Where's Bertie? He's currently sitting in a car park where he's not allowed, in Manta Rota. Exact location: 37.16579, -7.51817.
Weather: Overcast, but pleasantly warm (15 degrees at 10am; I've not looked at a thermometer since, but it's 'need a fleece' weather).
Whilst Portugal has been on our 'to visit' list for quite a while now, we did have some misgivings about coming here - particularly to the Algarve. We had heard that the place is completely overrun with motorhomes, and our experience over the few days we've been here so far bears that out.
There is said to be increasing resistance to the influx in many towns and villages (borne out by all the 'no motorhomes' signs we've seen) and I can completely understand that. It's one thing for a couple or three vans to park up somewhere for a single night then move on, but quite a different thing for dozens upon dozens of them to set up camp for months at a time. 'Camp' is the other important point here: a couple of motorhomes doing nothing more than parking is a different thing to an invasion of people getting their awnings, tables and chairs out and treating car parks like long-term campsites.
(Incidentally, there's no chance of us getting our tables and chairs out, even if at a campsite: they were an accidental omission in our packing for this trip.)
That's not to say that the invasion is all bad - this many motorhomes visiting a town or village will generate some good out-of-season income for the local businesses.
Personally, I don't want to add to the negative side of the invasion by parking in non-lawful places and thus we arrived with the intention that we would splash the cash on this trip and stay at official motorhome parking areas, even if many of them don't match our notion of an appealing night-stop. All very well in theory, except that there's nowhere near enough capacity to meet demand; moreover, when there are legions of long-termers, happy to spend the entire winter in the same place, meaning that some pay-Aires are permanently full.
All of which takes us back to this morning, when after a bit of to-ing and fro-ing at Vila Real de Santo Antonio, where we returned for me to take advantage of some good off-road tracks for a run, followed by a trip to the supermarket (which we'd already passed on our way into town, but before it was open), we headed a short distance westward, to Manta Rota.
The official motorhome parking at Manta Rosa, taken from the edge of the beach
The Aire here (capacity: 100) looked to be fit to burst, but I had a look around and established that there were three spaces, so I headed over to the office to pay our tourist tax, only to be told that those spaces did not exist. Thus, instead of paying to park at the motorhome parking per our good intentions, we are instead parked at the adjacent beachside car park, where motorhomes are banned. We're in good company: I reckon there are 40+ here at the moment, but still leaving plenty of room for cars to park.
Bertie's current resting place
This is far from ideal, as it's possible that we could be moved on at any time of day or night. However, it's also possible (as in many places) that motorhome parking is tolerated out of season, when the town is pretty well deserted and there is no pressure on the parking spaces.
(This leads us to another quandary: we could probably avoid this overcrowding issue by heading inland or further north ... but for the moment our greater desire is to see this coastline and enjoy the climate.)
Looking one way along the beach...
...and the other way. It really is huge!
Almost as soon as we arrived, Mick tested out his dodgy leg with a short jogette then, after lunch, we revisited his running route at a walk, except that this time we left the 1km-long boardwalk and took to the huuuuuuge beach. That was followed by a walk through the town which confirmed this to be very much an out-of-season resort of second homes. It's very quiet (save for lots of foreign-looking people, residing in all these white tin boxes on wheels) with at least half of the businesses looking closed up (although it could just be that we hit afternoon closing time, which can vary from 2-5 hours long).
Weather: Overcast, but pleasantly warm (15 degrees at 10am; I've not looked at a thermometer since, but it's 'need a fleece' weather).
Whilst Portugal has been on our 'to visit' list for quite a while now, we did have some misgivings about coming here - particularly to the Algarve. We had heard that the place is completely overrun with motorhomes, and our experience over the few days we've been here so far bears that out.
There is said to be increasing resistance to the influx in many towns and villages (borne out by all the 'no motorhomes' signs we've seen) and I can completely understand that. It's one thing for a couple or three vans to park up somewhere for a single night then move on, but quite a different thing for dozens upon dozens of them to set up camp for months at a time. 'Camp' is the other important point here: a couple of motorhomes doing nothing more than parking is a different thing to an invasion of people getting their awnings, tables and chairs out and treating car parks like long-term campsites.
(Incidentally, there's no chance of us getting our tables and chairs out, even if at a campsite: they were an accidental omission in our packing for this trip.)
That's not to say that the invasion is all bad - this many motorhomes visiting a town or village will generate some good out-of-season income for the local businesses.
Personally, I don't want to add to the negative side of the invasion by parking in non-lawful places and thus we arrived with the intention that we would splash the cash on this trip and stay at official motorhome parking areas, even if many of them don't match our notion of an appealing night-stop. All very well in theory, except that there's nowhere near enough capacity to meet demand; moreover, when there are legions of long-termers, happy to spend the entire winter in the same place, meaning that some pay-Aires are permanently full.
All of which takes us back to this morning, when after a bit of to-ing and fro-ing at Vila Real de Santo Antonio, where we returned for me to take advantage of some good off-road tracks for a run, followed by a trip to the supermarket (which we'd already passed on our way into town, but before it was open), we headed a short distance westward, to Manta Rota.
The official motorhome parking at Manta Rosa, taken from the edge of the beach
The Aire here (capacity: 100) looked to be fit to burst, but I had a look around and established that there were three spaces, so I headed over to the office to pay our tourist tax, only to be told that those spaces did not exist. Thus, instead of paying to park at the motorhome parking per our good intentions, we are instead parked at the adjacent beachside car park, where motorhomes are banned. We're in good company: I reckon there are 40+ here at the moment, but still leaving plenty of room for cars to park.
Bertie's current resting place
This is far from ideal, as it's possible that we could be moved on at any time of day or night. However, it's also possible (as in many places) that motorhome parking is tolerated out of season, when the town is pretty well deserted and there is no pressure on the parking spaces.
(This leads us to another quandary: we could probably avoid this overcrowding issue by heading inland or further north ... but for the moment our greater desire is to see this coastline and enjoy the climate.)
Looking one way along the beach...
...and the other way. It really is huge!
Almost as soon as we arrived, Mick tested out his dodgy leg with a short jogette then, after lunch, we revisited his running route at a walk, except that this time we left the 1km-long boardwalk and took to the huuuuuuge beach. That was followed by a walk through the town which confirmed this to be very much an out-of-season resort of second homes. It's very quiet (save for lots of foreign-looking people, residing in all these white tin boxes on wheels) with at least half of the businesses looking closed up (although it could just be that we hit afternoon closing time, which can vary from 2-5 hours long).
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