I have written this text on the lap top and saved it ready for when we do (!) find a reliable and quick internet link so it it covers the last few days from Friday morning 31st January.
FRIDAY 31st Jan
We drove from Manta Rota to an Aire at Fonte Santa nr Quarteira. In the afternoon we cycled around the local patch and found ourselves in a weird and wacky ‘Beverly Hills’ type of Golfing village. All fairly expensive but completely lacking in taste! After this we went shopping in the supermarket next to the Aire................ shock horror! a LIDL! well, actually it turned out to be quite good! and cheap too! (never really thought I’d go shopping in Lidl haha).
The beach by the Aire at Manta Rota
Cacela Velha just along from Manta Rota
'Yellow Man Foon' for Lewis's mates!
Castle and church in Tavira
Grahame in Tavira (not fooning!)
SATURDAY 1st Feb
Drive to Portimao via Olhao and Faro (fond memories of Faro, but it still is a bit too ‘kiss me quick’ for us).
Upon arriving at the Aire we discovered it to be full of about 250 motorhomes, most of whom had settled in for winter! OMG it was like a Gypsy Camp! It was very cheap (2.50 a night) and clearly attracted all the people who were more interested in sitting outside in a car park all day than seeing the local culture and sights. They had generators, tables, chairs etc and gathered in groups (weird!).
Grahame at the 'Port' nav mark at the entrance to Portimao
Portimao 'Gypsy Camp' LOL
We cycled a few miles along the road to Alvor (much nicer and more traditional but still a bit touristy) for old times sake as we spent a few days in Alvor lagoon when we were on Goosey.
Alvor church (wonder if Poddy remembers this?)
Alvor Lagoon
SUNDAY 2nd Feb
Next day we cycled around Portimao (very dull) and left the gipsy camp around midday and set off for Foia which is a mountain top near Monchique. We could not get out of Portimao fast enough!
The drive to Foia was just beautiful, a complete antidote to the busy and ugly concrete jungle of the Algarve coast!. The region is very hilly and full of Cork, Chesnut and Eucalyptus trees. We got to the top of the mountain (2900ft) and parked up in one of only two spaces on the Aire. The top is of course full of various radio masts, radar heads and an observatory. However the view was quite spectacular, with a 360 degree view of nearly the whole of Southern Portugal.
The sky was blue and there was not a puff of wind, we were looking forward to a quiet night....................
WRONG! around midnight the wind got up to around gale force 8 and a thick fog formed! In these conditions it is best not to have a vivid ‘horror movie’ style imagination! The wind buffeted the van all night and there were very strange noises all around us! Sleeping was broken to say the least.....
MONDAY 3rd Feb
Anyway, eventually the sun came up, the fog cleared and the sleep deprived night began to fade away. We drove the scenic way to Silves and pulled up in a really lovely private Aire just outside town (6.50 inc elec and wifi).
In the afternoon we walked into town and wandered around the Castle for a couple of hours. The castle has a grand history and was built by the Moors in the 11th and 12th Century
Later the lack of sleep caught up with us and it is at this point that I am writing these words. I suspect the quality of my writing could be better but to be honest I just want to get something down before I forget!
Hopefully I will be able to edit and post a few (more interesting) photo’s.
Tara for now :)