Strawberries and Gas

Started off with lovely riverside walk,  dry with some sunshine but also some big dark clouds. We left the Poitou Donkeys and Ribordosa, taking a very scenic drive down the N110 to Coimbra – deep valleys, tiny villages just about clinging to the extremely steep slopes.

Driving around Coimbra we had a bit of a hiccup with quick braking infront of a bridge sign saying 2.3m height  (no good for us as we need 2.95m clearance) so I swung into what turned out to be the local train station taxi rank stand. The taxi drivers were all smiles and grins as they offered an alternative route to Figueria da Foz, and watched me do a tight three point turn in the van.

After a coffee stop, and amusement at a level crossing (barriers down, train arrives at platform about 30m up the track, pulls away…leaving the passengers to get down onto the tracks to walk to the road where we were safely behind the barrier!)..we were heading out of the hills back towards the coast when Gary spotted an LPG engineers garage.

Another three point turn and a chat to the assistant and his boss…and yay, we have a full tank of LPG again. We are both really rather relieved! Only downside is they didn’t have an adaptor for sale – just the one they used. They did offer to make us one if we could stay next week.

Next stop…..roadside fresh strawberries, €3 for a kilo. Dessert sorted, local produce …..in February. Yum!

Ended the day arriving at Figueria da Foz where we were headed for a place near to the Salt pans (the town developed on evaporating seawater to make sea salt). The Aire we’d been told about didn’t suit the dogs, so we moved across the river to another Aire nearer the town itself and beach access. The Aire is huge with space for100 motorhomes,  and 32 stayed overnight, we’re the only Brits. The others look like locals come for the fishing.

Sunday Gary went running with W&M along the beach and past the casino – leastways I think they went past the casino! The weather was back to gloriously sunny if not that warm.  Lunchstop was at a picnic spot next to what I dubbed “Olive Tree Roundabout”, watching storks riding the thermals and impersonating Pterodactyls. We then carried on northwards to Pardihlo where we found another stunning Aire. This one on the edge of the estuary beside a tiny marina, great birdwatching (immediate highlight of a Marsh Harrier hunting).

 

 

The area today we drove through was varied, and as we’re trying to stay off the toll roads, the potholes have only been surpassed on the Isle of Mull, i.e. notorious! One of the things I noticed was the balconies on houses with cymbidium orchids in flower as “patio plants”..and of course once you spot one, you then realise that there are loads of them! Other things seen in flower include Magnolia trees, freesias, and a lot of springtime flowers that I’d expect in May in England.

Sunshine and Showers

We spent Wednesday lunchtime at the surf beach at Baleal, near Peniche…decided we’re too old and nowhere near hip enough to hang out longer! We did enjoy a nice walk on the sandy beach – trying to decide if it counts as a tombolo. If you don’t know what a tombolo is then look up St Ninians Isle in Shetland, one of our favourite places.

 

Moved a couple of miles south of Peniche to spend the night at another Aire at Consolacao – in what feels like a ghost town . Not at all sure if it’s just because all the houses and apartments are summer holiday homes and that’s why they are all shuttered up….or if it’s an area that’s been abandoned due to the economic recession……or repossessed by the banks! It feels safe enough, as we’re with another three vans all of different nationalities. Tollers approved of all the beach walks, dreaming, twitching paws, upside down.

We then stuck to plan and drove northwards through Nazare, stopping off for a night at a campsite to catch up on domestic stuff and allow me to do some work via their wifi. Actually at that site the wifi was the best thing - the showers were a cold shock, the worst of any campsite I can remember, AND there was a thunderstorm which totally left Maddie a shivering bundle of fur.

Friday we spent a fruitless and probably expensive morning...following directions from one place to another by helpful locals...hoping to be able to purchase an adaptor fitting for our LPG gas tank on the van. There is plenty of LPG for sale at the petrol stations, but we need a different adaptor to be able to connect the fittings to our tank. Don't ask me why the fittings for LPG aren't "euro" standardised, but they aren't.

The result of our morning, no adaptor, and worse a probable fine on the way through the system for venturing onto the automated toll motorwaywithout displaying a prepaid identity sticker in the windscreen. We have been avoiding the toll motorways, and this morning we were following scribbled directions on a piece of paper...plus there was no warning until we were already on the motorway with no way to get off until the next exit. Only time will tell if (as it says in the guide book) they send a fine through to our vehicles registered address.

Friday evening spent by a river, up in the hills - completely different countryside, deep valleys, terraced hillsides....at an Aire that is part of a fledgling Portugese initiative similar to the "French Passion" scheme, where motorhomers can stop at all sorts of farms and cooperatives. Currently only 18 sites throughout Portugal, but I'm sure it will grow! This one near to Penacova village, just below the hamlet of Ribordosa, nearest big town Coimbra.

Frequent showers before it got dark, otherwise the camera would be out! It's clearly very pretty when the weather is nicer. Thankfully the weather forecast indicates that tomorrow (Saturday) the weather should be back to what we expect....warm and sunny!

Back to the sea

Drove northwards Monday to Arruda dos Vinhos a small village in the hills surrounded by vineyards. We had a slightly surreal experience driving through the outskirts of Porto Alto, suddenly the writing on signs above shops, advertising hoardings and even the buildings style was….Chinese. China town seemed to have come to Portugal at some point in the past few decades, and to have left again – it all looked somewhat run down and neglected. Within a few miles the local venacular switched back to Portugese and we were shaking our heads about the obvious lack of integration that happens when incomers stay in their enclaves – seems like history repeats itself!

We overnighted at an Aire beside another Intermarche Supermarket in the village where on one side there was a smallholder type property with a field where geese and sheep grazed. It had the appearance of a quagmire, goodness knows what the sheep were finding to eat, but the geese looked happy and fat! The other side the hypermarket and car wash, then across the road houses (with yard dogs – but I’ll come onto that) and inbetween goats on tethers. Juxtopositions of different centuries lifestyles!

Dog wise, on our morning walk I realised that the Portugese seem to keep dogs in much the same way the Brits keep rabbits as pets. The vast majority live outside, a good proportion in tiny hutches (swop the word for kennel), some get to free range in the garden (with some wonderful sterotypic behaviour up and down boundaries), some live alongside human settlement. These last in England correspond to the rabbits that have been “dumped” or released into the wild by owners fed up with them – some of which survive and integrate into wild populations, and some die quickly. The Portugese village dogs – well I don’t know the area well enough to know where they come from – if it’s a self sustaining population or if these too are “released into the wild”. I’m sure that there are a small percentage of Portugese dogs who are house dogs, well  treated and valued members of their families but I’m not convinced it’s common….a bit like house rabbits in England!

We also watched the local single village dog (a bitch actually) who seems to live around the hypermarket – she was quite vocal but after watching her displays at a distance, and our dogs reactions….well I’m beginning to think that a lot of the barking that we are hearing is the Portugese dogs way of socialising. They all seem really quite wary of direct interaction with other dogs – there aren’t many that actually come and sniff our guys, most of it seems to be “verbal and at a distance” interactions.

Then there’s the point about the scarcity of numbers, and I’ve realised that it’s because of limited food supply – and the need for food overriding the need to socialise. Dogs are a social species, but the overriding need for food to survive means that numbers can’t congregate if there isn’t enough food to go around. As English abroad, we are just so not used to considering the importance of whether there is enough to eat!

By Tuesday lunchtime we’d driven to Peniche to the Aire by the Lighthouse, the sun was out, and the lunchtime highlight was watching a pair of Peregrines on a cliff stack about 50m infront of the van and they put on a show – working as a pair to attempt to flush the rock doves off the cliff slopes for their lunch. Pretty spectacular panoramic views out over the Atlantic and pretty special, watching Peregrines hunt in their natural cliff face environment.

A pretty good antidote of wild bird watching to the slightly depressing canine situation! And so far here on the coast at Peniche, no unattached dogs for once!

And after our drive to Peniche over the hills, on narrow roads amongst wonderful old villages with extremely narrow roads.....relaxing after a hard day in the office....

More musing than meandering

We succumbed to the tranquility and delightful weather at the Aire and stayed for 4 days/3nights…we’re getting into this lifestyle where you make plans and then change them on a whim, whether the whim be the weather or the place!

A leisurely Sunday morning breakfast was enhanced by wonderful views of a male Black Redstart hopping around just outside the van. The bird watching was one of the attractions at the Reservoir…and the walking…and the informality…

Sunday evening we’ve moved all of about ten miles back down the road to the Municipal campsite at Alcacer do Sal…to use their facilities again for washing and recharging the van (electricity, water, etc). The current plan is (still) to head gently northwards.

So far Portugal is lovely, nice friendly people, good scenery, great climate. Ticking a lot of boxes, but sadly the not so good bit is the treatment of domestic animals. We’ve seen obviously feral cats – quite a lot in some places argueing over territory and untreated injuries, donkey’s pulling carts looking overworked at this time of year (I hate to think of what they endure in the heat of summer), and dogs….some living as Village dogs (to utilise Coppingers terminology for dogs that live alongside people but not being pets as we westerners think of it), and some “pets” being kept in small open kennel pens or confined (read chained) on tiny balconies. The squalid conditions indicating that those animals are there for considerable time periods without much attention. It’s also viewed as normal for dogs to be barking incessantly at all times of day (what I’m beginning to think of as “Yard Dogs”), and the concept of clearing up poo seems not to have reached this place.

I have to keep reminding myself and the Tollers that (a) the Tollers don’t know how lucky they are, (b) it’s a cultural difference and I’m not going to be able to do anything about it, and (c) I’ve met some dogs in England who have been “rescued” from street life in Southern Europe and they don’t always (by any stretch) adapt well to life in Southern England with all its restrictions and pressures of overpopulation…..

And finally, to reassure you that we’re not enjoying wall to wall sunshine it did rain on Sunday, and there are more showers forecast for the next couple of days…which is what prompted us to move on!

Sunshine Distractions

The wonderful warm sunny weather has overtaken us and I’ve not been near this blog, oh and we’ve also been distracted by online discussions with our Architect in Shetland.

We’ve spent time walking some of the paths around the reservoir, then decided to head to the nearest town (Alcacer do Sal) for a very reasonable night on the municipal campsite to do those sort of domestic things that have to be done. Then this morning we walked into the town and had another history walk around the mediaeval remains – this meant walking down the hill into town, cobble stones all the way. The town is steeped in history and there are still ancient communal washing places (we think clothes rather than bodies, and just about stopped the Tollers from a morning swim).

After a bit of civilisation, and the temperature heading towards 20C we decided to head back to the Pego do Altar dam Aire for another night before moving on again. We’re still trying to decide which way to go to avoid ending up in Lisbon traffic…we’ve been warned it’s a free for all!

Fascinating tree shapes….at a lunch stop near the town.

This time back at the Aire there is almost “little England” this end…with multiple other UK vans, people sat out basking and English chat being the predominant language. We tossed up whether to leave as that really wasn’t  what we were looking for in having decided to head south for the winter sun. We’ve definitely got the sun, and while we’d been warned that there were loads of other Brit motorhomers down in Portugal for the winter….well, we never intended to join them ….we’d read about sites down on the south coast of Spain & Portugal with thousands of pitches and organised entertainment…not our scene at all!

We do now both have suntan marks on our arms when we take off our watches….and have agreed that this is a first for both of us …in February! Shorts on for most of the day, our legs are in shock! We are just going to “have” to go out star gazing this evening….as there is almost no light polution and a clear sky…the stars were out the other day when we were here, but as it’s Valentine’s Day, well that’s going to be our celebration under the stars.

Southern Limits ...for now

Sunday was a quiet day onsite at Camping Alenjeto (Evoramonte) doing domestic stuff – cooking, catching up on washing. Rain showers this afternoon (shock horror), and forecast to be showery for next couple of days so no sunbathing.

Chatting to Seibo (the Dutch owner of the campsite) we learned about the Cork Oak trees and their management. Definite long term crop – with harvesting only once in nine years. The dogs seem to think the dropped offcuts of cork make good chew toys, shredding a good few. Real use….in wine bottles, and apparently loads of other things…

 

Monday we explored some of the minor roads from Evora southwestwards…somewhat unplanned due to navigation and a weird roundabout we exited the regional town on a back road…where within half a mile there was a donkey and cart plus farmer. The roads then took a scenic turn, rural farming life….

Lunch stop highlight was a Cattle Egret working it’s way down the verge beside the van, quite close. Turns out they are quite common down here, but not what we’re used to seeing in England.

We’re now as far south as we intend to be on this trip,  just over 1640 miles from Dorset (not as the crow flies) or at 38 degrees north in latitude at a Portugese Aire by a reservoir and a dam – Pego do Altar. Another place of mixed nationalities in motorhomes, this time the guide book lead us to believe “peace and quiet, good for fishing”. This translates to about twenty motorhomes, most looking like they are here for some time (overheard someone advising another newcomer…. the whole winter), satellite dishes up (for the telly…which we don’t have with us), and discussing ways to stretch the timeframe before they move (the need for things like fresh water).

Navigation team back up recovery.....

 

And yes, that's Maddie on the dashboard of the van....she's only allowed up there when we're stopped, either to sunbathe or just to enjoy the full length windows

 

Our intentions are now to turn northwards and meander up through northern Portugal and then back into Spain. Despite enjoying our first long winter holiday….we’ve realised how little of this area we’ll actually see. Oh well, great excuse for more snowbirding in the coming years.

Another Border

Thursday drove from Salamanca to Caceres, stopping for coffee at Banos Reservoir viewpoint, unexpectedly great views.

 

Salamanca was definitely another running city, Caceres not so much…in fact haven’t seen a runner here.

From the motorway, we saw our first giant black bull silhouettes, and then stork cutouts…and then on pylons beside the motorway real storks nesting. And loads of Red Kites wheeling above the landscape – we got a bit blasé like we’d been in Dorset about another spot of “little Egret” from the house. Storks haven’t yet reached saturation point for us….two days later we were still enthralled when they glide into the their nests on the rooftops of the old city in Caceres.

Spanish driving….well outside the cities on the motorways, its easy and quite relaxing…but in the towns – well scary in Caceres, especially Friday when there were police out, roads closed and a noisy demonstration going on. None of the navigation team were much use or prepared for road closures!

Caceres campsite gave the Tollers and us our first walk through Olive groves on the hill above the campsite. Some of the trees had even had bark harvested from them….makes them look like they’re going to die…but they were clearly sprouting new leaves.

And Friday 8.2.13 on the hill, I saw my first Swallow of the summer… I wondered how far towards England that tiny bird was headed.

Café culture beckoned again in Plaza Mayor on Friday afternoon, sun shining, totally blue sky, temperature display in the square …..16C. Very pleasant indeed, much better than a Friday afternoon working! Interesting old city, dating from 1300’s and another World Heritage site. We’re soaking up the warmth and culture.

 

 

Saturday the sky was clear blue all day, sun blazing as we crossed the border into Portugal. This time a new country for all of us, no exceptions. We realised that we don’t have a word of Portugese between us, and haven’t even got a dictionary or phrase book….um, we might have to remedy that as soon as we can.

To add to our brain overload on “which language is that?” we’re realising just how many other Northern Europeans are into this snowbirding malarky…..at Caceres we chatted to Swedish motorhomers, sharing information as you do….then the campsite we’ve moved to over the border in Portugal near to Evoramonte…is run by a Dutchman, and we’re camped next to Finnish motorhome…whose nice people have just given our dogs a bag of dried chicken fillets all the way from the Arctic circle. The Tollers noses were twitching before I’d even opened the bag, and the treats look like jerky….

The weather is still glorious, this afternoon we both sat out in shorts, poloshirts, hats, sunglasses and grinning like loons…for about an hour before I decided I’d better cover up again before getting sunburnt. We’re viewing it as Vitamin D medicinal, but wonderful for February 9^th.

Running gags

Burgos Campsite became a lot more endearing due to the discovery of a heated ablutions block and wonderful dog walking immediately outside the site. It then improved even further on our second night there when our Hymer attracted another five Hymer motorhomes (of various nationalities) so we had a bit of a “Hymer enclave”.

The historic and beautiful city centre was a 3km walk away – alongside the river, in the country park…so leaving Skye to snooze and watch the van, Gary and I accompanied the younger Tollers on an exploratory city walk. Best city walk for dogs that we’ve ever done – mostly off lead there and back, lots of friendly people and dogs, and no problemo taking the dogs anywhere.

I think Burgos Municipal campsite should become any “canine travellers” favourite stop off point!

Burgos city also introduced us to the Spanish enthusiasm for running….Gary pointed out that every time we went out we saw loads of runners, to the extent that he pointed out he’s done races with fewer participants! And actually, this has continued at our next city stop off at Salamanca….maybe the Spanish nation is going to end up extremely fit, or it is their way with coping with the economic downturn!

On the running theme, I’ve also realised that Spanish motorway picnic areas are the second most reliable place to witness men peeing in public – only surpassed by the mass gatherings at large road races for runners that I’ve been to in England….Honestly, what is it with men’s bladders?

Tonight we’re stopping over at Salamanca, on the way south to another Unesco World Heritage city at Caceres tomorrow. This time the runners were a little more expected as the Aire is beside the University sports ground. Spanish driving remains a bit daunting, but we have shared the driving today, so Gary’s notched up another country under his driving belt.

Weather - dry and sunny by day, chilly at night. We're trying not to be too smug! 

Round the bend....

We’ve gone round the bend…south and west from France, around the curve in the Bay of Biscay and into Spain! A first for the Tollers and me, and first time in about 42 years for Gary (apparently), so a new peninsula and Country.  My knowledge of all thing Spanish could fit on the back of a postage stamp, but is rapidly expanding – maybe this evening a book of stamps!

Yesterday (Sunday) was a beautiful sunny warm day in France, as planned we chilled and enjoyed a couple of walks in Urrugne. After all how many times do you get to go to a place name starting with a U? The  Larrouleta campsite came highly reccomended, and it did what it said on the tin…but the environment seemed so manmade it was a bit surreal…maybe it is the naked structure of the trees?

Our Hymer enjoyed being snuggled up to by another (French) Hymer who arrived after us, and in true gallic fashion parked up less than a metre from our windows. Thankfully they kept the blinds drawn “our” side and we only saw the occupants when they were leaving this morning. And for those not quite so motorhome savvy …this is in part due to our main door opening on the English side (i.e. the wrong side over here) and thus either we park the other way round to all the other vans or we end up with our door opening towards another van…..

This morning our departure from France was heralded by damp miserly rain, low cloud and basically windscreen wipers worked for the whole journey until we stopped for a late lunch at Bermeo. We had intended to stop the night on the Aire there, a small town on the coast near to Bilbao, but the low cloud and rain meant we couldn’t even see the sea, never mind find our way around on foot to explore.

Over lunch we took the serendipity approach which is so much a part of the motorhoming ethos….we changed tack and considering the weather forecast (rain on and off along the coast for the next few days) we decided to press on southwards towards Burgos where there is an open campsite. One factor was that after some reviewing of our criteria for overnight stops, not that many places are open at this time of year, take multiple dogs per pitch, and for later this week have decent wifi (as I have to do some work online).

So this afternoon we decided to chase the sun southwards and set off around the Bilbao ring road, complete with roadworks. Spanish driving is going to take some getting used to – different speed limits apply to all motorhomes, they have quite specific laws about not crossing white lines….and it seems enjoy having traffic merging /peeling off either side of the carriage way. The Spaniards also seem to enjoy different interpretations of the road signs to what we had understood from a bit of reading up before crossing the border….ahhhh….we had also read that the standard of driving might be (as it was euphemistically termed) “not quite up to British standards”…..no kidding!

With only one minor hiccup of a missed turning, we exited the big city and started on the motorway out towards the south. This rapidly got more interesting with snow covered mountain tops appearing, and the landscape turning, well.....more Iberian. My notion was that it reminded me of the ITV Sharpe series about the Spanish Peninsula War …during the early 1800’s, so bang up to date then…..

Never mind, as we continued eating up the miles on the motorway, we broke free of the gloomy weather, climbing up to see blue skies and sunshine ahead…this principle of flexibility and going south to seek winter sun is working! And to bring us up to date, at one point we could see five different wind farms….which left us both shaking our heads wondering why they didn’t cover the hills in solar panels down here at these latitudes…guess it’s the better subsidies!

We pulled into the campsite at Burgos, the only open one for about a hundred miles to find a nice site, half full of Dutch and English outfits in the middle of a large country park. We will have to look at the weather forecast and may decide to stay a bit longer to explore…the Tollers already approve of the walks, the onsite cats to watch from the van…Gary likes the park enough to want to go for a run tomorrow morning….Serendipity strikes again.

 

Cafe Culture and wildlife

Watching one of the motorhomes depart from the Aire at St Jean Pied de Port we wondered what the excuse the Italian registered van had for setting off down the wrong part of the access road ...it was one way, a sort of roundabout.... We have our sat nav systems set to remind us to drive on the RIGHT, but we thought that Italians would be used to such ideas!

We then all enjoyed a warm sunny mornings walk around the mediaeval town of St Jean Pied de Port, the Tollers just had to swim in the fast flowing River Nive (clear blue green meltwater)...all three of them. Walking along the ramparts with the dogs all on lead was amusing, but was then surpassed by an on the spot decision to partake of the traditional French pastime of a coffee outside a Luis's bistro. We could all take to cafe culture! The Tollers were promptly offered their own water, so I pointed out that they had just had plenty of opportunity for a drink while swimming.

Our cappucinos arrived, piled high with frothy cream....I took my spoon to the cream, and the first spoonful got caught by a gust of wind and blew across the table, landing not far from Wings nose. Gary smirked, trying to be polite and not roar with laughter at my amazed expression. Within a couple of minutes it was my turn to laugh as some of his cream whipped onto the bridge of his nose as he tipped the mug. Sunshine, cappucino and blustery wind - not something we'd thought to be treated with caution.

We left the town and headed off before lunchtime and while enjoying more beautiful views and weather we had to slow up due to catching up with two tractors on the road ahead. Due to our sedate progress we also had a couple of cars following us, so now we had a bit of a convoy. Without much ado the second tractor decided it was time for "Tractor Grand Prix" or was it "Tractor Monte Carlo" we weren't sure. But both sides of the road - going up a slight hill - were taken up by the tractors. I eased back a bit, not at all sure about what the heck was likely to happen next, and sure enough all three of the cars behind us whizzed past, only to then stand on the brakes, straddling the white markings in the middle of the road - close behind the two Tractors. Naturally the tractor trying to overtake didn't have enough ooomph to get past the other one easily.....and on an incline..... there was a bit of light flashing from the lead car, and a  car coming the other way..... I dropped back a bit more. We both made a few comments about French drivers, and as the tractors moved back to the right side of the road, the cars accelerated over the brow. Adrenaline spike!

Within a few hundred metres we saw a sign for a picnic stop and decided to stop for an early lunch to get over the excitement...and to let them all get a long way away from us. The interesting thing about French viewpoints in this region is that they seem to be a bit coy about telling tourists about them. This one had stunning views of snow covered Pyrennees in the distance, but there wasn't any hint of the quality of the viewpoint. It was serendipity (or maniac drivers) that got us there. I was so distracted from the tractor excitement I forgot to get the camera out!

While eating our lunch in the van we enjoyed fabulous views of up to seven Red Kites quartering and using the thermals to hunt for their next meal to scavenge. Another unexpected bonus, and a reminder that we haven't even really thought about wildlife watching so far this trip. We've seen some birds, some familiar, some questionable and some that have made us roll our eyes.

A couple of winters ago we spent a cold few days driving all over Norfolk to get a glimpse of the only few wild Cranes in England ...well, the only ones that aren't part of a "rear and release" scheme. We endured quite a bit of bad weather and stood around in the cold with a group of birdwatchers waiting for a glimpse of three of them as they came into roost one cold evening. Driving down through Acquitane we spotted a field almost full of Cranes from the motorway - a LOT more birds, and closer!

Last night and today the weather has been less inviting ...we've had our share of wind, rain and hail interspersed with dazzling sunshine. Hopefully it's a short break from what we'd been enjoying. This did influence our decision to move on and do a bit more driving. So, it was lunch in Biarritz (sounds flash, but in reality was "just" another seaside town out of season. Maybe we're blase about such things having lived on the south coast of England for so long in a tourist hotspot.

This evening we're settled on a campsite at Urrugne before moving on to Spain on Monday. The plan is to catch up a bit with domestic stuff tomorrow - Sunday seems to be becoming our "at ease" day....as if the other days weren't easy enough!