Week four campervan adventures.

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Day 22 11^th September 2013 Figueria da Foz – Ericeira (Camping Ericeira)

Sadly today we said goodbye to Figueria da Foz, this place really was glories but due to Stan having a little or maybe big issue with the leisure batteries we had to go and look for a campsite to get some power for Stan. We drove about 50k and found a campsite that was right on the beach, but I suggested we keep driving as I don’t like to always take the first place in case something better is down the road. This was a regretful suggestion there was no better campsites along the way and we ended up driving about 200k along the coastal road till we found a nice campsite which we both agreed on. Today Steve was really fed up of the driving and not getting anywhere, so I drove some of the way, at first I was shit scared but with time I got confident and it wasn’t too bad. Steve also got a chance to see how hard my job of map reading is, so we now have a mutual understanding of how difficult each other’s jobs are. Now we have two days of R&R with the comforts of a campsite.

Day 23 12^th September 2013 Ericeira (Camping Ericeira)

Today was not a very eventful day – it was nice but not much to tell. I woke up and went for a run, we did some washing and then spent the day laying on the beach, on returning from the beach Steve went for a run and we are going to spend the night playing cards and enjoying a bottle of wine. I can tell you that the water of the Portuguese seas are freezing and you have to be baking before you can get in, even for Steve who’s core body temperature is at least 2 degrees warmer than the average man and loves being in the water just to cool off, has got to run in, get wet, and then get out as quickly as possible because the water really is that cold.

Day 24 13^th September 2013 Ericeira

Black Friday – so far nothing bad has happened though. Our day was much of a mirror of yesterday. I got up went for a run, Steve was tired and stayed in bed – must have been the excitement of the card night which he won, and then we spent the day on the beach again. We are lucky our campsite has a 9pm check out so after our day at the beach we went back to the site had an early dinner, packed up camp, enjoyed our last hot shower (for a while as we plan to free camp a for a few day now) and then drove down the road about 5k and have parked in a beach car park where we are going to spend the night, before going in search of the next beach. Our plan for the next 2 maybe 3 weeks is to turn into beach bums and go in search of the top beaches in Portugal which Steve has researched.

Day 25 14^th September 2013 Ericeira – Sintra; beach Abraga – Coba Da Roca

Today we started the adventure of finding the best beaches in Portugal so we said goodbye to Ericeira which I thought had a nice beach – but it wasn’t rated on the list and headed to Sintra. As Stan is still poorly with his battery issue along our journey we tried to find someone who could fix him, this was an epic fail, the first guy could not speak a word of English and the second guy told us to go to ‘his brother’ down the road, we could not find his brother down the road. As he was no longer smelling we decided that its best to continue on our beach hunt and hope that we can find someone in Lisbon to fix Stan when we get there in a couple of days. Our beach hunt started off well we found the first place on Steve’s list Abraga. Hidden away down a little windy road off from the beaten track we discovered a hidden gem. A small beach with golden sands surrounded by cliffs towering over it and surfers enjoying some of the largest waves we had seen so far. It is a very popular beach, with people coming and going throughout the day as the weather never really made up its mind as to what it wanted to do, and obviously it was still windy with cool waters. When we arrived it was overcast and a little windy, However we put our wind break to good use and sat and tried to enjoy the beautiful beach, however the clouds where getting bigger and the sun was not coming out. This was not too much of a problem, we went and sat in Stan made a cup of coffee and people watched, Steve enjoyed watching the very bad parking of the Portuguese. After some time the sun came back out and we spent the afternoon sitting with our wind block enjoying this lovely beach. We were undecided if we wanted to spend the night there, after much discussion we moved on in search for the next beach. While driving we come across a sign for Coba Da Roca and thought we would go and see this, it was just getting dark and mega windy so we took a few snaps and went in look for a place to sleep. We have parked up in a layby a few km from the landmark and plans to run back there in the morning to take a photo in day light and to make sure we didn’t miss out on anything. Currently it sounds and feels a little like we are in a storm, I hope we don’t blow of the ‘end of the earth’ while we sleep.

*Coba Da Roca is the most westen point on the European continent, not including the islands nations of United Kingdomm Ireland and Iceland.

Day 26 15^th September 2013 Coba Da Roca – Cascais – Estoril

We didn’t run back to the landmark, it was way too windy, the wind blew strong all night and when getting up this morning I checked on Stan to make sure nothing had blown off, Steve said that the wind was so strong that our bikes might of blown off the rack but Vic (my bike) and Steve’s beast (Steve’s bike) were still there and lucky as we used them today. So we went back to check that we hadn’t missed anything amazing at Coba Da Roca, which we hadn’t but it was nice to see it in the day, it was still as windy. We then headed to Cascais where we spent a few hours on the beach, we then went for a cycle around the town, the town was a little disappointing it had a lot of English pubs and didn’t really have much of a European feel. We road down to the harbour which just smelt of money, huge big yachts filling the place with overpriced sports cars accompanying them from the side lines. We sat and ate our packed lunch there before going on a big/difficult bike ride. There was a coastal cycle path, which we followed for about 8k riding up and down hills into the wind, at one point I thought there was something wrong with Vic but it was just my weak legs riding into the wind. When we are driving on the coastal roads we see lots of men out cycling on their road bikes and Steve always says that he is jealous of them, today he said that he is not due to them having to ride with that wind all the time. At least the 8km was a lot more fun and easier with that gale now behind us. After this crazy bike ride we treated ourselves to an ice cream and got back into Stan to head to our next beach which was only a few kilometres down the road, we have parked up in a massive car park opposite Estoril beach, we are going to spend the night here and tomorrow spend the day on the beach.



Day 27 16^th September 2013 Estoril

Sadly today we did not get to spend as much time on the beach as we would of liked but we had to take Stan to the campervan hospital, he has been given a new leisure battery and also a new tap. The campervan doctor that fixed him spoke very little English but we got by alright and we don’t think he ripped us off, too much. (We got by as the campervan doctor had a friend who spoke English at the shop when we first arrived who could explain the problem but he could not stay.) Lets hope that he has fixed him good and proper and that we will not have any more problems. On leaving the campervan hospital we parked in the same place we did last night and we are going to stay the night. We did not spend all of the day at the hospital, we went for a run this morning and had a couple of hours on the beach and we treated ourselves to happy hour – the beers where only €1 if felt wrong not to enjoy this offer. Tonight we are going to enjoy having some lights/power and have a card night, lets hope I have better luck than last time.

Day 28 17^th September 2013

Estoril – Lisbon – Costa da Caparic

We were torn between staying another day at the beach or going to explore Lisbon. Lisbon won. Lisbon or Lisboa as the Portuguese call it is the capital city of Portugal and the 10^th oldest city in the world. In regards to the city there is not much to tell. It has a castle and a cathedral and some other churches like most cities, it is also hilly like a lot of Portuguese cities and towns. Due to knowing it was hilly I didn’t feel like taking Vic out however I regretted this. We estimated that we walked about 20k today. Due to me not wanting to ride and us having the problem we always have when we get to any major city of parking we ended up parking miles away from the city and walking into the city and then all around the city to see the sites and then back to Stan. We were not very prepared for the day and did not take any water or food including lunch, this worked in my favour in almost 4 weeks we had our first meal out. Which I really enjoyed. Once we had seen the sites of Lisboa – and walked the 6k back to Stan we hit the road to our next destination: Costa da Caparic : the next beach on the list, which they say is like Rio. We have only seen it at night due to arriving late, but it doesn’t look much to Rio to me. We have parked up across the road from the beach, and we will explore tomorrow after some much needed sleep. My feet also need to rest as they are very sore as all our walking was done in thongs/flip flops.

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Photos

Coba Da Roca
Visit 1 - night time

Coba Da Roca
Visit 2 - day time

Comments

[Mark]

Good job
Louise and I are really enjoying reading about your hol. Keep it up. We are really looking forward to the next instalment. I have entered a triathlon in Vitoria-Gasteiz in Northern Spain for next year. You may be able to check the town out on the way back - though it may be too far away as you'll be following the coast up the med I expect.