20th April Last evening was a bit noisy – motorbikes, cars & ambulance sirens then blow me an air raid siren went off at around 4.54pm. (Rather precise for ‘around’) Call me old fashioned but...it was odd because as they have siesta here, people work through to 7 ish so it wasn’t time to clock off. Unless they were testing it, have I missed something important the BBC? It quietened down though & we slept well despite more rain in the night. Up & Cathy did some washing as she found a free washing machine in the utility block, never seen her so excited since the last time we found one in Italy in 2015.... We were going to go to a supermarket but decided that we didn’t really need which was a result as it ... read more

18th April So up & mustered for 10am, 12 of us plus the lady owner. All Dutch except us & a German couple. Introduced ourselves which seemed a bit ‘Ramblers’ to me but all smashing people. Off in an ancient Range Rover to a nearby town, round a couple of little streets & off up the mountain. We walked using a very old Roman path comprised of huge rocks basically which were uncut & we could see ruts in stone from the carts over the centuries. With a couple of small rest breaks we walked for over 2 hours to the top & thank goodness it wasn’t in the heat of yesterday – today was 21* but overcast. On the top it was a lot cooler; a couple of us were only wearing a t-shirt so ... read more

15th April Just before we made tea yesterday, 3 identical Spanish rented motorhomes turned up. They drove round at least twice & 2 of them found pitches they liked & eventually parked up. The other chap, let’s call him Dick , faffed about still driving around, parking up, moving again, reversing in, driving in... what a dope, moving again. Kept us entertained for 20 minutes. What a disturbed night, mainly due to small dog yapping most of the night. I was tempted to go out with pointy pole. Early in the morning the dog stopped barking & a baby started crying. Baby stops, cock starts crowing then the dog starts up again. Before breakfast I walked around to find the dog only to find it outside a cottage behind reception; I went in & gave the ... read more

14th April A leisurely start to the day & 68 year old Herman told us that the site was for sale, they wanted to retire. We set off for Evora, an ancient walled town established by the Romans & now a world heritage site. Most of the journey was on a super ‘A’ road with straights that went on for miles. We had wondered where the main cork producing area was...well this was cork central with millions of cork oaks which gave way to olive groves & vineyards. The other striking thing were the amount of storks about, huge things that roamed around the sky on thermals just like eagles except that they looked like pterodactyl. The government or electric company had fitted the poles with ironwork platforms for their nests, which were equally huge. We ... read more

12th April Awoke to a beautiful & colourful sunrise. After a leisurely breakfast we jumped on the bikes & off we went to CSV in mid morning heat. Only took 20 minutes. We arrived at the site which is clearly a tourist attraction as there were a couple of coaches, 8 motorhomes & a couple of dozen cars. This place, now fielding a lighthouse, used to be a monastery & is on a pilgrim’s trail; you can tell by the fact that there’s a hotdog stall on the car park. The views were spectacular & the cliffs a good 300’ from sea level. We walked around then went to the end of another promontory where some local chap was setting up his fishing rod atop the cliff! What made me laugh wasn’t that so much but ... read more