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28TH.MARCH 2012
When we arrived here we were parked near an extremely large RV that is probably larger than our home at Martlesham and more luxurious. It is owned by Tom & Pam who live in it fulltime and who are quite interesting and spend most of their time in the sunshine up and down the Algarve, only returning to the uk for 6 weeks every year. Tom is a bit of a whizz on most things to do with motorhomes, especially satellites, and in the course of conversation he asked what channels our very small dish could pick up ( his satellite is about 6ft diameter and blots out the sun). We of course are under no illusions and only use the dish in Spain to pick up BBC radio, Sky news and BBC News 24 on a good day. I learnt however that Astra had put up a new satellite a month ago as Astra 2 was overloaded with shopping/porn channels and this had boosted the signal considerably in southern Spain and that we should be able to receive more signals. He then told me that our LNB (the pointy thing in the dish that looks like a microphone) was not set correctly and instead of pointing up & down (as in 6 o'clock) should be rotated slightly to the left ( as in 5 past 7 or 10 past 8). This sounded incredibly technical to me but he assured me this was so ( and a brief walk round the sight showed very other LNB in that position) and it was a simple job and would not even require resetting back in the Uk as this was the correct setting for Astra2 south. So I got up on the roof and it took 2 seconds to rotate the LNB. We then did a reset on the digibox and low and behold we now receive 400 channels of rubbish,porn and shopping as clear as if we were in England. And we still just listen to radio 4 and 4 extra but we watch the 6pm news from Anglian Tv so we know what's going on in suffolk.
A trip out to ARMONA by ferry was a very pleasant day and included an excellent lunch of grilled seabass and a bottle of wine after wandering across the dunes to see the surf on miles of deserted white sandy beach. There are no vehicles on these sand dune islands so everything has to be brought over by boat, The 12pm ferry that we caught over was packed with litle old ladies with enormous shopping trollies filled with the weeks rations from the supermarkets at Olhao and it was fascinating watching them all being loaded by the ferry crew.
We have new boules partners, Rob & Julia, and after 3 months of being a member of undefeated men's teams, I have to report that the Ladies scored their first series win on Monday afternoon when Julia & the GF adapted better to the sand-bunker terrain we had to play on and creamed us 3-0. We were slightly hampered by a mad Belgian called Marc who did not help our cause.
The weather is looking very iffy for the next week along the Algarve so we are going to head North on Thursday instead of waiting till Sunday and will probably spend a few days next week around Arcachon in France as it looks better on the forecasts and there's no point sitting around here in the wind and rain that is now expected from Friday to Tuesday......although having said that, I've forgotten what rain look like ( apart from a shower overnight last Sunday that dumped more Saharan sand on top of us than the average school sandpit contains and necessitated a visit to the roof with mop and bucket to clean the skylights and solar panel.)
20th MARCH 2012
P&M departed following a lunch at a restauarant run by an aged frenchman with approx. 3 teeth left in his head. The €7.50 daily menu included a Bacalhau (salt cod) dish that the GF had to try with mixed results and I had the Boeuf Bourguignon which was superb. And these prices include 1/2 litre of wine, bread,olives,dessert & coffee.
Sunday saw the previously forgotten trip to Cacela to meet Bob & Carol which was a great success.Cycled to the station and caught the 9.41 train, the return trip €3.60 each which can't be bad for a 45min journey along the coast.. Bob & Carol had not forgotten and were there to meet us and show us the monthly street market that takes place on the 3rd sunday.Largest market I have ever seen and undoubtedly selling everything you could wish for and a few other things beside such as a horse,a new honda rotavator, live chickens & ducklings,snails,clams,salt cod by the ton,cheeses,meats,fruit&veg,clothes etc.etc stretching all round the town. Lunch was taken communally at long trestle tables under awnings erected for shade, in a large square where huge oil drums were bbq'ing whole chickens split in half and pork chops & ribs. You picked up plates of meat & bread as often as possible and refilled your cup from a wine box as required and when you had enough you asked someone how much you owed which was €5 a head. Great fun. Bob & Carol have a super apartment in the town bought 6 years for €125,000 when the euro converted to £85,000. 2 bedrooms etc, balconies and access to the flat roof from where you can see the beach and sea about 15 mins walk away whislt you cook lunch on the BBQ. Very nice. So we repaired to the bar downstairs for a couple of glasses before catching the 16.20 back to Olhao where our bikes where still chained to the railings.
Quiz night. I said I would explain the unusual quiz. First you play Bingo or not. Then you buy a quiz sheet for €5 which contains 4 games of 25 questions each. However, each game on your sheet has only 20 numbers and the 20 numbers are listed randomly. The questions are asked randomly so that in any game, 5 questions will be asked that do not have space on your sheet for an answer. Winner is the first person to correctly answer & complete a block of 5 consecutive questions on the their sheet for that game. Do keep up. So as people complete a block of 5 they go up to the front to be marked and if, as happens frequently, they have not got 5 correct answers in a block, the game continues. No alterations are allowed on sheets. The randomeness of this means that you can have blocks of 4 and still have to wait for the right question to come up in order to complete the blockand it gets very frustrating. Last week we got nearly every question right but never had anything like a block of 5. Anyway, this week not only did we win one game for the magnificent sum of €10 but we had another win on the bingo of €26 so we are well ahead of the game here, our winnings now totalling €71. Roll on Las Vegas.
13th.March 2012
The weather continues improving in that the days are hotter,the evenings longer and the nights warmer although the wind lurks around to discomfort the the GF whilst I merely think it is an occasional nice breeze to stop it becoming too hot.
Olhao is in the Ria Formosa, an area of marshes and sandy islands which provide 80% of the clams & shellfish ( 7000 tons annually) that Portugal consumes, and the campsite is next door to the nature reserve from which I derive my knowledge, having walked many interesting trails & read the information boards erected for the education of the unwary. It is home to Fiddler crabs (those with one claw larger than the other but so far unseen), terrapins which bask in the sun in pools,all sorts of birdlife and the remains of the last of 300 Tide mills, which was in use until 1970, restored in 1980 but now sadly in need of further restoration ( we have a working Tide mill at Woodbridge which operates at holiday times).
At sunset there is a spectacular sight as 1000's of Great White Egrets return each night to roost in the trees surrounding a small lagoon about a 30 min walk from us and is wonderful to watch. One minute the sky is empty and sun is sinking over the tree tops and then suddenly it is full of birds flying in from every direction for around half an hour,wheeling and diving,searching for perches until all the trees are so covered with them that they look like magnolia trees in bloom. And then almost at a signal the whole cacophany ceases and an eerie silence falls over the lake as the sun dips below the horizon, bathing the whole scene in a deep golden glow. And it happens every night.
The islands, or huge sandbars, have some settlements on them, fishermen and shellfish farmers, and are well served by ferries so with P&M we bought spit roasted chickens with Piri-piri sauce,bread,salad and wine at the supermarket and caught a ferry to Culatro at 11am on Friday. From there we walked across the dunes to the sea where we picnicked in the sun on an endless beach of golden sand with hardly a soul to be seen. In the spirit of adventure we walked to the end of the island, Farol, where we caught the returning ferry which calls in there on its way back to Olhao - the return trip costs €3.60 each and took about 50 mins outward and 30 mins back from Farol.At low tide the ferry sails between the sandbanks which are the shellfish farms which look like very hard, back-breaking work.
Dinner at Smokey Joe's on wednesday was €16 for an excellent variety of grilled fish, and lunch on saturday at Sergios along with a jolly crowd was the usual excellence for €8.50 a head all in.
Unfortunate news from Derek & Margaret that they will not be joining us but heading home from Spain as M. is unwell which is sad news, especially since P&M return to the uk at the end of the week......and P has been out of action with a virulent cold since Sunday, leaving me with no-one to play with.....
6th March 2012
Easy run into Portugal, and onto the N125 to avoid the tolls after the bridge across the Rio Guadiana - obviously the correct thing to do as the road was full of foreign motorhomes, although later talking to Bob who lives in Calcelha (who we met in Conil and came over to see us on Friday), the latest situation vis-a-vis tolls is that the post offices have no documentation to register foreign vehicles for the electronic toll system but the police are still stopping & fining vehicles without the registration. And as he lives here he obviously knows. ( to make matters worse the French have now enacted a law making it compulsory to carry a breathalyser in your vehicle and illegal to have a satnav showing fixed speed cameras even though every french road map shows their location.)
Anyway, arrived Olhao after stopping for fuel ( Diesel is €1.50 in Portugal, €1.35 in Spain) and supplies at the Intermarche, found a great pitch in the sun and found Paul & Marianne when wine was taken - it rained for a while, the 3rd time in 2 months but the grass needs it, whilst we swapped stories of the last 2 weeks. M is not well either so she and the GF swappped histories and compared medicaments.
On Friday, Bob & Carol came over and with P&M we all went to Sergios for the €8.50 menu of the day which was as superb as usual - I had the mixed grilled fish which was a large Dorado, 3 something else and 2 huge sardines, dishes of fried potatoes, boiled potatoes,green & mixed salads. Fresh pineapple as dessert-(mousses,flans & ice cream available) and coffee.Including bread and a litre of white,litre of red and bottled water the bill for 6 was €8.50x6 =€51 or £43.50 and was more than enough to eat. And of course the place was as packed as always. Back to P&M's afterwards where I was introduced to the latest wine experience which comes from the local bodega they have discovered in town, more of which later. A very jolly afternoon of which I have only a faint recollection and no recollection of arranging to visit B&C 18th March by train to see their house and go to the local market which only happens on the 3rd sunday of the month.
Saturday was no better. We went into town for the rather fine market held on saturdays (So much better than Spanish ones, full of fresh food and local produce at silly prices - I bought local honey made by bees that frequented the orange groves for €3 which would have cost £5.75 in Martlesham farm shop). Paul & I cycled, the ladies took the shuttle bus and by the time we met up several beers had been consumed. After a bit of shopping for veg and some meat from the indoor market, we repaired to the aforementioned casa for lunch, where a huge plate of serrano ham shaved from the haunch, a whole cheese,a basket of bread and olives and a litre carafe of the house wine came to €12 for the 4 of us. We then purchased 5 litres of this wine for which they filled empty water bottles from a huge barrel for the princely sum of €5.50 although I decided to go upmarket with the 'especial' for €7. The girls headed home on the bus but missed it and had to walk (it's only a mile), Paul & I cycled back via Smokey Joe's and had to stop for liquid refreshment so we didn't get back till 5pm when we discovered that M hadn't taken her keys to the van so couldn't get in and wasn't feeling well and the GF was convinced I was in hospital as I wasn't wearing the cycle helmet ( it not being Spain so I don't have to) so we were in deep shit.........we were not allowed out to play together on sunday apart from making inroads into my 5 litres whilst watching the France-Ireland rugby.........
On Monday we went to the quiz. A weird format but fun and I might explain it next week. We were robbed however of the top prize over the question of 'What does a vintner sell ?' Completing our sheet with a run of 7 answers, I confidently handed it in expecting to receive €22 or thereabouts only to be informed that the answer of 'wine' to vintner was wrong and that the correct answer was 'fish'. 'oh no it isn't' I said.'oh yes it is' they replied. A spirited exchange took place when I was informed that I was thinking of a victualler (?) . As I had been a licensed victualler for 30 years I told them I was not thinking of victualler and that I had bought my fish from a fishmonger and my wine from a vintner........we were not given the prize despite nearly everyone in the room agreeing with me when the answers were read out.
This morning an apology was offered as I passed the quizmasters van..but not the money..... and a lame excuse about reading the wrong answer in the quiz book but I am aggrieved. I would have been furious but I had won €35 on the bingo so the night ended up in profit anyway.
