Portugal and North again

---

---

Leaving Spain a few days into the New Year, we drove across the Guadiana Bridge and back into Portugal for the third time since our travels began. Unfortunately the previous hot weather was replaced this time with strong winds, low temperatures and torrential rain causing lots of flooding. We spent a cold two weeks travelling the Algarve coastline from Castro Marim on the east to Boca de Rio on the West.

There seemed to be a much higher number of campervans in Portugal this time and consequently a lot of the camperstops were very crowded. The bad weather in Northern Europe and reported soaring costs of over wintering in Morocco, appeared to have drawn everyone to Portugal for the worst of the winter months. The quiet spots that we had discovered previously were very busy and reports of the police moving vans on were being related by everyone. It started to feel like the last hoorah before the inevitable Portuguese clamp down on the winter motorhome invasion.

With the lousy weather making for damp sightseeing, we searched out some new camperspots and revisited the pick of our favourite spots, but stuck mostly in van and bored, we had soon travelled the length of the Algarve and back again.

We tried some of the inland barragems hoping for hotter weather but apart from being picturesque due to the very high water levels, the weather was no better here so we headed back to the coast. Not only was the bad weather curtailing our activities but it was also having a huge effect on our power consumption. With very little solar power coming in and our on-board generator refusing to start, we made the decision to leave Portugal early and arranged an appointment in Germany to have it looked at.

With a week left before we had to leave Portugal for the 3,500 kilometre drive to Munich, we returned again to our favourite camperstop at Manta Rota hoping to stay for a few days, but early the next morning the police arrived on mass and started to take people’s details. Not sure why they were there but not wanting to stay around and risk a parking fine, we hurriedly threw on clothes over pyjamas, stowed the kettle and drove rapidly out of the car park before the police reached our van.

We stopped at Altura, just a kilometre down the road and wandered back along the beach to Manta Rota later that afternoon to see if there were any Vans still parked there. When we had left that morning there was well over 100 vans parked but now just a handful remained. We found out that a local resident had complained about the vans and hence the arrival of the police, no-one had been fined but everyone who had not scarpered in time had had their passport and vehicle details taken. We walked back along the beach to Altura and decided to stay put there for a while. A breakthrough in the weather finally and the sun shone for a few days so we located the local tennis court and got some practice in. With time ticking on, we needed to start heading north but the morning we decided to leave, the Van battery decided to die so we weren’t going anywhere.

Fortunately, SOS Motorhome Man with a Van was at Altura fitting equipment on another van and after rummaging around in the back of his van, extracted a battery that wasn’t quite the right specification but thought would do the job. Lifting the bonnet at a camperstop is pretty much guaranteed to bring over the men, regardless of nationality. The battery exchanging business brought them in droves and we were on the receiving end of French, German and English opinions on how to proceed. Advice duly noted, we gave SOS Man back his battery, and reverted back to Plan A. Exchanging one of our leisure batteries for the dead vehicle battery, we decided to hot foot it to Faro to revisit the battery shop we had found last winter when one of the leisure batteries had died. It must be something about us and Portugal that means our batteries go wrong here.

Arriving just minutes too late at Saturday lunchtime, we debated whether to wait until Monday morning when the shop reopened or head on our way chancing our luck with the battery in-situ. The expensive battery prices in Portugal made our decision and we headed on our way towards the old Copper mine at Minas de Sao Domingo on our way out of Portugal. The complex was abandoned in the 1950’s but remains an evocative reminder of the scale of the operations and in the height of its day even had its own private army. We spent a few hours cycling around the decaying works, a post apocalyptic landscape and eerily devoid of any sounds of nature.

If we thought it was cold in Portugal, we weren’t quite prepared for the almost zero temperatures that greeted us in Spain. Stopping off at Palencia, even in the bright sunshine, it was bitterly cold. For those of a squeamish nature, skip the next paragraph as our visit had unwittingly coincided with a Spanish festival and Palencia town was shut up for business.

As we wandered into the town square which had been set out with tables, we saw lots of people stood around a roped off area with a butchers van parked in the middle. Curious, we hung around until the warm-up act arrived and started the proceedings. Not understanding a word of his opening speech, we watched the warm-up man and a helper climb into the van. Squeals were heard and the van started to violently rock. The two men then dragged a struggling pig out of the van, laid it over a trestle and slit its throat draining the blood into a plastic bucket on the floor. They then returned to the van, more squeals were heard and a second pig was hauled out and suffered the same treatment. This public execution was quite shocking to the two of us, but not apparently to many of the locals who carried on chatting throughout. Once the pigs had then been wrapped in straw and set fire to, prepared for the spit, the crowds started to disperse rejoining later that evening to consume the sacrifices.

We travelled uneventfully through northern Spain and across France, detouring up towards Mulhouse to avoid the crossing the mountain ranges in Switzerland. Not expecting to deal with snow on this trip, our snow chains were back in the UK. The temperatures dropped steadily until we hit snow near the German border which became gradually deeper as we headed down towards Munich in Southern Germany. We arrived at the company and handed over our generator for repair. Not having really considered that we may be here for a few days whilst they look at it, we hung around in the area deciding what to do. We headed up to Inglostadt and spent the day wandering around a very bleak shopping centre before a phone call from the generator company mid afternoon informing us that it was irreparable but despite being three years old and out of guarantee, the company would give us a brand new one if we would like to collect it in the morning. We returned the next day amazed at the service and drove off extremely happy. Next stop was to take the Van home - not back to England but back to the Niesmann & Bischoff factory to collect a replacement for our smashed rear spoiler (france - tree!) The Van made no recognition of coming back to the place where it was born but we were dealt with in the efficient German manner and were soon on our way.

The novelty of the snow was still with us and we decided to spend a bit of time sightseeing in winter Bavaria. Desperately cold but now with power coming out of our ears with our new generator, we ran the heating at full blast and enjoyed the snow-laden scenery of this area. Following the beautiful snow covered Mosel Valley out of Germany and back into France; we intended to spend the next few weeks in Southwest France before heading back to the UK. At Limoges, we detoured to Oradour Sur Glane, the memorial village that the Germans invaded during WW2 and killed everyone in the village bar one boy. The village has been preserved exactly as it was on that day and was a fascinating place. Still bitterly cold, we are then treated to a heavy storm and high winds overnight which fells many trees, the clean-up of which we see all across the region over the next week.

Still carefully nursing the new spoiler which had to be stored inside the Van as it was too long to go anywhere else, we checked into the campsite at Saumur to fit the new one. Staying on an island between the two sides of the town, we are rewarded with a week of watery sunshine whilst we do the repairs. We stopped off briefly at the troglodyte village of Turquant where many of the cave dwellings are still inhabited.

We travelled through the Loire Valley following the river and chateau route before turning south again towards Angers. Some six weeks after we left signs of spring in Portugal, spring has now reached us again and the daffodils lining the banks of the river running through Niort where we are currently stopped are looking gorgeous.

---

Photos

Entering Portugal
The weather doesn't look very promising.

Flooded out on the Algarve
After heavy floods overnight at Altura, we wish we had some wellies...

Motorhomes at Sunset
There were a few stunning sunsets amongst all the rain

Copper Mines at Sao Domingo
The open cast mine area - now a lake

Filtering pre-mechanisation
filtering out the sulphur

Spring arrives in Portugal
Just as we are leaving Portugal, the almond trees and wild flowers start to bloom.

Palencian sacrifice
Sacrificing the pigs in Palencia

Stopoff at Pancorvo
A normally busy camperstop, we had the whole thing to ourselves.

From spring to this
Snow and freezing temperatures in Germany at the N&B Factory

Winter camping
Stopping overnight at Minheim Mosel

Oradour Sur Glane
Even the overhead tramlines remain in place