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!