Mind your Peas and Q's

For the benefit of others who might be one flipper short of a wet suit, the initials Gf refer to the Good Fairy, aka 'my wife' and not, as Julian has apparently been under the impression, my Girlfriend.
Apositely, she wishes me to relate what she considers a faux pas on my part which have I have neglected to share with the wider audience.
Shopping is best done by her giving me a list and I go down to the flavour-of-the-month supermarket on the scooter as I can carry far more without her 65 kilos on the pillion. This causes occasional problems as I am expected to use my iniative when confronted with Johnny Foreigner's idea of Tesco's,packaging,labelling and obscene parts of an animal apparently being offered for sale. (And I would like to point out that it was not my idea to buy Pig's Cheek, even if it was cheap and didn't taste too bad in the end). Anyway, we are currently buying fresh fruit and veg. at a lorry parked daily outside the Lagos Municipal Cemetary, where everybody stops doing anything whenever a cortege passes as a mark of respect. There are no prices on display, and you wander about rummaging through crates with your own plastic bags then take whatever you want to a rickety old weighing machine where without even looking at you your produce is weighed and a figure written in an old notebook. This is then totalled and you are shown what you owe. ( not a calculator in sight). Now this may sound highly suspicious but we were directed here by local word of mouth and I have to say that 5kg Oranges, 2kg Bananas and assorted carrots,apples,runner beans and cougettes for 4€ sounds pretty good value to me. However, the point of this ramble is that when I returned on Friday with my rucksack of goodies I duly handed them over to the Gf for storage. After A few minutes, I was called back to explain why I had purchased 4 small cucumbers and where were the cougettes. They are very small cucumbers but are they are definitely cucumbers, I have to admit, as we are now existing on cucumber salads for the forseeable future.....any recipes on a postcard to
The Municipal Cemetary, Lagos, plot 916.

Sun,Sex(?) & Sangria

At last we have discovered the Algarve that everybody waxes lyrical about. And the Gf has discovered jugs of Sangria (a nice little drink for the ladies). The weather has steadily improved, breakfast is taken on the patio and we have ridden further afield on the scooter, exploring the back roads down to small coves where ther is little or no developement and have been rewarded with stunning views and beaches. We had lunch on Sunday at a beach bar in a small cove called Zavial Beach (Praia do Zavial) with a view to die for and spent the afternoon just watching the surf roll in. The restaurant was solidly built with a terrace above the beach and ideal for family sunday lunches as the kids were sent off to play on the sand if they looked like getting fractious whislt the adults got on with eating and drinking. The food was delicious -fresh fish and meat grilled on a barbecue with salad and washed down with vinho verde-the Gf had the usual 5 sardines, so large she only managed 4, and I had a monkfish,prawn and chorizo kebab that was one of the best things I've ever eaten.
Monday, being an even better day, we rode the 25kms to SAGRES and onto CAPE St.VINCENT which you will recall is the most southwesterly point of Europe and a point that all shipping heading up or across the Atlantic must pass, and where Henry the Navigator,a much decorated patron of Portuguese sea exploration, established his School of Navigation c.1450 (No records exist of its actual location). It's just like CAPE WRATH but with sun and surfers. Very dramatic, well worth the detour and we spent a very agreable time wandering the cliffs. From pictures seen, it is even more dramatic in a storm when waves regularly top the enormous cliffs but getting there on a scooter in those conditions might be somewhat fraught. The pretty road back was not so much a road as a dirt track for a great deal of its length - note : white roads on the map may not be surfaced.

We have nice neighbours on the site, all who have have been here before - John & Kath stay here from October to May every year and are a fund of information, and Henri and wife (Dutch) on the other side of us are most friendly and chatty.

Sat.27th

Had a great ride inland up to a reservoir in the hills with excellent views and lovely walks around in perfect silence except for the birds. Lovely scenery and the country roads almost deserted. Then rode down to the coast (through what appeared to be a private golf resort being remade) and found the beaches to the east of LAGOS where we spent a very pleasant few hours......the beaches here are either small hidden coves or 10 mile stretches and always a very acceptable beach bar which is open (unlike in France where it would only be open in July and August.) Even at the reservoir there was a restaurant by the carpark, run by a Dutchman where I had a a huge slice of his homemade apple pie and icecream to die for. Also dotted about the reservoir were at least 8 motorhomes parked off the road in clearings and obviously wildcamping.....apparently reservoirs are well known wildcamping spots which are seldom troubled.

Have also visited another well known Algarve must-see spot to the west of LAGOS called Ponta da Piedade, a series of caves hollowed out by the sea. They can be visited by boat but it was his day off so we just walked down the cliff as far as possible for photos. Quite dramatic

Still cannot accept the level to which the Algarve has been colonised by the British, Germans and Dutch. There is an english language radio station (kiss fm), at least 2 english newspapers which are real eye-openers and all you hear in the supermarkets is english and german. I find it quite depressing for some reason.

Sat.20th.March

Upsticks bright and early on Tuesday for the relatively short 70kms along the Algarve to LAGOS ( pronounced Lagosh) and not to be confused with somewhere in darkest Africa, Nigeria I think.. The plan was to follow the pretty route along the N125 which ran from door to door so speak and has been called the most dangerous road in Europe ( or was that the N340 in Spain which we travelled so much ?)......they all merge into a red mist of buttock clenching moments. Anyway, we were going to detour into ALBUFEIRA for lunch as we thought we ought to look at the self-styled capital of the Algarve as we were in the vicinity.The first pangs of doubt arose as we circumnavigated FARO and bore left with the N125 rather than bearing right onto the A22 motorway which was being heavily touted as THE only way to get to LAGOS. After a mere 100 yards the road surface began to resemble a washboard (younger readers should refer to their mothers for an explanation of this allusion). And it wasn't pretty. And it had a lot of roundabouts. And potholes. But we got to ALBUFEIRA at lunchtime and tried to find our way down to the beachfront or locate a good parking area for motorhomes near the football ground apparently. The Satnav couldn't cope with new roads built this month into yet another holiday complex and I couldn't cope with the narrow hilly oneway streets full of parked cars.....we could see the beach (and it did look nice) but getting there was proving difficult in a motorhome. The Gf tends to get disheartened in these circumstances and the only possible larger carpark we found had a sign, reserving the spaces for local buses, after we had turned into it. I am sure that a bit more perseverance would have found us on 'the Strip',fabled
downtown central but the tackiness of the whole place had left me without the will to live. Its very clean,tidy etc with great views of the Atlantic but I think it's Legoland-meets-Scarborough-sur-Mer.
OK.....we have never been to the Algarve before (and now I know why) and I had not appeciated just how English it is. At least until here, signs outside shops,bars or restaurants were in Portugese with maybe a translation. Here, they are unashamedly in English only. Bars are called The Plough,Pig's Head or The Bull, restaurants offer the All Day English Breakfast and Bars advertise Happy Hours whilst showing all the premier league matches on Sky with a promise for the ladies of wall-to-wall episodes of the current Soaps.
OK...so I'm being snobby but I just find it horrendous and couldn't shake the dust of Albufeira from us quickly enough and head westward on the A22 motorway, having had enough of the N125 as well.
Arrived at our new watering hole around midday without further incident, 3kms west of LAGOS, next to a village called ESPICHE and a walk away from LUZ, which I now discover is famous (or infamous) as the village from which Madeline McCann was abducted. I am on alert as bing an orphan I feel particularly vulnerable.
Booking in was no problem, assisited by the ample charms on display of the comely Portuguese receptionist ( the Gf sniffily declared them to be surgically enhanced, but what do I know?) but the first pitch allocated was a) already in shade from a wall and tall firs and b) difficult to access so we had a scout round and found a perfect pitch, 916, which was very large, had a bit of a terrace and uninterrupted sun from east to west. Apparently had only just been vacated by an enormous RV so was just the job and was not subject to another booking so here we are and THE SUN LOUNGE IS UP AGAIN.
TURISCAMPO is a very nice site, terraced,good pitches,good facilities, lovely swimming pool and decent bar with restaurant serving daily all-you-can-eat-buffet for 6.90€ with bigger version on sat/sun for 9.90€. Also well stocked shop. LUZ is a bit of a hike, esp. on the way back which is more uphill, but the large village is quite charming with stunning horseshoe shaped beach and cliffs. But it is very,very,colonised by the brits and very developed. The local supermarkets know the trade they are catering for and the selection is very british and expensive (There was a very large display cabinet full of vintage ports at 90€ +). We had a nice sundowner at a beachside restaurant, great for watching the surf and the sunset and I can see the attraction.
So far we have explored LAGOS (that's Lagooosh,otherwise we are in Nigeria which might be confusing)which is a pleasant watering hole, Bournemouth-sur-mer and all of the above apply, great beaches and great looking beach restaurants. Full of brits en vacance and oiking round the narrow streets which are full of restaurants. Good local museum and the golden chapel of Santo Antonio wherein lies the tomb of Irishman Hugo Beaty who led the Portuguese army against the Spanish. Found 2 very large supermarkets, the native Pingo Doce and an Intermarche, both much more reasonably priced (Wine at 2€ and less) but both still catering for the anglo-european trade.
Cultural Note (1): All the supermarkets have a good supply of Port but the most popular variety appears to be Tawny, with many different brands from around 6€ upwards. This is not a version I am familiar with but rest assured tasting notes will be supplied soon.
The Port brands range from the unknown to the usual suspects and I noticed a bottle of Dows Midnight at 5.99€ which I think retails in the UK around the £8-£10 mark. LBV port is much less in evidence, White ports are very common and I shall re-aquaint myself with some in the interests of research, as I foolishly only bought one bottle of spanish brandy before we left......
Cultural Note (2) : I had assumed a smattering of Spanish would suffice for Portugal. Wrong. Apparently the language ratings are Portuguese,English,French and Spanish as a last resort and that spanish spoken by a non-spaniard is more or less unintelligible to the average Portuguese. As I have discovered. Habla Inglese ? receives a blank stare as it should be Fa-la Ingleesh (there are an awful lot of eesh/oosh/osh sounds in Portugal).

We have explored some way along the coast, notably to BURGAU and a rather fine tucked away beach called BOCA DA RIO which had 20 or so motorhomes wildcamping a stones throw from the crashing surf. Again this appears to be tolerated in the winter but there are tales of police fining people for camping if they so much as put a table or chair outside the van. Many people on the campsite have indulged in wildcamping occasionally and I have seen another copy of the Motorhometrails book which is supposedly still in print form Vicarious Books and is being updated this year by James Gamgee..see www.motorhometrails.com
The main problem with wildcamping here is the problem of water,waste and toilet emptying
and you can spot the wildcampers coming into a campsite for 1 or 2 days to refill and empty everything. The real diehards fill up with water from drinking fountains or buy bottled at Lidl and carry iron hooks to lift sewer manholes to empty toilet cassettes.But everybody knows bars or restaurants where these things can be done after chatting up the owners and where public standpipes can be found. We've picked a couple of sites from the book and shall certainly aim to wildcamp for a few nights after here.

The wifi here is charged (1€ hour) but there is only a really good signal in the internet room but LAGOS has a public hotspot in the main square so we might use that instead

Well done England but beaten by the better team.

Goodbye to Spain, Hello Portugal

Monday 15th.March

A very pleasant evening at the restaurant followed by tearful farewells on Friday morning as the wind whipped sand into the eyes of everyone watching us depart at 9.30 on the dot .....No, I jest,as it was a beautiful morning, the best we had had in 30 days. As we settled the bill at Reception for electricity (24€) we booked again for next year with a
60€ deposit and although the pitch we had been staying on and thought highly of this year (318) turned out to already booked from Dec-April 2011, we secured 177 which has been manicured with plastic honeycomb blocks to avoid sinking in the mud should next year be the third consecutive worst winter in living memory as the Gf confidently predicts. She is such a pessimist and says she will not give Spain another chance if she is right. I might be lonely in 2012.
Anyway the sky was blue all day and the sun beat down all the (uneventful) way to OLHAO in Portugal. On the way we passed the 2000 mile point for this trip and 25000 mile point for this motorhome in 2 1/2 years or exactly 10000 miles a year. The 180 miles to OLHAO was not remarkable for scenery and we sailed across the border at 2pm. Camping OLHAO was easy to locate and is a rather strange place. Lots of chalets and a large site with many smallish pitches under trees with lots of caravans permanently inserted and covered with tarpaulins. The wide roads however are nose to tail with motorhomes, cables everywhere and many looking as though they have been there all winter. It was just a question of finding a free bit of tarmac, parking and locating an electric point somewhere. We finally settled on a piece of sandy gravel at the bottom end ( conveniently close to the local railway line to FARO for irritating background noise) already occupied by 3 vans parked parallel to each other (sewdish,french & dutch). There was just room to park across them without restricting their exits too much but definitely close enough to be irritatingly obvious as they all sat in their sunloungers and watched the view disappear as we manoeuvred in front of them.........Hey..they usually do it to me - remember Lake Maggiore with the lake view obscured by a german van with malice aforethought when we were the only 2 vans on the campsite ! Anyway I had to be sure of getting a clear satellite signal for the Rugby and the Bahrain F1 and this was a very good spot.
The Campsite is large and very busy but mainly German,French and Dutch outfits with a lot less UK vans than we have usually encountered. The europeans love this kind of free-for-all site whereas the brits do like individual pitches with hedges that they can immediately surround with a windbreak whether there's wind or not. They have to use the roads here as most units have no chance of getting onto the shaded pitches but whether this is just a winter thing I don't know as we are all parked across obviously marked car bays which may well be needed in the summer when the tents and caravans fill the pitches and the chalets are all in use.
On Saturday, we walked the mile or so the town Of OLHAO which proved interestingly quaint but unremarkable. On the way we passed the fishing port and a carpark with about 60 motorhomes parked in front of the police station under a restriction sign indicating bo caravans or campervans. Again mainly German and french but 3 Uk plates who I chatted to for info. There are no official overnight parking sites for motorhomes (unlike France & Germany) but there are many places where it is tolerated-this being one-and you have to find out where they are by trial and error. I was shown a dog-eared copy of a 2005 publication (now out of print) called Motorhometrails-Portugal which listed about 70 of them with very detailed descriptions of how to find them in very isloated places on the Atlantic coast with spectacular locations and apparently well used by the wild-camping fraternity. I took some notes and GPS and we may well try to find a place called Porto Covo. OLHAO had avery nice market with loads of fruit and veg, and indoor fish market with fresh fish from the local boats in front of it. Back for the rugby which again disappointed with an England-Scotland draw that was dire.
MOTHERS DAY.... Julian and Justin, unable to be with their mother today, did the decent thing and took her out for lunch. Or I did on their behalf, and this may be the first they know of it......so lads, she thoroughly enjoyed a splendid lunch of sizzling fresh prawns fried in lashings of butter and garlic followed by a local delicacy called Cataplana da Peixa which was very similar to a Bouillabaisse and served in a big bubbling covered pot, washed down with an excellent local Chardonnay,sitting in the sunshine on the quayside, and it has only cost you 30€ each. And she says thank you very much - as do I.
On Monday by bus and train to FARO, only 12 mins by train (2.10€ each return).A nice place, very pretty round the old town and harbour, and a jolly interesting lunch in a small square with a huge barbecue trough against a wall and where you picked your fish from the boxes on offer.....obviously fresh that morning, GF had 5 large sardines and I had Dourade. Other unrecognisable choices available and whole octopus which was v.popular and looked horrendous after being chucked on the barbie. This was all served with a large salad, small steamed potatoes in their skins, a dish of olives and pickles, puddings and coffee for 25€ all in. My Dourade was superb as were the sardines and a jolly good experience.

We're leaving 'sunny Spain'.................

Thurday 11th.March

Just when you think the weather couldn't get any worse we had another horrendous spell that lasted till Tuesday. Spanish Tv should snow chaos in Burgos,Madrid and Valencia with snow as far south as Jaen, near where we stopped on the way down here. The border at Jonquera was closed through snow which we had crossed in sunshine 2 months ago. Monday night saw an especially nasty bout of rain and high winds spring up as we joined Nick & Barbera and Bob & Sue for a meal after the usual monday night buffet had been cancelled under suspicious circumstances-the bingo session cum salsa lessons appear to have run their day and the management is looking for new ways to entertain us.
Tuesday and Wednesday dawned bright and cheerful however and the birds have started singing in the mornings and the cicadas cicade ( or whatever they do ) at night. Had a very pleasant day exploring Barossa again and ran into our recently arrived neighbours, John and Allison, who are very serious tandem riders and clock up 2-3000 miles a year the hard way. They are good company and have arrived via Turiscampo in Portugal where we are off to on Friday so much up-to-date information was forthcoming over tea and cakes.
The wednesday night quiz saw us relegated to 4th, with a new quiz master, and our winning partners, Dave & Kath, of 3 weeks ago. We were lying 2nd at the halfway stage but dropped off badly, not knowing that it was Malaga that was opening a third airport terminal and that Billy Connolly was the comedian in The Last Samurai (i chose to answer Timothy Spall who was in it but obviously not comedic enough.This grated somewhat as of course we visted the temples where it was filmed in Japan last year). However, we did know that the link between a seven times F1 champion and the Spanish prime minister was that their names translate into "Cobbler".( I'll send the answer on a postcard to those who can't work it out). Our score of 36/50 shows the increased level of hardness, and the winners only scored 39 1/2 and happened to be our new neighbours, John & Allison.(second and third were on 37 and a tie-break). So in 5 quizzes we came 1,2,3,and 4th twice out of 15-20 teams which I am quite smug about and can be as this is my blog.
In view of a dodgy forecast of rain on Thursday a management decision was made to move off the pitch early on thurs.morning before the drying effect of the last 2 days could be reversed and spend the night on the road by the restaurant. This also allowed us plenty of time to wash the gripmats,ramps and groundsheets at the carwash prior allowing us to leave early on Friday. This proved to be a very good move as we were able to extricate ourselves with very little fuss ( and no swearing) from the quite deep ruts we had sunk into and all the equipment was caked in sand and mud that needed a fair bit of attention. And it did rain on THursday afternoon so we are ahead of the game. Meeting all at the restaurant tonight for farewell drinks and off to OLHAO, Portugal tomorrow.
I apologise if anyone tried to log on a few days ago and had problems with virus alerts. I downloaded a site-traffic counter from Google who provide the blog service and it appears to have contained a trojan. After an email from Julian, I managed to remove the gadget with some difficulty and it now seems OK. I thought Google would have verified these add-ons it recommended.

F1 Predictathon update

I'm still new at this . In order to link to the F1 predictathon, you will need a username and password which can be obtained (for free) by emailing subject …”No really, Schumacher is too old for this” to F1predictions@hotmail.com .whereupon you will be able to predict the outcome of F1 races and read my son's erudite and amusing critiques of the F1 circus, complete with misspellings and occasional grammatical errors as he believes Spellchecker to be the spawn of satan and an impediment to the creative flow (unlike his father and brother who don't need it anyway). Even if you only have a passing interest in F1 give it a go

Rain,Wine & Quizzes

Fri.5th March

The Gf was very poorly in the end and had to spend the day in bed being sick after consuming a glass of wine from a bottle she had opened 10 days previously.....that's the only explanation as we both had eaten the identical food. And anyway, who keeps a bottle of wine for 10 days? She felt better by saturday but a bit fragile so we all trooped off to Medina Sidonia for sightseeing and a spot of tapas for lunch (except the Gf who refused to touch anything).Pates's back is still giving him agony and affecting his driving as he now tends to drift to the right and fall off the road....if you've driven on spanish side roads yuo'll know what I mean.....and on dual carriageways he hits the rumblestrip with unnerving monotony, even when being tailed by police cars who have definitely got him on their radar.
Anyway back in time for Italy beating Scotland and England giving another dire performance against Ireland and dinner at the camp restaurant which was v.pleasant. Sunday was a long day of leisure as we had a table booked for lunch at 3pm at La Patrie in La Muela about 10 miles inland on a hillside overlooking the coast with stunning views.This place was highly recommended, only opens Sat/Sun and is run by a danish couple...fusion cooking denmark meets andalucia.. the format is a running buffet (16€ a head) with lots of dishes that you just return to as many times as you wish until you are satiated. It was extraordinarily good, the roast beef was to die for,and we discovered an extraordinarily drinkable wine from Cadiz called Regantio at 9€ a bottle which I shall search for in bulk before I leave.
Monday was Andalucia Day and we went to Arcos which is a charming hilltop white town with very narrow,steep streets and not pedestrianised. You could tell the local cars by the old scrapes down the sides and tourist cars by the new ones. Whoever has the local concession for wing mirrors must be worth a fortune.Very pleasant 3 course lunch for a mere 6€ in a pleasant courtyard and cross country drive back with Pates running off the road every so often ( I shall monitor the comments box very carefully ). As it was their last night we ate in the camp restaurant and then retired to their chalet to finish off the contents of his temporary wine cellar. The weather since they arrived has not been too bad but they took it with them when they departed 8am Tuesday morning as it then rained for 48 hours with very high winds.Local TV is full of pictures of floods and devastation in Southern Spain and it is a real problem for the local population but everywhere is the same. Portugal is no better and the south of france just as bad.
Quiz night on Wednesday.......came 3rd. (12€) 44/50. Would have been 2nd if I had not been shouted down over the first national park (peak district) by the Gf who was convinced it was snowdonia.However, over 4 weeks we have been 1,2,3,& 4th out of about 20 teams so feel quite smug. Thursday was a good day so we rode to Fuente del Gallo and walked along the beach and Friday started well so we rode off to discover the beaches at La Barrossa which turned out to be quite magnificent. There appeared to be a storm brewing out at sea so we didn't linger after our picnic but we shall return soon to explore the area more fully. People around us are getting anal about the weather with hourly forecasts being bandied about but it all depends on which website you read. It must settle down and when the sun is out it is very,very warm.
Number 2 son has added a link gadget to the site and I trust you will all visit his worthy blog and Julian's F1 predict-a-thon which is very amusing.