Right Back Where we Started From(Maxine Nightingale) - South from Miramar,Porto to Cabreiros,Salir de Matos

---

---

The sun has arisen this morning in a bright blue sky which makes it look good for a day of travel further south to a rural location inland from Nazare.

We did question ourselves as to whether we were OK to be driving given how this bug had struck us but we decided that we were just going to take our time and get in plenty of stops on the way.

Gretchen wasn’t really up to driving so I will take the responsibility for the day.

With the worst of the bug behind us we made several trips up and down in the little two person lift in the apartment building. The lift was one of those where you manually opened the outer door to enter the lift chamber. It was a tight squeeze for the two of us, suitcases and backpacks!

We drove down to the beach and boardwalk that I had walked to on Saturday so at least Gretchen could see what she had missed out on.

Heading south on the N109 we passed through a series of seaside towns one of which had a huge Monday morning market that seemed to have everything you would ever need to buy.

Town markets may be a reason why the very expansive supermarkets in Europe do not have a large fruit and vegetable section in relation to the size of the supermarket. Locals simply go to the nearest market and buy fresh. This has developed in a small way at home but we have a long way to go to be anything like what happens here.

Gradually the seaside towns gave way to isolated scattered villages. It is hard to understand what people actually do for work on this coastal strip away from the larger towns as apart from some market gardening there wasn’t any other farming activity that was visible from the road.

We passed through an area where a number of the stork nests on the top of poles had been occupied by storks who have already returned from their wintering over in North Africa. It is one of those wonders of the natural world that storks mate virtually for life and return to the same pole each year.

At Aveiro which looked to be a major centre we diverted further towards the coast until we reached it and took a break for lunch. The street back from the sand dunes and beach was lined with 6 story apartment buildings all with the shutters down over the windows. Clearly this wasn’t residential and once the summer arrives this place will be abuzz. The air temperature was just high enough for us to eat out of the car although we are sticking to just a fruit lunch to get us back on our feet fully.

Keeping the coastal theme in mind we locked in Figueira da Foz as the next point to aim for. We had thought that this idea would give us a continued coastal run.

However choosing the ecological option on the GPS resulted in probably the roughest ride of the BBA V3 so far. We should have learned our lesson using this option as it has taken us on routes we didn’t expect in the past, none quite as rough though.

We had intended to stay on the N109 all the way to where we turned off to the rural location we have for two nights.

We had driven on through seaside villages which suddenly came to an end and forest of pine trees replaced the housing. The road narrowed and the GPS showed a straight line for the road for over 30km.

Our speed slowed to cope with the narrow width of the road and the pot holes.

Perhaps we should have turned around and found the N109 again but taking into account the distance we had already travelled we kept going and surely the road couldn’t get worse.

There had been no other traffic opposing us, thankfully, which meant weaving here and there to dodge the worst of the potholes was easy enough to do.

We passed a sign that translated appeared to say that the road surface was about to get worse. How could it get any worse?

Now we had real doubts about continuing but we were over two thirds of the way there and so we preserved even though the surface did get more difficult to drive on.

It was clearly a road that had been put in for logging operations as there were no houses or beach access except at one point where there was a wind turbine.

At one point ahead of us on this dead straight road we spotted what looked like another vehicle stopped on the side of the road. We reminded ourselves not to stop to offer assistance if it was broken down in this isolated place. But as we came upon it we found it was workmen who were cutting back undergrowth that was invading the road. We think they were more surprised at us and what the heck we were doing on this road.

Eventually we emerged and miraculously the N109 suddenly reappeared for us and we got back on track.

Taking a break at the next town we came to I had another of those experiences that seem to pop up every so often in a foreign land.

We thought a packet of Strepsils would help ease the slightly sore throat we both still had, presumably from our coughing. And so I went into a pharmacy.

The assistant was serving a local which gave me time to spot what I needed on the shelf and I prepared myself to point at the Strepsils on the shelf.

Another assistant appeared but either my finger pointing was straight enough and the word ‘Strepsils’ comes out sounding different in Portuguese but I was getting across to her my need.

My problem in communication was affecting the conversation the other assistant and her customer were having and they came to my rescue picking up on what I wanted.

Often when we have needed to ask for a product it has required more than just one person to secure the deal.

Gina took us off the N109 and our direction took us up into the rolling hills just back from the coastal plain we had been travelling on all day.

The plains seemed to be rather infertile and we have had the impression of a lot of waste land not good enough for growing crops or farming of any intensive nature. Perhaps the soil is just too light.

The hills were a bit different though and here the small communities we passed through all seemed to have some sort of market gardening going on although almost no animal farming.

It was quite a change to be driving up and down hills giving a different perspective for the eye to take in.

We thought Gina had done an excellent job delivering us to the assigned address. The road name and number matched up, just not the house as we thought from photos on the Air BnB site.

We pushed the bell on the gate but nothing happened and after a few minutes thought a phone call might bring a response from our hosts Jane and Steve, an English couple from Gloucester.

We might have known it but we were in the wrong village but they would come and guide us to the apartment.

The problem had been that we had left the village name out of the GPS instead putting in what the general area is known as and because there are 3 streets with the same name in the general area we ended up in the wrong place.

Jane and Steve’s place is like one of those homes you see on the TV programme where Brits move to places like Portugal to find their home in the sun.

The apartment was originally the loft but they had converted it into a very spacious apartment with modern furnishings and a TV that had only English speaking channels that they somehow secure through a Portuguese Military sateillite!This didn’t necessarily that we would be able to watch Coro St but at least we had BBC and ITV news channels.

Tomorrow we plan a day trip to Nazare and Alcobaca to delve into some Portuguese history.

---