. There were also spoonbills which Brett tried to take a picture of but they wouldn’t stand still (too busy trying to catch fish). There’s one of the only fresh water ponds in the Algarve (all the other one dry up) there, it had a hide, so you could watch the birds – it was a ‘twitchers’ dream. In fact we’re going back tomorrow with our binoculars and my super duper camera.

Today we heard our first cuckoo, we’ve been seeing swallows for weeks - so summer has officially started (here anyway!).


14th Mar ARMACAO DE PERA

So we drove to the sea and parked up right next to the beach; practically all the parking in Portugal is free and unlimited. After a walk along the beach, and around the town, I changed into a swimsuit and we got our blanket out and found a nice spot to sunbathe and read our kindles and ............... it was not very warm – the first lot of clouds we’ve had in days, so after a while we went back and read in the van.

Even little supermarkets (minimercados) tend to sell a good selection of fresh and frozen meat and fish. Shell fish is loose in baskets in the freezer and you use a scoop and a plastic bag to serve yourself, then it’s weighed and priced by the cashier (like buying vegetables in Tesco). Tonight we had spaghetti with mixed seafood (giant prawns, clams, mussels and cockles cooked in olive oil with onions and garlic) it was rather good!!
We haven’t missed watching television at all (I haven’t even watched any of the NCIS box set yet Steph!) but tonight we watched a film, “The King’s Speech”, not quite like ‘Orange Wednesday’ at Brynaman cinema; we had my little notebook propped up on a cushion and we had earphones in (so we couldn’t hear the inverter) but we really enjoyed it.

Wednesday 14 March 2012

13th Mar VILA DO BISPO - ARMACAO DE PERA

Spoke to Henry today (good old Story Telecom!); he and Claire will be in Spain in two weeks time (staying with Claire’s grandmother who lives near Malaga), so we’ll go and visit them (yay). Coincidently we have some old neighbours (Pauline & Terry) from Brynaman who also live near Malaga – so we have a plan. Over the next fortnight we’ll make our way towards Pauline & Terry, via aires and campsites (when we have to) visiting Gibraltar en route.

We had an exciting email from the Monsanto agents; the property we like with the three cottages appears to have more land (it’s increased in price too, 37,000) – 2.9 hectares instead of 1.2 (i.e. 7 acres rather than 3) which would make it much more appealing to us. They haven’t got the details yet, but will keep us informed. I'm just worried that they're implying that they showed us 2.9 hectares (which they definitely didn't), we'll just have to wait and see.
Drove back up the N125 to the campsite we stayed in the night before last in Armaco de Pera, booked in for two nights. We’re going to do the beach thing tomorrow, we've got two weeks to waste!.

12TH Mar ARMACAO DE PERA – VILA DO BISPO

Today we drove along the N125 past Porches, where my mother used to have a house, and along a stretch of the N125 that me, Brett and Henry walked (in the dark) nineteen years ago after going to a festival in a nearby village; it has completely changed, when we walked it either side of the road was olive groves and vineyards now it’s full of commercial outlets – hotels, international school, garages, potteries, supermacardos etc.

We stopped off at a supermarket to buy supplies; on the meat counter was this vacuum packed animal, about the size of a cat, it was a whole piglet – it was absolutely tiny (it was rather distressing, and I say that as someone who rears animals to eat).
We have driven right to the far end of Portugal (like the ‘Lands End’ of Portugal) Africa is across the sea to our left and there’s nothing in front of us, except sea, until America.
Praia de Cordama
We’re parked in a car park, right next to the beach (Praia de Cordama), with lots of other wild campers, most of whom seem to be dreadlocked surfers – the waves here are rather impressive.
There's our van, turn around and ...........

And here's the sea!


11th March SABOIA – ARMACAO DE PERA

After being well looked after for three days we left Laura’s in-laws and continued to the Algarve. We decided to stay on a campsite for the first night, and then try to find spots to wild camp. The campsite literature said that the beach was less than a kilometre away, so we walked to it (me wearing flip flops) over two miles later we came across the sea (by now I had blisters where the flip flops (not new, ones I worn lots of time shopping in Swansea etc) had been rubbing, and I still had to walk back). We sat and chilled in a bar on the beach, drinking beer, overlooking golden sand, turquoise sea and bright blue sky ..........................

Much better showers at this campsite!

10th Mar SABOIA

Another disappointing viewing; the house could have been made nice but the land was no good; the majority was very steep and planted with cork oak (cork oak is harvested every nine years, so this could have provided a small income) and, apart from a flat patch at the front of the property, the rest was scrub.

Saturday 10 March 2012

9th Mar SABOIA

Pauline and Howard took us into Odemeria to (1) pay our toll charges and (2) visit estate agents. Well they just shook their heads in the Post Office (where tolls are paid); we don’t really know why we’re guessing it’s because we are foreign (and therefore not on their system) – the bottom line being we couldn’t pay our toll charges.

The estate agent visit was much more productive; tomorrow we’re viewing a farm with 11 acres, the house looks quite big (AND HABITABLE), it has mains electricity and mains water all for 68,000. Which probably works out cheaper than the Castelo Branco one once we’ve factored in the cost of a new roof, solar panels, generator, bore hole etc. And as a big bonus this farm is only about 20 minutes from the coast.
HOORAH!!! Story Telecom emailed and told us how to reset our mobile and we can now make calls.

8th Mar BARRAGEM DE SANTA CLARA – SABOIA

A very short trip today, less than 15 minutes. So we are now camped up with my sister’s in-laws (I can’t work out what their relationship is to me, their son is my brother in-law, so my in-law in-laws?). They live is a fabulous location right above their village with 360° views, it’s really quiet up here (once their generator is switched off) and very dark – you seem to be very close to the stars. They live very much off-grid with a bore hole, generator and septic tank.
Spot our van parked outside their house!

We have spent the day picking their brains and being absolutely spoilt; we were well fed (they even had British tea!!) and then they let us use their washing machine!!! On Saturday they’re going to take us house hunting to the west coast – they said the coastline there reminds them a lot of Cornwall. It would be fantastic to find a farm that was also close to the sea.

7th Mar CAMPSITE ALENTEJO – BARRAGEM DE SANTA CLARA

Yesterday we left Central Portugal, we are now driving in the Alentejo region; here the landscape is very open and flat. As well as olive groves and vineyards there are huge fields planted with cereal crops, which have vast watering systems irrigating the drier soil of this area. There are also large fields with free ranging animals – pigs, cattle, sheep and goats.

Now we are parked up at another Barragem; according to the Sat Nav it doesn’t exist! I didn’t use her to navigate – I did it the old fashioned way and used the map, I just used her to confirm that we were driving on the right roads when we turned at junctions. As far as she’s concerned we’ve just driven through fields (she’s completely blank, maybe she’s short circuited?).


It’s very pleasant here, there’s one other camper van parked up and far above us on the hill there’s one house overlooking the water. It’s very quiet no traffic noise just bird song. Which reminds me; yesterday we heard our first cicada – that, to us, is the sound of summer holidays. And alongside the verges wild fennel is growing – one of the smells of summer holidays.

We’re managing to live quite cheaply, this last week we’ve spent less than 100 on food and campsites (we’re not taking into account diesel). This will probably all change when we get to the Algarve and start eating at tavernas.

Tuesday 6 March 2012

Link to Quinta Donkey

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/overseas-property/property-33102701.html

I've been told I forgot to add the link!!

6th Mar CASTELO BRANCO – CAMPSITE ALENTEJO

So we’re off to the Algarve. As usual it was a nightmare getting out of Castel Branco with the Sat Nav – Brett thinks she’s broken, I think it’s because her maps aren’t up to date; anyway she was a pain the backside and we wasted nearly an hour trying to find the road we wanted. After that she was fine until ........................... we came to a diversion in this town, so we had to deviate from her route – she tried her unpaved road trick!! Brett took one look at the way she wanted us to go and turned around (she wasn’t happy).

The aire we were heading for was in another spa town; when we got there it was so quiet, no shops, no people, no internet – it was like a ghost town; so we carried on driving and came across this campsite and look what’s in the next field – free range pigs, they have a huge area, must be 50 acres.
This is free range!!
We think they must be black Iberian pigs, used to produce iberico ham; it’s made in Portugal as well as Spain, the  Portuguese ham is called presunto ibérico.

Free internet at this campsiteso I've updated a whole weeks worth of blog and I’ve managed to talk to lots of people on Skype and facebook, so I’m not feeling out of touch at all. Still can't use the stupid sim card we bought espacially for phoning home and Story Telecom are rubbish, there answer is for us to call them using it sothey can analyse the problem - we've told them we can't phone out on it (frustrating!).

5th Mar CASTELO BRANCO

What a day we’ve had ......................................... we went to the estate agent first thing and said we wanted to see inside Quinta Donkey and view another couple of properties. They agreed we could do this after lunch, so we spent the morning chilling (shopping and reading our kindles).

First off we saw one of the properties we had been looking at on the internet; it has less land than we want (6 acres) but it’s walled, has electricity and a house that is liveable in and all this for only 41.250. It was nice, the house was much bigger than any of the other houses we’ve seen (except the 27 acre one), the land had olive and fruit trees, vines and vegetable garden; all in all it had a lot of potential but ............... we really, really like the land at Quinta Donkey!
So then we had our second viewing of Quinta Donkey; first we looked in the shed complex – they were big, high and solidly built (the roof needs renewing, but the tiles can be reused) they could be converted into quite a good size house. The house, again, was solid, two good size areas which could be used as a studio (for me) and a gym (for Brett). And the land is still wonderful! However ........
Yesterday we had an message from my sister’s in laws (they live in the Algarve) and they have kindly offered to share their knowledge of buying in Portugal; they also emphasised to be very careful when buying. We are so tempted by Quinta Donkey; before we left Britain we bought a book “Buying a property in Portugal” which explains the pitfalls of buying in Portugal, it tells you all the things you should check before you put in an offer and lists all the documents you need to check (all the boring legal stuff) and here we are ignoring everything we’ve read (our hearts are trying to rule our heads) their message arrived just in time!!!  We have decided to travel down to the Algarve to visit them this week, and at the same time have a bit of a beach holiday. Who knows we might find something nearer the sea? (and then we could have a boat).
Here is the link to Quinta Donkey; the pictures don’t do it justice – it wasn’t one of the ones we chose to look, at the estate agents suggested it when we told them what we are looking for.

4th Mar CASTELO BRANCO

As we want to revisit Quinta Donkey and view some other properties we have stayed at the municipal campsite for a third night.

The pavements in Castelo Branco are works of art; small cobbled stone, mosaics – there were men repairing a section; they were shaping the stones in situ with a chisel and hammer.

We briefly got on to the internet today by driving around Castel Branco with me sitting with the computer on my lap trying to get a signal and when we did get it we had to park in a taxi rank! So we deleted the 26 emails in our inbox and 9 in spam, but didn’t have time to update the blog (it takes quite a while to upload, especially the photos).

We decided to conserve gas by using the campsite showers – bad move!!! It was horrible; fixed shower head, trickling lukewarm water, cold tiled environment (it reminded me of the changing rooms when we went swimming with the school); on the positive side it made me realise how good the shower in the van is.


3rd Mar CASTELO BRANCO

We’ve had a very busy day, we’ve viewed six properties ...................................... here’s a brief rundown of each:

Property 1: 18 acres, ok land, but no trees or vines. Big granite building, which could have made a lovely house. (48.500)

Property 2: 13.5 acres fabulous land – lots of olive trees, fruit trees, vines, 2 huge vegetable beds (and the owner is still planting it up so you could tell it was fertile soil); a perfect balance between arable land and pasture – we can do everything we want to here. Block built house and sheds (for some reason estate agents don’t have the keys to buildings so we couldn’t see inside). The access however was not good, we had to park up our van and go in the agent’s car. (49,500)

Property 3: 8.5 acres, ok land with olive and orange trees – would need to build a house. (68,000)

Property 4: 10 acres very productive land with some woodland but tiny house and close to a road. (68,000)

Property 5: 10 acres vines, olives, figs, very open land, lovely surrounding wall; again house too small but very cheap 42,000 - sounds good on paper but Brett wasn’t ‘wowed’.

Property 6: 27 acres – the one we had been waiting to view all day!! Huge house, massive potential but too much money (for us) needed to realise it. Masses of land with orchards, vines, and olive trees. The land hasn’t been worked for several years, it’s been used to graze sheep. (70,000)

Fortunately both of us agreed on a favourite property – no. 2; the land is absolutely perfect. The down side is the house; it’s a block built building and we need to arrange to go back so that we can see inside. The other problem is the access; we’ve been trying to imagine how we could get our furniture and possessions delivered – we’ve got to go and have another look.

So we’ve now had ten viewing and agreed on two possible – Monsanto (3 cottages + 3 acres) and Donkey Quinta (property 2), we call it that as there was a donkey tethered amongst the olive trees.

Driving back to the campsite was awful; I (as navigator) couldn’t remember exactly where it was so we asked Mrs Sat Nav for help, she took us round and round in circles and we ended up driving on the same stretch of toll road twice – now we’ve got to find out how to pay for it; there aren’t toll booths here, there are cameras that photograph number plates (similar to London I suppose).

2nd Mar MONSANTO – CASTELO BRANCO

We had a lazy morning today as we weren’t meeting the agents until 1.00. We went for a walk and met some black pigs; this is probably the type we’ll have when we eventually settle.

The agents were a young couple who came to live here a couple of years ago, he’s Canadian and she’s Italian and they had a lovely baby girl just two months old; they explained that they were just helping out their neighbours who wanted to sell property – they were the mediators and translators.

The first property we saw, 12.5 acres, was one we had been quite excited by – the land was ok, the views were fantastic but ....................... the shed (house)!!! To start with it was covered with mouse droppings and absolutely stunk, and the floor sloped to such an extent that levelling it would make part of the room about 4’ high – so that was a big “no, no”.

The second property we had looked at on the internet and decided to look at because the buildings (3 small cottages) looked promising, but there was only 3 acres of land so we weren’t holding out that much hope. It was so quaint, really charming set up; the land was literally in the foothills of Monsanto, with fabulous views. And although there wasn’t as much land as we wanted it was very fertile and all of it useable; we both felt we could live there if we were willing to compromise on livestock (a cow would be out of the question) – and it’s only 32,000€.

We are now much more positive than yesterday. We have a 9.00 appointment in Castelo Branco in the morning and decided to look for a campsite nearer to town (as there are no aires in the vicinity). Castelo Branco is a nightmare to drive through; I had no idea where we were heading and poor old Brett was trying to drive. Tonight we’re parked up in a municipal campsite just outside the town.

1st Mar FUNDAO – MONSANTO

This morning we were taken to view two of the properties we’ve been looking at on the internet: what a disappointment!! Neither of the houses had the ‘wow’ factor, one was supposed to have six acres but it felt more like four (that one had a good mix of fruit trees, olive trees and grapes and some rather nice terraces), the other one had fifteen acres but a lot of it was scrub land. Both could, with money, be made into lovely holdings but not what we are looking for.

The estate agent we’re seeing tomorrow told us that camper vans often overnight in one of the squares in Monsanto, so that’s where we’re parked up tonight. Monsanto is said to be ‘the most Portuguese village in Portugal’, well I don’t know about that – it’s certainly quaint but kind of weird too. This area is a huge vast open plain with this rock jutting up (like a mini mountain) in the middle of it and Monsanto is built into and on top of this rock. There are HUGE boulders throughout the village and the houses are just built around them. It’s absolutely bizarre; there’ll be two boulders with a door between them so with a few stones the boulders make the walls (but they’re not flat on the inside, they bulge out) it’s hard to explain.



Brett rather fancied this Porche!!!



29th Feb BARRAGEM DE POVOA – FUNDAO

Today we wanted to drive from Nisa to Fundao and there’s a toll road A23 that goes from one to the other and if you look at the map that’s what you see, one road between Nisa and Fundao the A23. However if you get Mrs Sat Nav and zoom in there’s another road N18 which runs so close to the A23 that most of the time it’s not visible on maps. The N18 is obviously the original road, it’s two lanes wide and it’s free, no prizes for guessing which road we used!

We passed through some lovely countryside between Castelo Branco and Fundao; big open flat plains, dotted with villages and farmhouses. This is cherry country and some trees are in blossom; I don’t know if you get early cherries and late cherries, they’re not all flowering at the same time.
View of Fundao from campsite

We have PAID for a proper campsite tonight 10.50; the campsite is called Quinta de Covento it’s just outside Fundao, high on a hill overlooking the town. At the entrance to the campsite is this fabulous building which is obviously the old convent, unfortunately it’s neglected and fallen into disrepair.
Beautiful old convent

There’s internet here, so I’ve spent the evening updating my blog, skyping with Henry and Claire and answering emails.