Winter in Portugal

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The torrential rain continued for our first few days back as we left Algeciras for Cadiz on the west coast of Spain. Adjusting back to the European way of life, we spent a week re-acclimatising. It seemed quiet without the call to prayer every few hours and the hustle and bustle of everyday Moroccan life with nobody accosting you to sell you something. To escape the continuing rain, we decided to head for Portugal and arrived to brilliant sunshine and warmth.

We first visited Portugal two years ago and wanted to return to spend more time here. We entered the eastern Algarve at Castro Marim and slowly began working our way over to the Sagres on the west coast freecamping all the way. We struck luckily with most our overnight stops and were able to park right next to beautiful beaches all along this coastline. The Algarve does not have the rampant development that the Spanish Costa’s has, that is not to say that it doesn’t have its share of out of season Ghost towns, full of empty vacation apartment blocks but on the whole, the towns remain traditionally Portuguese and unspoilt.

Taking a break from the coast halfway along the Algarve, we headed in land to Silves and spent a few days in this lovely area. Heading back to the coast, we stopped off at Lagos for what turned out to be an extended stay after meeting up with a fellow Brit who turned out to be a bit of a saviour and a mine of information. Firstly helping us solve a faulty indicator light, we then awoke the next morning to no power in the Van - one of our batteries had decided to die overnight - so no fridge, no water pump, no working steps and our front security screen down and no way of getting it back up (aargh!), he helped us re-wire our battery setup and bypass the faulty battery in order to get power again. With the remaining batteries not performing very well, we headed off to the local Marina to seek replacements. They may as well have worn an eyepatch and carried a cutlass, as the prices were extortionate. Prevaricating over the price for a few days, we headed to Faro to see another battery dealer, who also carried a cutlass and also declined his offer. We met up with other friends whilst in Faro and spent a week mulling over the battery issue before coming to the final decision of doing nothing whilst we’re in Portugal. So long as we don’t run too many lights, spend too long on the internet and wash up wearing a head torch (this wasn’t essential but we were trying to save battery power!), the batteries appeared to cope and we could wait until we’re out of Portugal to get new ones.

Leaving Faro, we headed towards Sagres at the western end of the Algarve before starting to head north. Staying at the Santa Clara reservoir for a week, we spent the week kayaking and trying to stay cool in the 96 degree heat. Being inland the reservoir doesn’t benefit from any coastal breezes and with these temperatures in March, it’s hard to imagine tolerating the july / august temperatures here. With the heat finally getting the better of us, we headed eastwards again to Beja and Serpa. At Serpa, we finally had to catch up with the 6 weeks of accumulated washing after freecamping for so long. Washing completed, we spent at day at Evora, a Moorish town and visited the rather gruesome ossuary made from the bones of Monks. Leaving Evora, we headed for another reservoir at Pego do Altar hoping to do more kayaking but were thwarted by a rather long walk down to the waters edge so spent a couple of lazy days doing nothing.

Deciding it was time to move on, we headed for Sesimbra, just south of Lisbon. After attempting to find the camperstop in the town but without any clear directions, we got tangled up in the narrow streets down at the harbour and only just made it out in one piece. Heading down the coast to Cabo Espichel to another camperstop we had been told about at the site of an abandoned monastery, we found that we were the only Van at this rather remote area and decided not to stop there. With it now getting rather late, we headed back towards Sesimbra, bypassing the town this time and pulled up in the dark at the Castle in Palmela. Despite being the only Van there, we decided that it was too late to try and find anywhere else to stay so stayed put for the night. The Parking area had fantastic views over the bay of Setubal to Lisbon.

Leaving early the next morning, we spent the day in Alcochete getting some retail therapy before heading to Montijo to park overnight. Parked next to the estuary, we awoke the next morning and watched flamingo’s feeding nearby. Having visited Lisbon on our previous visit two years ago, we drove around it this time and headed for Peniche on the North Lisbon coast. Dominated by a huge Prison from the Salazar era, it is now a museum. Unfortunately high winds batter us into staying mostly in the Van so we moved onto Obidos, a picturesque walled town given by the Portuguese Royal family as a wedding present to the incoming bride. After spending a couple of hours wandering around the town and scaling the ramparts, we moved onto Fatima the same day. The whole town has evolved around the tale of three children and their visions of the Virgin Mary in 1917 into a fully fledged catholic pilgrimage machine. Twice the size of St.Peter’s square in Rome, the town literally consists of the Basilica complex and hundreds of religious themed gift shops. Armed with a new addition to the dash ornaments in the shape of a glow-in-the-dark Virgin Mary, we made a hasty retreat.

Leaving Fatima, we made a brief detour to see the Grutas de Mira de Aire, the largest underground cave system in Portugal. Found in the 1920’s, the discoverers must have wondered what they had stumbled upon when they descended down to find this hidden treasure of bizarre rock formations, huge caverns with stalactites and stalagmites and underground lake. Fortunately the guided tour was visually spectacular as we weren’t following any of the Portuguese commentary, although it must have been funny as the Portuguese in our group seemed to be laughing quite a lot. After finishing the guided tour, we drove onto Tomar, where the Order of the Knights Templar established their headquarters at the Convento de Cristo perched high on a hill overlooking the town.

Next stop was Conimbridga, site of the largest Roman town in Portugal. Due to its size, there are still large areas to be excavated but what has been uncovered shows largely intact houses with extensive mosaic floors and painted walls suggesting just how colourful their interior were.

After the past few busy days, we headed out to spend the weekend at the beach and after driving along the Silver coast, we looped back south to Coimbra and checked into one of the few campsites we stayed at in Portugal. Picking up the tourist bus, we spent a day touring the town, wandering up and down the steep roads of the town, going for a boat ride along the river and then finishing the day at a Portuguese restaurant. Giant prawns, Bacahlau (dried cod) and Goat finished us off and we staggered home.

Moving onto Aveiro, a lovely town set around canals and full of Art Nouveau architecture, we unfortunately hit a week of what was to be torrential downpours with few respites so sightseeing was soggy.

Heading North from Aveiro, we set off for Barcelos next, described as one of the must see places, famed for its traditional Portuguese Thursday Market. Yet again we discovered that guide books have an ability to talk up places and the famed market doesn’t live up to expectations.

So fingers crossed for the next ‘must-do’ in Portugal and we arrived in Braga to climb the Bom Jesus staircase. This did live up to expectations and the spectacular staircase leads up through the wooded hillside east of Braga. At each turn of the huge baroque stairway, there are chapels with life size tableaux depicting the life of Christ, leading onto fountains symbolising the senses and the virtues. At the top of the stairs is a large park area and the rain holds off for a pleasant afternoon climb up and a much easier descent. The fantastic views from the top of the stairs go all the way to the Atlantic coast with the sea glistening on the horizon.

Last stop in Portugal was the spa town of Chaves, near to the north border with Spain. The drive to Chaves being far more interesting than the town itself, as we passed high through the National Park of Peneda-Geres with dramatic views down to lakes through Pine and heather covered mountain sides.

The last 10 weeks have flown past and we’ve ended up staying here much longer than we originally anticipated but I guess that shows how much we have enjoyed coming back to Portugal. It’s a very friendly and enormously diverse country, we can’t wait to return again.

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Photos

By the river Guadiana
Spain on the left - Portugal on the right

On the ramparts at Obidos
Not happy without a hand rail ....