Where's Bertie? He's at a free Aire at Castro Marim. Exact location: 37.21979, -7.44447.
Weather: Some cloud about at points during the day, and a strong northerly wind. Jumper needed when out of the sun or in the wind.
When I woke up, far too early, at 5am all was calm outside. Half an hour later Bertie started to be rocked gently by the odd gust of wind, but nothing too severe.
By the time I got back from an 8-mile run (a nice route that took me to Monte Gordo - the next town along the coast), that wind had picked up to around 25-30mph. It was almost stopping me in my tracks for the final kilometre I ran along the riverside, but fortunately for the rest of the outing I had been sheltered, or had only been hit side-on.
Arriving back at Bertie, Mick had already taken him over to the service point, saving us a queue at that time of day when everyone else is wanting to use it, which gave me leisure for a quick wash and breakfast before we needed to pay up for our 72-hour stay and leave. In a fine display of last minute planning, we then sat outside of the Aire and decided where we were going.
Last Thursday, just after we arrived in Portugal, I pointed out a large fort sitting up above a village adjacent to the road to our destination of Vila Real de Santo Antonio. My planning had let me down, as it was only later that I realised that we had also sailed straight past a free Aire there. We hadn't intended to backtrack, but on the spur of the moment this morning it became our destination, being only 5km back along the road.
Arriving here, we were extremely lucky: there was one spot vacant in the official motorhome parking area. Based on observations during the rest of the day, they don't come up very often, but dozens upon dozens of other motorhomes have driven past. Had there not been a space here, a large nearby car park is used as overflow parking, but there is a comfort in being parked in the officially designated place.
Since arriving, our new stove-top coffee percolator has been tested out on our neighbour (Mark from York) and we've been for a couple of walks. We think we've now seen everything there is to see here, which is mainly the two hilltop forts. This village itself has more than its fair share of both run-down and falling-down buildings, although we did notice that the church looks pristine. Having been so lucky as to get a parking spot, we had thought we would stay a couple of nights; but there's so little here (and the walk route I've downloaded includes a couple of kilometres of busy main road, making it a bit off-putting) that there's a fair chance that we'll move on again in the morning.
Looking at the newer fort from the older one
Animal pens? inside the old fort
Spot the Bertie!
No need for railings when there's a big drop off from a walkway at a visitor attraction...
Salt marshes as seen from the old fort
From the top of the keep of the old fort, looking over to the newer fort
Weather: Some cloud about at points during the day, and a strong northerly wind. Jumper needed when out of the sun or in the wind.
When I woke up, far too early, at 5am all was calm outside. Half an hour later Bertie started to be rocked gently by the odd gust of wind, but nothing too severe.
By the time I got back from an 8-mile run (a nice route that took me to Monte Gordo - the next town along the coast), that wind had picked up to around 25-30mph. It was almost stopping me in my tracks for the final kilometre I ran along the riverside, but fortunately for the rest of the outing I had been sheltered, or had only been hit side-on.
Arriving back at Bertie, Mick had already taken him over to the service point, saving us a queue at that time of day when everyone else is wanting to use it, which gave me leisure for a quick wash and breakfast before we needed to pay up for our 72-hour stay and leave. In a fine display of last minute planning, we then sat outside of the Aire and decided where we were going.
Last Thursday, just after we arrived in Portugal, I pointed out a large fort sitting up above a village adjacent to the road to our destination of Vila Real de Santo Antonio. My planning had let me down, as it was only later that I realised that we had also sailed straight past a free Aire there. We hadn't intended to backtrack, but on the spur of the moment this morning it became our destination, being only 5km back along the road.
Arriving here, we were extremely lucky: there was one spot vacant in the official motorhome parking area. Based on observations during the rest of the day, they don't come up very often, but dozens upon dozens of other motorhomes have driven past. Had there not been a space here, a large nearby car park is used as overflow parking, but there is a comfort in being parked in the officially designated place.
Since arriving, our new stove-top coffee percolator has been tested out on our neighbour (Mark from York) and we've been for a couple of walks. We think we've now seen everything there is to see here, which is mainly the two hilltop forts. This village itself has more than its fair share of both run-down and falling-down buildings, although we did notice that the church looks pristine. Having been so lucky as to get a parking spot, we had thought we would stay a couple of nights; but there's so little here (and the walk route I've downloaded includes a couple of kilometres of busy main road, making it a bit off-putting) that there's a fair chance that we'll move on again in the morning.
Looking at the newer fort from the older one
Animal pens? inside the old fort
Spot the Bertie!
No need for railings when there's a big drop off from a walkway at a visitor attraction...
Salt marshes as seen from the old fort
From the top of the keep of the old fort, looking over to the newer fort
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