Fri 6 Oct - 0900h, tolls, DS, Foz do Arelho, overflow, Ofacho, dinner, beach, sunset

The morning was foggy, so we were quite happy to leave early at 0900h, even though we had thoroughly enjoyed our few days here in O lgrexario. But today was to be our last day in Spain for a week or so, as we headed south to the Portugese border. Just after we crossed the border, we arrived at tollgates for our first motorway in Portugal. Since the Spanish tollways had used the same electronic toll-tag that we used in France, we were expecting the same in Portugal. But that was not the case, as we were soon to find out. Having driven through the non-stopping gate at the first tollgates, we just continued on until we reached the end of the tollway, and assumed that the toll would be automatically calculated and charged against our account. However, when we got there we were faced with manned tollbooths. So, not knowing what the hell was going on, we just drove up to one and Rita tried to explain our situation (i.e. not having got a ticket at the entry to the tollway) to the tollbooth attendant in a mixture of English and Spanish (Rita not yet having started her Portugese lessons on DuoLingo!). The attendant's English was better than our Portugese (but not much) and so we all had some difficulties. Eventually, the attendant decided that life was too short to debate/explain the toll-charging system in Portugal with some Swiss-Australian tourists, so he bid us goodbye and just waved us through. Luckily we drove on no more tollways when in Portugal, so all was well.

As we drove along and listened to the radio, we thought that we must have missed the changeover date for Daylight Savings, because both our phones gave the wrong time. But we later realised that it was simply that Portugal is in a different time zone to Spain, and phones don't automatically adjust when you cross the border!

We continued walking around Foz, but saw nothing that we really recognised. As evening was approaching, we popped into a cafe for some dinner. As time passed, we realised that sunset was about to take centre stage.



So we paid our bill, crossed the road and started walking across the beach sands to the Atlantic. We turned at one stage and looked back at the town, and realised why we had felt disoriented. In 1997, Hotel Ofacho was one of the only multi-storey buildings and was right in the centre of town. Now it is on the outskirts (at far left in the photo below) and is outnumbered by other multi-storey buildings.

We turned and continued our walk (there is a lot of beach between the hotels and the ocean). When we got to the small cliff above the water's edge, we realised that we were not the only romantic couple who had come to watch the sunset,

And within 20 minutes, the sunset had arrived, done its thing, and disappeared for another 12 hours.

We then walked back along the beach to the campground, where we found that a second overflow area had been opened up, and was filling rapidly. Given our disappointment with the camping and the town, we decided to leave in the morning, despite having booked here for 3 days. We watched two episodes of "Live at the Apollo" to brighten ourselves up, and then went to sleep despite the noise from the multitude of campers crammed into the overflow area.

We were soon arriving in Foz do Arelho, the town where Rita and I spent our first week together in 1997, and where we heard of Princess Diana's death. As we drove into the town, we realised how much it had expanded and changed since we were last here (it was, after all, more than 25 years ago). We arrived at the campground where we had pre-booked to find a long queue of vehicles waiting to enter. And then we found that the main campground on the beachfront was full, and that we would be housed in the overflow area, with no facilities. Having made a booking, we were surprised by this, but later found out that Foz do Arelho is a very popular holiday town for Lisbon residents, and that yesterday (Thursday) was a public holiday and many had arrived then to make a very long weekend. So we found a spot in the overflow area, and then went for a walk into the town, in search of the Hotel we had stayed at in 1997.

.8 We walked through the town and were amazed at all the new developments - clearly is it now a favourite place for the Lisbonians. We thought that the old hotel must have been pulled down for a new development, but as we continued walking we spotted something in the distance that looked vaguely familiar. As we got closer, we could see it was indeed Hotel Ofacho, but it looked very quiet, even deserted. We walked up to the front door and decided to go inside to see if we recognised anything. As we walked through the door, we got the surprise of our lives when a voice from behind the door addressed us. We turned and saw that it was the manager from 1997, who used to tell fanciful stories about moose from behind the bar. The last 25 years have not been kind to him, physically or mentally. He looked old beyond his years, and when we talked with him and tried to ask some questions, he was not on the same page as us (even though we knew he spoke English from his moose stories). So after a few minutes, we gave up and left the hotel. After waiting for so many years to return here, it was a bitter disappointment.




Sat 7 Oct - leave  0900h, cork trees, Porto Covo, gums, walk to sea, Euc sunset

We were up early and ready to leave the overflow camping area at 0900h, before even more people arrived for the weekend with their caravans. While we had been disappointed with Foz do Arelho, we just chalked it up to the fact that nowhere stays the same for 25 years - we still have our memories of our 1997 visit. We headed south through vast areas of cork tree plantations, something I had never seen before. It was interesting to see how the lower bark area had been stripped away, leaving just enough on one side for the flows of water and sugars to continue, enabling the tree to keep growing.


We kept inland from Lisbon, because we had enjoyed our time there in 1997 (and didn't want another disappointment) and also it was our policy to keep the campervan out of big cities as far as we could manage.


Soon we were approaching Porto Covo, which we had selected as our destination from the CamperContact app. It looked like an affordable well-equipped campground located in an interesting town. And we were not disappointed, as we found "a home among the gum trees" for the next couple of days. It was interesting manoeuvring the campervan into the parking spot between posts, trees and rope, but luckily the space behind us was empty, and we could cheat by going through their area to reach ours. We just hope that we don't have other vans around us when it is time to leave.

Campground life has its interesting moments. Given our difficulties in getting into our space, we were interested to see what would happen when a brand-new larger campervan drove past us towards his space a little further down the access roadway The German couple stopped alongside their space and surveyed their options. They worked out that they could fit into the space, but the question was how could they get into their space, given the trees marking the corners of their rectanglular space. We went down to offer our assistance, and soon the manoeuvring began. All was going reasonably OK, until the driver forgot that camplervans often have a large overhang behind the rear wheels. So as he turned to enter the space, the rear swung out in the opposite direction and, despite frantic warning calls from all and sundry, he collected a tree on the other side of the access roadway. It's amazing how much plastic campervan bodies can deform when put under stress!  As he backed up a bit and the van moved away from the tree, we could see that there was not a lot of permanent damage, just a bit of a scratch. But this was a brand-new van, and we could see the look of disappointment/anger on his face as he surveyed the scene. He tried to put on a brave face, but one could see that he just wanted to blame/scream/cry as what had just happened. We then explained how we got into our space, then started dismantling ropes and posts so that he could more easily drive into the space ahead of his, and then reverse back into his space and reinstate the posts and ropes until it was time to leave.

Another interesting aspect of this campground community was the elderly"very" British couple camped across the roadway from us. They spoke in a very loud, posh accent, and they reminded me, in looks and sound, of the couple in the British TV sitcom "Keeping Up Appearances". Over the next couple of days we were to learn of their problems with a planning application with their Local Government department, the marital problems of their daughter, their financial predicaments, their ratings of various campsites in Portugal, what they were going to do if their house renovations were not finished by the time they got home etc etc. Despite all this, they seemed like a very loving couple, who really appreciated the opportunity to travel in Europe at this stage in their life.

In the afternoon, we went for a walk down to the seaside and into the town. This part of the coast is characterised by numerous small headlands and lots of sandy beaches. We went for a walk along the headlands and were headed down to one of the smaller beaches, when we realised that it was a nature (nudist) beach. Whoops! Since we hadn't brought the correct attire, we turned around and headed to another beach.

After our beach walk, we headed into the town of Porto Covo, and realised that the residents must be very community-minded, since all the houses were painted in the same syle and colours of blue and white, except for one structure in a park that took a different point of view.

We headed back to the van, but stopped in a park for a cool drink, and enjoyed some locals celebrating a birthday for one of the boys of the town, who had been having a great time slykarking with his mates all afternoon. We had enjoyed our day in Porto Covo and decided to stay another couple of days, especially after seeing a lovely sunset through the eucalypts.




Sun 8 Oct - awning, ODI, swim, no shade, British review, RWC, Guardian comment

The wind picked up overnight and the side awning started flapping, so I was out of bed in the middle of the night to lower the awning and avoid complaints from the close neighbours. In the morning, we were in a shady cool place, so Rita did some report writing while I worked on the blog, while following the ODI World Cup game between Australia and India. It turned out to be an easy win for India, to give Australia a non-auspicious start to the tournament.

In the afternoon, Rita went down to the beach for a swim, but because I had seen that there was no shade there yesterday, I decided to stay at the van and do a bit of novel reading. At the same time, I got to listen to a monologue from the British lady over the way, as she gave her review (to her husband) of all the places they had visited in Portugal this year. I was glad to hear that Porto Covo was up towards the top of the list!

In the evening, I followed the Rugby World Cup group game between Portugal and Fiji, not so much out of interest for these teams, but because it offered a very slim chance for Australia still to progress to the quarters finals if Portugal were to beat Fiji by 7 points or more - a not very likely outcome given the team standings.

Given my success as a newspaper commentator in the recent Women's Soccer World Cup, I thought I'd try my hand at Rugby, and was succesfull in having a comment published.

But despite leading by 7 on two occasions during the match, Portugal could not hold onto this lead, and eventually won by a solitary point 24-23. A great result for Rugby-minnow Portugal, a wake-up call for Fiji, and a big disappointment for Aussies. But frankly, Australia have not deserved to go through to the quarter finals.




Mon 9 Oct - sunny, laundry, licence, bike to fort, Jan&Steve, sunset, dinner saga

The morning was sunny, so we took the opportunity of the excellent facilities at the campsite to get some clothes washed and dried (first in the drier and then in the sun). While this was happening, we both did a bot of writing (you know what). I also took the opportunity to again try to renew my VicRoads driver's licence online, since it was now two months overdue. But still no luck, so I'll have to wait until I get home next month and just beat the three months overdue deadline.

We had noticed lots of trails/paths along the coastline on our maps, so this afternoon we thought we'd go explore them on bike. We headed through the town and then around the port from which the town gets its name, and the out onto some coastal trails (some of which were not exactly designed for cycling).

While some of the trails were a challenge, it was all worthwhile when we arrived at Forte de Nossa Senhora da Queimada (say that with a dry biscuit in your mouth!). A classic fort in the Portugese tradition guarding the coastline.

The view from the fort was also impressive, with the prison island of Ilha do Pessegueiro just offshore, but Rita had already spied the sandy beach and inviting waters which cried out "Come swim in me!". So while she headed off, I settled down in the cafe near the fort with a cool drink, and Waited for Godot to finish her swim.

After Rita got back, and we'd explored the fort area a little more, we hopped on our bikes and headed back towards Port Covo. At the campground, we made use of the great showers, and then prepared to head out again for sunset on the coast. As we were leaving the campground, we heard our names called out, and turned to see Jan and Steve, the English couple we'd met at the Santiago campground (who gave us the tips about the campervan security gadgets). So we went over and had a quick chat, but because sunset was approaching we took out leave and headed west to the coast.

We perched ourselves on a headland which had a view southwards over another one of the many beaches, back down to the fort and island we had visited this afternoon.

Before too long, the sun had made up its mind to say goodbye to us for today, and started to set over the Atlantic. We thought we'd now seen the best of the sunset, but another couple (and their seagull) who looked like locals stayed sitting on their blanket, looking out to sea. So we thought we should follow their example and wait a bit longer.

And we were glad we did, as within 10 minutes, the sun dipped lower and the atmosphere changed dramatically. We were so glad we had not left the headland earlier.




Tues 10 Oct - 0900h, fires, Sagres, park west, writing, Sandice, coast ride, fort

Much as we had enjoyed Porto Covo, we had to keep moving south to meet up with friends John and Irene. So at 0900h this morning, we carefully edged our way out of our campsite without hitting any trees, and instead we hit the road. Today we were headed down the coast on our way to Sagres, one of the most south-westerly towns in Europe.

The drive south was on relatively minor roads, but since it was only going to be a couple of hours in total, we relaxed and enjoyed the scenery. We have noticed over the past few years that European summers are becoming more and more like Australian summers, with days in the high-thirties and low-forties becoming more frequent. And today we were given another sharp reminder of this as we drove south, when we passed through several areas of blackened countryside following bushfires in the area,

The area apppoaching Sagres was dry and fairly desolate, and looked a bit like Australian outback. When we got to the campground just north of Sagres, there were several vans already waiting to enter. After a while, the attendant let us all in, and told us to find our spots and come back and do the paperwork after that. Vans were wandering everywhere looking for their best spot, but we were just looking for a spot that enabled us to point our nose to the west, which enabled us to sit in the shade of the van, protected from the southern sun. The campground was just as dry as the surrounding countryside.

After the sunset, we wandered back into the town and headed for the restaurant area, where we picked out one of them based on their streetside menu, and settled down for a relaxing dinner. As we were waiting for the main course, we couldn't help but notice a very loud patron at the other side of the seating area, who was continually talking to the staff as if he knew everything about restaurants, and even insisted on a guided tour of the kitchen area. Maybe he was an important restaurant reviewer, but we didn't know him from a bar of soap. We were just grateful that he wasn't sitting near us. But perhaps we thought too soon. Because halfway through his meal he insisted that he change table, and the staff shifted all his plates, glasses etc over to the table next to us!! So he sat down with his young girlfriend (although from the look on her face she was probably his secretary), and continued to talk at maximum volume. He was an absolute pain-in-the-youknowwhere! He continued ordering the most expensive wines, from which he perhaps drank one glass (his secretary was sensibly drinking very little at all), before ordering another bottle. She didn't seem very impressed. So after we'd finished our main course, we explained to our waiter (in a loud enough voice) that we wouldn't be staying for dessert or coffee, because of the noise level. The waiter and the girlfriend both gave us small smiles as we left, to go home for a quiet cofee and dessert in the campervan.

We settled into our campsite  at Camping Orbitur Sagres, went and did the paperwork, and then with surprising discipline we did more writing on report and blog. During this time, I got an email from our local Shire Councillor and good friend Sandice, letting us know that the Shire had been successful in getting a State Government grant for a Feasibility Study for a Neighbourhood Battery in Marysville, following on from the work I did for Council last year. It will be interesting to see what eventuates, although I won't be directly imvolved in the study.

In mid-afternoon, we decided to take a break and jumped on our bikes to explore the area. We knew the Atlantic was to the west, so that's the direction in which we headed. And within about a kilometre, we crossed the coastline road and entered a rocky area high above the water. The view to the north-west was stunning.

We sat here spellbound for a while, and then started following a well-used dirt track along the clifftops to the south. Soon we saw a view to the south, featuring Fortaleza de Sagres, a fortified area at the southernmost tip of this peninsula.

This looked very grand and enticing, and not too far away on eBikes. So we continued along the clifftop path and eventually joined the coast road. As we cycled aling we saw a shop with a very interesting front wall decorated with hundreds of pottery plates. This looked like it needed to be explored, but unfortunately the front wall was the best part of the shop as the inside was filled with the usual touristy junk! We later saw severalother shops with a very similar front wall, so we didn't miss much by only having a very short stay inside.



We continued riding and were soon going down the long neck of the peninsula, approaching the front doors of the fort.

But we had left our run a bit too late, as when we got to the gates they were letting people out, but not letting people in, as closing time for the day was approaching. So we left our bikes near the gates, and went for a stroll through the rocks along the clifftop, along with many others. It must be a well-known spot for sunset views here, and people jostled for position along the crest.

We decided not to join in the hunt for a good position (too much competition), and so we jumped on our bikes and headed back to the campground, having already decided to return here tomorrow to have a good look around. But we got our own sunset view at the campground - something that's almost guaranteed on a daily basis along the Atlantic coast!

PS: there's a special doorprize for anyone who can tell me how many sunset photos I've included in this blog up till today (just use the Contact Us form at the end of this website).




Wed 11 Oct - cooler, explore the Fort, fishermen, home, swim, cliffs, sunset

The morning dawned cooler than previous days, but still dry. We phoned Irene to arrange when and where we would meet up with them tomorrow after we drive further south in Portugal. Then we were on our bikes again and headed south to the Fort we visited yesterday. There was a bit of a crowd at the entrance, but after paying our entry fee we were soon behind the curtain wall and exploring the site. The Google Map overviews below show (at left) the location of the Fort at the extreme southern tip of the mainland, and (at right) the size of the Fort grounds which are about 200m wide and 1000m deep - quite a lot to expore.

After entering the Fort grounds, we walked over to the western side and looked at the coastline to the north-west back to Farol do Cabo de Sao Vicente. This is the coastline we had cycled along this morning, and it loooked impressive, right up to the surf beach just to the north of the Fort.

As we were watching the view, we noticed to our left a fisherman out on the edge of the cliff, fishing in the waters 50 metres below. He must have had nerves of steel, so I hope he at least managed to catch some fish.


We walked around the Port headland clockwise, exploring the eastern side and then coming back along the western side. It consisted of heactares of rocky terrain, but with good walking paths, with sheer cliggs dropping to the ocean and capped off by a series of blowholes and sinkholes at the southern tip.

The Fort was obviously a serious protector of the town in times past, as illustrated by the line of cannons and the shoreline that it was protecting to the south-east.

We walked for a few hours exploring the site, and eventually returned to near the entrance, where we saw that more fishermen had arrived. The second photo really got my sense of vertigo working overtime.

As we were walking towards the exit, we were entertained for a while by a paraglider who was takiing advantage of the upward winds on the eastern side of the headland, as he swooped and swirled above the Fort grounds.

We had thoroughly enjoyed our time at the Fort, and figured it was well worth the miniscule entry fee of 3euro each.

But now we were on our way back to the van for lunch, after which Rita went for a swim at a beach to the north of the campground.


And how could a day on the Atlantic coast finish without a walk along the cliffs and a glorious sunset?




Thurs 12 Oct - 0730h, beach, 1300h, Albufeira, John&Irene, ODI, drinks, dinner

We were up very early this morning at 0730h, and after breakfast Rita headed down to the beach again for a swim, while I did some work on this blog. Around noon, she returned from the beach and we had some lunch, and then at 1300h we hit the road, bound for Albufeira. Since that town is due east of Sagres, it makes the production of a journey map easier in this blog.

It was an easy one-hour drive along the Algarve coast, and soon we were entering the town of Albufeira, and searching for the campgorund where John and irene stay over winter. When we did find it, we realised it was still lunchtime, and the gate attendant of the locked site was nowhere in sight. So we hung around for a while until she returned, and then we booked in, and realised that irene had reserved the last free spot for us, just 20 metres away from where they were parked. As we were parking, we heard John's voice, as he recognised his old campervan that we were now driving. We had a quick chat, then agreed to catch up later in the day for drinks and dinner. We had planned to shout them dinner at a local cafe, but they said it was closed. In any case, Irene was not feeling 100%, so John was cooking dinner so that we could had a relaxed evening at home.

During the afternoon, I followed the second Australian game in the ODI Cricket World Cup in India, when they played South Africa. They were thrashed by the South Africans who made an impressive 311 in their innings and then dismissed Australia for 177. Perhaps Australia's form against England in the recent Ashes Tests were more a sign of how poor England were, rather than how good Australia was, especially given England's poor showing so far in the World Cup. Time will tell.

That evening we went over to John and Irene's van for drinks and then dinner. There was lots and lots of conversation to catch up on, and we didn't get away and back to our van till 2330h. Interestingly, I didn't take any photos today - perhaps we were too busy talking.




Fri 13 Oct - sleep, Irene unwell, beach, lunch, touristy, nap, rain, neighbours

We slept peacefully overnight given our long talks with John and Irene yesterday, but were saddened to learn that Irene was feeling unwell this morning, and hence several activities we had planned together had to be cancelled. So we futzed around for a while, then in the late morning we walked toward the town and the beach. Our first impression was that the town was very touristy, with lots of British tourists wandering around town. The centre of the city was full of cafes, restaurants and tourist shops, with nothing of any historic or cultural significance. We stopped at a stall and bought a large bed cover fabric, which we plan to use as a privacy screen on the van awning. We then walked to the beach, which was full of umbrellas and deckchairs, and nothing to write home about. After an unexciting lunch, we returned to the van at 1500h, took a nap and then had a quiet dinner in the van. This was followed by some light rain, and noisy neighbours, which convinced us to close the van doors and windows and have an early night.

I must say that the bookends to our Portugal trip, Foz do Arelho and Albufeira, were disappointments, with too many tourists spoiling what could have been pleasant destinations.