Week 5 - campervan adventures

Europe » Portugal » Algarve
September 24th 2013

Published: September 25th 2013

Day 29 18^thSeptember 2013 - Costa da Caparic, campsite Parque Da Csampismo.

This morning we woke and went to the tourist information office to find out where campsites are close by, not free camping real campsites as we’re both in need of a real shower. There are a few campsites in the town – but a lot of them look like shanty towns, we have checked into the ‘posh’ one for the night, Steve named it the posh one as when we were getting prices it had a glossy pamphlet. There is nothing posh about this place, the showers are not great and once again there are no toilet seats on any of the toilets. After checking into the campsite and washing we set for the beach, the beach is not much of a beach though. It looks very man made, with canal like wave areas mainly for surf, and very little sand, we spent some time sitting on some rocks watching some body boarders catching some waves and then headed back to our campsite. I don’t know why they say this beach is like Rio as its not, the only thing I can see the same is the black men trying to sell you things. Steve went for a run this afternoon my legs didn’t want to, I sat and relaxed and continued to relax into the evening while Steve finished a book, he only started this a week ago, he normally makes the one book I buy him at Christmas last him a year. I wonder if he will read another one, I will let you know.

Day 30 19^th September 2013 - Costa da Caparic – free camping

On waking we both went for a run, it’s starting to become a bit of a morning ritual, which is a good thing as we don’t want to become fat unhealthy travels, especially now we are ‘beach bums’ with golden tans. Well I speak for myself for some reason Steve’s legs will not tan but his body is golden. Anyways, today we did not do much throughout the day, we just hung around the campsite, using the free wifi till we had to check out at 5. Once checking out we went and parked up in the beach car park where we plan to spend the night. We went for a walk around ‘the town’ Steve did not think there was much of a town but we managed to find a high street and also saw that the main beach had a good atmosphere, which we didn’t discover yesterday. We also saw a sign that said there was 13k of white sand, which could be one of the reasons they say the beach is like Rio, or it could be that there is a lot of Gay men around. We finished our walk by having a drink at one of the many bars along the water and then walked back to Stan in the sunset. We now need to make a plan as to what we are going to do tomorrow – enjoy the beach that we saw today or move on to the next beach.

Day 31 20^th September 2013 - Costa da Caparic – Costa de Santo Andre – free camping.

Yep you guessed it the day started with the morning ritual of a run. Following our run we had breakfast and hit the road, as we had decided it was time to go in search of the next beach on Steve’s amazing beaches of Portugal list. As we started driving we felt that we should of stayed and spent the day on the beach. We couldn’t find the road we wanted, ended up on the motorway only to pay to get off the motorway and then drove down a road that lead us to nowhere. This was partly my fault due to poor map reading and also the roads fault as the Portuguese don’t like to put up signs that are not motorways. We finally worked it out and made it to our destination and when seeing the beach/lagoon we were pleased we had decided to come here. It’s a remote beach at the end of a long road, with warm water, the sand is a little hard but I can deal with that, and to one side is a lagoon/inlet which is nice to swim in as there are no waves. The spot is very popular with campervaners, they are all parked up in a row, like a little community but we are a little anti-social and park down from them, there is nothing wrong with privacy I say. When we arrived at this little piece of paradise we both went straight for a swim, as we were both very hot from the journey and I think a little stressed with the driving/map reading, it felt like because we had had few days off, we had forgotten how to do our jobs. Following the swim we spent the afternoon relaxing by the inlet. This evening Steve made a lovely chicken curry for dinner and now we are going to spend the evening reading.

Day 32 21^th September 2013 - Costa de Santo Andre – free camping.

I broke the morning ritual and decided it was the weekend (even though every day is like a weekend to us) and stayed in bed while Steve went running. Once I finished having my lay in Steve and I spent the day on the beach. The beach is a little dirty but it was nice and due to parking away from the main car park for most of the day we had our own private beach. It reminds me of one of my favourite beaches as a child Myalup. The sand goes for miles and the waves are huge. Just like I was a child again I played in the waves, the only thing that was missing was my Dad trying to catch fish. I did have the bonus of having my husband there to play in the waves with. The day was so relaxing and we didn’t even have to cook dinner as we have yummy left over Chicken Curry. We are spending the night here again, but some rude people in campervans have parked next to us so it’s not so private. We will decided tomorrow if we stay another day or continue the hunt of best beaches in Portugal at the moment Costa de Santo Andre is my favourite.

Day 33 22^th September 2013 - Costa de Santo Andre – Salema : free camping

This morning we both broke the ritual, no run was had and we hit the road on the pilgrimage of Portugal’s best beaches. We were low on supplies so had to stop at our favourite supermarket Lidl on the way and a little while after we arrived at our destination. The beach we stopped at was not on the list but looked nice, even with its long walk down from the top of the cliff. We picked a spot and due to it being windy we put up our wind break, but the wind was too good for our cheap little wind break and even with three sides of me covered by the block I was still getting sand all over me, Steve had a layer of sand over him so thick that sun bathing became practically impossible. Other people seemed to be tolerating the wind and sand but we gave in(obviously why it never made the top ten list). I was a little upset that I would now have to climb the hill back up when I discovered a jeep that takes people up and down the hill so we were lazy and got a ride up in the jeep. We returned to Stan and hit the road again, this time searching for a beach that was on our list, Salema. We found this beach with no problem, parked in a large carpark with other campervans and made our way to the beach for take two. It was still windy but there was a large cliff which worked as a great wind block, the waves were massive so I did not go in the water. After sometime I became hot and restless so we went to have a drink in a bar, big mistake, we are now in tourist centre – entering the Algarve and everything is super expensive. Well you live and learn, we returned to Stan where I had a little afternoon nap and Steve went for a run. I am still on a weekend break. We have spent the evening reading (Yep, Steve is reading another book – I will let you know how long it takes him) and tomorrow we hope that the wind will be gone and we will enjoy the day on Salema beach.

Day 34 23^th September 2013 - Salema - Lux : Camping – Turiscampo Algarve

I have gone back to my ritual of running. Steve talked me into doing the run he did he yesterday, this would have been fine if I was a goat, the run started by going up a very large hill in the town onto a costal path and then the path turned into goat track up more hills, he was lucky that it ended with big downhill run otherwise I would of been a very unhappy camper. When we left for our run the sun was shining and the birds where singing, it was a little windy but looked like it was going to be a nice day, when we returned it was super windy and overcast. No beach for us today. We decided we would check into a campsite and just have a lazy day. We have found a lovely campsite it’s about 5k from Lagos and has a pool and spa, bar and restaurant, even some English people, they seem to be everywhere now we have hit the tourist area. My lazy day wasn’t as lazy as planned though after making Steve some lunch. An omelette which was scrambled egg with bits in it as I don’t really know how to make omelettes I spent the afternoon planning our little side trip out of Europe into Africa. That’s right Africa, a week today we are taking an overnight trip to Tangier Morocco, sadly we will be leaving Stan in a car park for the night. So that means we just a little less than a week to enjoy Portugal and find the last few beaches on our list.

Day 35 24^th September 2013 Lux : Camping – Turiscampo Algarve

Yes the day did start with the ritual run, and today my run became a little adventure/mission. My plan was to run down to the town and then back the same way. On the way back I saw a sign saying Lagos, which I thought would take me back to the main road, and may miss out the big hill I had to take to go back to camp so I took this (Steve had told me the night before that he was going to go down that way so I knew I wouldn’t get lost) big mistake I ended up going up 4k of hills rather than the 1k I was trying to miss. I also had to walk up the hill on the main road as I did not look on the map beforehand and never realised a quiet country lane ran perpendicular to this, all the way back. In future I will stick to the route I plan and make no changes. I also got in trouble with Steve when I got back as I should have been back from my run before him and he was worried. After recovering from this traumatic experience it was time to relax and make the most of the facilities. We spent the day laying by the pool, with the blue rinse club. Most of the people in campsite are over 60 and while laying by the pool it felt like we were at a resort for the retired and massively obese. Although we do prefer being with the oldies rather than screaming kids. After the relaxing day this evening we did something wild, we went out after dark. This is the first time in nearly 6 weeks we have done this. It was safe we walked into town and sat by the beach and had an ice cream and then walked back to camp. We did think about going for a drink but that would just be crazy. On returning to camp we watched a bit of a movie (we are trying to watch Cloud Atlas, a 3 hour strange film) and now its sleep time at 10.30.

Week 5 - campervan adventures

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