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| Poly tunnels everywhere. Spain |
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| Portugal bound |
Lots more spectacular scenery and some signs of the recent devastation caused by the floods, lots of debris at the side of the road and about 1" of silt on most of the road surface - sure glad we were not about during last Friday's rain. It seemed to be one of those good days and we completed a 10 hour day (including breaks) before succumbing to tiredness and eventually called a halt at 7.00pm at a service station near Chucena (west of Saville). Phew! 446 comfortable miles on a nice sunny 30C day - thank you 'beast', only 115 miles short of Albufeira.
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| Tea break in Spain |
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| Meseta Mountains Spain |
Wednesday 3rd Oct: After a fairly quiet night in the truck stop part of the service station and a leisurely breakfast we took the opportunity to refuel the 'beast' with 271 litres at €1.46 a litre and we eventually hit the road again at 9.00am Portugal bound. We crossed the border into Portugal at 10.00am and said goodbye to Spain for the time being - the road tolls in Spain worked out to be €0.22/km placing them at 3rd most expensive so far.
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| Portugal - 11th country |
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| At last |
We breathed a sigh of relief at finally getting to Portugal, our rest/winter place and look forward to some slow time days. New country = new toll system so we now contribute to the Portuguese economy, fortunately electronically via the internet. Arrived at Camping Albufeira, completed the booking in procedure (which included Fort Knox type security) and started setting up at 11.20am. Initial thoughts are a bit disappointing however we will give it a chance and completed our set up by late afternoon/early evening which gave us a chance to visit Mark, Sue and Charlotte at their hotel in Albufeira and catch up/have a few drinks, leaving a 'bit late' in our opinion (explanation later). A pleasant sunny day with 27C.
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| Camping Albufeira Portugal |
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| Camping Albufeira Portugal |
Thursday 4th Oct: Still lots to catch up on with Mark, Sue & Charlotte so a BBQ was the order of the day at the camp site so a quick shopping trip for supplies. Loads of Brit type shops available - Iceland, Sports Direct etc and local type shops - Lidl, Intermarche and Continente so no problems with choice. First general impression is that the area/facilities are geared for the Brit expat/tourist population - eg The Algrave Shopping centre. After 'belatedly' (explanation later) negotiating the gate security with Mark, Sue & Charlotte we had a very good BBQ on a sunny 29C day; during which plans were made for an outing tomorrow and another BBQ on Saturday to meet friends of Mark & Sue who live locally.
Friday 5th Oct: Mark, Sue & Charlotte 'finally' (explanation later) picked us up in their hire car and off we set into the countryside/mountain area - what a pleasure for Neil, no driving. First port of call was Silves a very nice historic old Moorish settlement with a very impressive castle which was built on the site of an old Roman fortification - both the castle and cathedral were well worth the visit.
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| Silves Castle Portugal |
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| Silves Castle Portugal |
Onwards and upwards and we set off for Monchique an old fashioned little market town located in the Serra da Monchique with its highest peak of 902m (2959ft) giving marvellous views across the Algarve despite the weather clouded over during our visit. After a walk around the town, which included a sample of the local firewater (Medronho, brewed from the arbutus - strawberry tree) we partook in an excellent Portuguese lunch at a local restaurant in the town square. It was during this lunch that Neil & Linda were enlightened by Mark into the time zones of Europe and embarrassingly realised that we were still on Spanish time (+1 hour) instead of UK/Portugal time - whoops guess nobody was a 'bit late/belatedly/finally', just us living 3 days in Portugal on Spain's time. Well time is not as important these retired days, as long as we are on the same day!
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| Monchique Square Portugal |
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| View from Monchique Portugal |
Now that we are all on the correct time we set off south for the coast and a visit to the coastal village of Ferragudo for refreshments and ice creams. The sun decided to come out and we spent a lovely hour sat on the quayside sipping sangria and eating ice creams in 28C temperatures . A visit to the play park was a natural progression of the day but it was supposed to be for Charlotte not Linda.
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| At play in Ferragudo Portugal |
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| Ferragudo Portugal |
After much screaming and kicking (and that was just Linda) we managed to leave the play park behind and retuned to Albufeira after a great day out.
Saturday 6th Oct: The day started nice and sunny, good for a BBQ, and was soon up at 28C. Mark, Sue, Charlotte and their friends Mark and Pat arrived midday/early afternoon so a very pleasant social/eating experience was had whilst Charlotte enjoyed Ice Age. Mark and Pat have been over here for the last 7 years so we were able to get lots of local information and advice plus an offer of help whilst we are in this area.
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| It is in the timing! |
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| BBQ at Camping Albufeira |
Of course the time zone occurrence meant that Neil took a bit of flack and will probably end up on Facebook. Final farewells were done with Mark, Sue and Charlotte, they fly back tomorrow, and arrangements to keep in contact with Mark and Pat made before everybody went their way.
Sunday 7th Oct: A good start to the day weather wise so off we set to visit some of the 'Sandford Girls' haunts - Maureen, Linda & Arlene had a holiday over here some 4 years ago. Pathfinder Linda made a good start by taking us to the wrong end of Praia Falesia, the Vilamoura end instead of the Albufeira end so after much meaningful conversation, Neil asked a bus driver how to get to the Sheraton. Fortunately he was going past the entrance for the hotel so we followed him and got to the correct destination, Linda soon recognised the area and resumed her navigation duties taking us up to the Pine Cliffs area.
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| View from Pine Cliffs |
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| Sheraton Albufeira entrance |
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| Entrance to THE villa |
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| The pool Sheraton |
A quick tour round the resort complex in the 28C sunshine, to revive happy memories and then it was back to the campsite, where we agreed that the site was just not really what we were looking for - not a bad site just not to our personal liking (only wi fi hotspot, no water or drainage on pitch and too woodlandish), so we would visit some other sites tomorrow in preparation for a move.
Monday 8th Oct: Another out and about day with visits to campsites further westwards along the coast, nice sunny day with 29C for our recce. Decided to visit sites in Potramao, Lagos and Sagres to see what is what, first port of call was Camping Turiscocampo just outside Lagos and found everything we needed (for lower fees) many recommendations plus we had a general good feeling whilst there. Second site was the one at Sagres, what a difference (not in price), definitely not what we are looking for and we decided that rather than view the other sites to go back and book at Turiscocampo as it ticked all our boxes and the main thing is Linda approves. Returned to our pitch in the woods to plan our move.
Tuesday 9th Oct: Move preparations day, a nice sunny 30C day meant that all went well and we were ready in plenty of time, especially as we wanted an early start tomorrow. Not much route planning needed as it is just down the N125 (non toll) so we totted up the Portugal toll rate for the table; not too bad as it worked out at €0.16/km.
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