Thursday 28 February - Sagres

Where's Bertie? He's in a very large car park, by the fort on the headland just outside of the small town of Sagres (exact location: 37.00527, -8.94565).
Weather: Lovely and sunny, but with an increasing wind making this afternoon feel cooler than this morning.

It's been a day of beaches and coastline. I didn't want to leave Lagos without seeing the beach, so after a walk up to the post office this morning we crossed over the pedestrian bridge to the marina (timing it badly, arriving just as it lifted for a yacht to pass through) and headed south.

I'm not a fan of soft sand, and even down at the shoreline we didn't find a firm surface, so it was a flying visit. We walked down to the water, admired the huge expanse of sand, wondered how crowded it gets in summer, took a couple of snaps and walked back.

Looking one way down the beach...

...and the other

Not much time was left on our parking ticket by the time we got back to Bertie, but we only used a fraction of it to stow the last few things and get on the move.

As we're rapidly running towards the end of this trip, we missed out the next couple of places we would have liked to have visited along the coast and made for Sagres instead, parking Bertie in a large car park that sits between the town and the fort: 

Fort straight ahead, Bertie on the left.

It was a disappointment to find that one can't access the headland without paying the fort's entrance fee (a bit like Land's End, I suppose). So, we didn't visit the most south westerly point in Portugal (indeed, in Mainland Europe), but walked a little loop along the cliffs, into town then back on the other side of the headland, which gave us some rather nice views:

For that walk I was wearing socks that had come off the knitting needles only minutes earlier:

After making two pairs of socks from the blue stripey yarn, and a pair of socks, two pairs of fingerless mitts and a pair of gloves from the rainbow stripey yarn, I thought I just had enough left over to combine into a pair of trainer socks. I did indeed and now just those five tiny rolls remain from the original 4x100g balls. In a continuation of the 'using up leftovers' theme, I think I'll cast on a hat next, even though it's not remotely hat weather.

Wednesday 27 February - Lagos

Where's Bertie? His wheels have not turned since yesterday, meaning he's still at the Aire at Lagos.

Weather: Bit of an overcast start, becoming quite grey by mid afternoon, before clearing to sunshine.

Lunch was today's main event, and after surveying the options along the riverside and in the old town, we settled on a place just a couple of eateries along from the market hall. It turned out to be a choice with which we were more than happy: very good food, together with a fantastic waitress who managed to talk everyone who looked at the menu into stopping for lunch - including us. This is quite a skill - I'm usually resistant to being dragged into anywhere off the pavement. But this was a lady full of character. 

Here she is in action...

...although it's not the best illustrative photo, as she's got her back to the camera, so you can't see her advanced years. 

Immediately behind where I was sitting was a chain separating this eatery's tables from those of next door. The owner there hadn't got the same powers of enticement as our host, so he stood in his doorway with his pavement tables empty bar three people, watching next door fill and empty, fill and empty. 

Lunch itself wasn't cheap by Portuguese standards (not that it was outlandish either), but it was very tasty. I took a remarkably poor photo of the main course (minus my homemade chips, which arrived a few minutes later): 

Mick: braised lamb; me: squid

It's a good job we went for a run this morning (a coupe of repetitions of the riverside promenade) to justify a little bit of our piggishness. 

Tuesday 26 February - Lagos

Where's Bertie? He's at an Aire just on the edge of Lagos. It costs €3 per day to stay here. Water and showers are available for an extra fee. Exact location: 37.11535, -8.67939.

Weather: Sunny until mid afternoon when a layer of high cloud built. Breezy for a few hours in the middle of the day, making it feel cooler than of late.

A visit to Decathlon at Portimao only added a few kilometres onto our journey to Lagos, so that's where we were to be found mid-morning today. Two new sports bras were soon procured to replace the one that went missing yesterday (I did check with the office this morning, but no-one had handed it in). Then it was onwards to Lagos, where the Aire was quite easy to spot:

Our 'All the Aires' book says the capacity is 20. There are rather more than that here, but still plenty of space.

It's a couple of kilometres from here into town, but mostly along a nice riverside promenade...

 That's tomorrow's running route sorted then!

...and that's where we headed this afternoon, for a quick recce of the location of the places I'd intended us to visit tomorrow. None of the three main visitor attractions in the old town (Slave Market, Municipal Museum, Fort) would have particularly grabbed me individually, but I must be a sucker for a discounted combined ticket. That plan suffered a blow when we found that the museum is currently closed for renovation.

We didn't explore at great length, but the old town, within substantial walls, seemed nice enough for a wander. It is tourist resorty, but not quite to the extent of Albufeira. It also seems to be stuffed full of Brits, altough we are very much a minority at the Aire.

By the time we were on our way back to Bertie the sun had well and truly been obscured by a layer of cloud and I was glad to have a windshirt, although my legs were still warm enough in shorts. The locals, of course, are still wrapped up in their big jackets.

Some motorhomes have much more character than others!

Monday 25 February - Silves

Where's Bertie? Incredibly, he's still in Silves, for a seventh consecutive night.

Weather: Still glorious sunshine, but a bit cooler and breezier than yesterday.

Our decision to stay yet another night in Silves was made entirely on the basis of wanting to have lunch at the place that had been recommended to us (the one that we would have visited yesterday save for it not serving its Menu del Dia on a Sunday). How disappointed we then found ourselves, having already paid for an extra night, to find the cafe closed.

A wander was had around the rest of the town, but nothing appealed, except maybe a repetition of yesterday's lunch, so toasties in Bertie it was.

On the face of it, the extra day wasn't a complete write-off, in that we made a final use of the running track around the riverside park, and I took the opportunity to hand wash a few more things. It was only at the end of the day that we came to realise quite how expensive that extra night had been: during the day someone nicked off with my sports bra from the communal washing line!

It's an odd item to have taken, and I would very much like to think that it was accidental - but the bra was pegged in the middle of a line that contained only our washing, so it's difficult to see how someone could confuse it for their own. Moreover, the pegs that had been holding it had been repositioned onto other items of ours.

How very annoying! But, no point crying over spilt milk, and at least there's a Decathlon not far from the route we'll be driving tomorrow.

Sunday 24 February - Silves

Where's Bertie? He's still at the commercial Aire at Silves.

Weather: a perfect blue sky all day, with excellent air clarity and nice and warm (around 22 degrees).

At some of the places we stayed earlier in this trip, down on the coast, we were almost plagued by orange sellers, with multiple knocks on the door each day with someone trying to sell their wares. Here there is just one orange seller. He's an old chap, a bit lacking in teeth, and distinctly wiry except for his pot belly. He arrives every morning and circles the Aire with his wheelbarrow carrying bags of oranges and tangerines, whilst singing out his 'Laranja, Tangerina!'. Some days he seems to be here for hours, going around and around seemingly in the hope that someone will suddenly realise they have a fruit shortage. Today he seemed barely to arrive before he was gone again. Perhaps we weren't the only people in need of oranges today and thus he sold his quota quickly (I'm picturing his wife waving him off each morning with the words "Don't even think about coming home until you've made €x!")

We don't usually buy our oranges in quite such large quantities. We may have to up our consumption:

The other thing that happens every morning is that at around 9.50 a couple of women (it's always women) bearing bags of laundry will start loitering outside of the laundry facility. There are only two washing machines (and one dryer, although in the current weather and with the Aire being well supplied with communal washing lines, that's a bit redundant), so by the time I realised, at just gone 10am, that clean clothes were on today's agenda, I'd missed the early boat.  So, for the first time on this trip I stopped being so lazy and washed the most-needed bits (mainly very wiffy sports gear) by hand. Even without a spin, there was no question of it not drying today.

We should probably have then gone for a bit of a wander somewhere, but I got sidetracked making a design modification to the protective cover I made for the driver's seat. It's my third design iteration and I'm hopefully getting nearer to perfection on each try. The passenger seat still has the first iteration, which is perfectly functional, but doesn't look very professional. Once I have a proven design, I'll be on the look out for some material to make a matching set. (I made the 'living room' seat covers out of a pair of curtains I acquired. It's nice material, but I'm coming to the conclusion that off-white isn't the most practical colour!)

It was thus nearly 1pm by the time we headed off into town in seach of some lunch. The eatery that's nearest to us offers an excellent value Menu del Dia ... except on a Sunday. So we walked on by and settled for one of the grills by the market. There we had bread and olives to start, half a piri-piri chicken with a mound of chips (Mick), 6 sardines with a mound of boiled potatoes and a sizeable salad (me), a bottle of water, a glass of beer, a glass of wine and two coffees - all for under £20. As I type this (1730), it's feeling like we won't be needing any tea tonight.

Saturday 23 February - Silves

Where's Bertie? He's still at the commercial Aire at Silves.

Weather: Wall-to-wall sunshine and very pleasantly warm (low twenties).

The track that runs around the riverside parkland (and huge town car park) in Silves is just under 1.1 miles in length. First thing this morning, starting before the sun had burnt off the overnight mist hanging above the river, I ran 10 miles on it. I can't claim it was the most interesting route I've ever run, but it was easy and required no concentration.

Whilst I was out, Mick extended our stay. We'd talked about staying one extra day, but he slipped and paid for two. That will be the longest stay on any tour we've made since February 2013 (in Braemar, when snow kept us in situ longer than intended). This brings me to the subject of the wonder of solar power.

Our previous van, Colin, didn't have solar and whilst we are not generally power hungry, with only one 100Ah battery (giving a total usable capacity of 50Ah) we couldn't sit still for more than three days without being very frugal with our energy usage. We would then need a decent length of journey (or a hook-up) to recharge. We did consider having a solar panel retrofitted, but were put off by the cost, combined with uncertainty as to how long we would keep Colin (as it happens, easily long enough, at 5.5 years, to justify the outlay).

For Bertie, we specified a solar power from the outset, and realised its value within a week of our first trip (even though it was Scotland in February). This week is a prime example: the only pitch available at this Aire didn't have electricity, but six days of sitting still here has not been a problem, because not long after the sun hits the solar panel each day, the power we've used overnight has been replaced. With electric hook up being €2.50 here (it's often more, sometimes a bit less), it's a money saving thing, as well as a convenience.

Other stuff from today:

• It was market day - I saw lots of people carrying bulging bags of produce during the latter laps of my run. So, once I'd stopped glowing and had showered, breakfasted, elevensesed and all that good stuff, we headed off for a look. The verdict: the market is *the* place to buy your fresh fruit and veg! So much cheaper than the supermarkets. Having failed to take a bag with us (how?!) we had to be a bit restrained coming away with two enormous (and very hard; if they do ripen it'll be at least a week, I reckon) avocados and one fig and almond cakey thing.
• I finished the gloves I've been knitting. The pattern was of my own devising (based on a fingerless mitten pattern that I liked and a glove pattern that had elements that I didn't) and I fine-tuned the stitch counts on the second glove, so it was pleasing to get them to match to such a high degree:

• In a bit of a random opportunistic purchase from one of our neighbours, I bought a Brompton:

  

  

  I've wanted one of these for a long time and whilst this one could generously be called 'a little tired', it was cheap enough (in Brompton terms) not to be put off from using it by fear of theft. Before it can be used, however, it's in need of a spoke, some brake blocks and a good lock, so it'll likely just get in the way for the rest of this trip.

• Mick's out running as I type this. He says it's going to be a gentle affair, so that he can run again in the morning ... we'll see.
• The storks who have taken up residence in a lopped tree are making steady progress on their nest (I cannot tell you how many storks I saw this morning, as I circumtrotted the park, carrying large sticks in their beaks). Below the nest there are, predictably, plenty of sticks that have succumbed to gravity. It seems that they don't pick these back up (perhaps they're considered defective because they wouldn't stay where they were placed?) but fly off down river for more.

Thursday 21 February - Silves

Where's Bertie? He's still at Silves.
Weather: Overcast start, gradually clearing to give wall-to-wall sunshine by this afternoon, but quite breezy.

The usual routine on a running day:
- get up (around 0730 on this trip);
- banana and cup of tea (I use the word 'tea' loosely - in my case this means a mug of hot water with a slice of lemon);
- don Lycra and get out the door;
- return somewhere between 30 minutes and a couple of hours later;
- upload run stats to Fitbit/Strava;
- wash and change;
- have breakfast.

By the time all that has been done, it's usually time for elevenses (a moveable feast that normally falls somewhere between 10.30 and 12.30) and often by the time we've had elevenses, it's verging on lunchtime. It's thus very easy, with a bit of reading, knitting, researching and/or loosing chunks of time reading mindless stuff online, for the day to disappear away without any sights being seen.

Today was one of those days when even the smallest lapse of concentration could have seen 2pm come and go without us going out to do anything (except for that morning run). Happily, concentration was applied, so up to the castle we went.

We timed our arrival badly. I'm not sure if this is a cruise-ship-land-tour destination, but there was a sizeable queue for entry, and those in front of us seemed to be mainly American. Slowly but surely, the queue did shuffle along, and entry was gained.

Our guidebook had made it sound like maybe the visit wouldn't be worthwhile, and if we had only been here for a day or two we likely wouldn't have done more than look from the outside. Whilst there's not an awful lot inside, the walk around the walls was good and overall the modest entry fee was justified:

Inside the castle. The interior renovation was completed in 2009. The exterior renovation (including demolition and rebuilding of some wall sections plus one tower) was undertaken in the 1940s.

A couple of views from a couple of the towers

Also from the castle walls - looking down on four storks' nests, all at low level compared with the lofty perches they usually choose, suggesting that the prime real estate had all been taken by the time these four couples arrived in town.

We had opted to buy the €3.90 tickets, rather than the €2.80 option, which also gave us entry into the nearby archaeological museum. We've seen enough such museums (including the excellent one in Murcia, Spain) that we don't often feel the need to view speciments of pot shards and hammer stones, but for the small entrance fee given by the combined ticket, thought we'd give this one a go. The most interesting thing about it is that the museum building has been constructed around the centrepiece of a cistern-well (a national monument). The exhibits were comprehensive (as I observed at the time, if there was an Eye-Spy book of archaeological museums, we would have got a full house here), and wanted only for a bit of history telling (preferably written in layman's terms) to go alongside the exhibits.

These two visits didn't come consecutively, as in between the castle and the museum sits a cafe and as we walked through its terrace it struck us as sensible to stop there for some lunch, what with it being 1330.

Despite appearances, Mick wasn't about to run away from his lunch

The combined castle/museum ticket came with one further 'perk': a wine tasting at a place in the square just down the road from the museum. As much as we like a freebie, we skipped it; I don't drink and the obvious purpose of a free sample is to put the sell on you to buy a bottle of something. We're not in need of wine, so we walked on by.

^{(A bit of an aside: last night's disturbances: 1am - bin lorry; 2am - an in-Bertie game of 'hunt and kill the mosquito'; 6.30am - air raid siren. The latter was a bit of a mystery, until we were walking past the fire station at smack on noon, when it went off again, so close and loud that we couldn't hear each other speak. We still don't know the purpose of the siren, but from the exact times of its sounding, we guessed it wasn't to deter the stork which was sitting atop it. The stork didn't appear in the slightest bit perterbed by the racket beneath its feet. There were also, of course, barking dogs last night. There are always barking dogs. But, these weren't close enough to constitute a disturbance.)}

Wednesday 20 February - Silves

**Where's Bertie?** He's still at the commercial Aire at Silves. I didn't mention yesterday that there's also showers here (50c for 5 mins) and a laundry.

**Weather:** Some cloud about, but plenty of sunshine too. 

I'm going to tell today's story in a bit of a random order. With this many photos, and with Google having broken the photo-posting interface with third party apps, I thought it would reduce the pain of using the Blogger dashboard if I added all of the photos in one go. Unfortunately, it's not put them in chronological order and with only my phone as an editing tool, I can't move them about. 

We'll start, therefore, with the biggest excitement of the day, which was the Volto ao Algave international multi-stage bicycle race coming straight past the Aire. I'd thought something was afoot when I saw a chap set up a folding stool on the pavement across the road. About half an hour later a flashing police car came past, followed at intervals by lots of police motorcycles. Sometime amongst all this there was a general exodus from the Aire as people went to see what was going on. Mick joined them (Bertie's the nearest van to the entrance to the Aire, facing the street, so I watched from the comfort of the sofa): 

It was quite a while before any bicycles came along, and then it was only five. I felt sure that wasn't going to be the end of it, given how many cars, festooned with brandnames and with roofracks full of very expensive looking bikes, had been past. Sure enough, a while later the peloton made an appearance ... and about 10 seconds later it was all over.

Skip forward a while, and we took another walk around the town. Portugal's towns and villages seem to be full of abandoned houses, many with only their exterior walls still standing. It's a strange thing: there will be two well presented houses, and in between them a shell. This magnificent house, with which Mick was rather taken (for a while I feared we were in line for a permanent move to Portugal for one heck of a renovation project), is on its way to joining them, but for the moment it still retains its roof:

On the opposite corner is another unusual building, in that it is the typical walls-but-no-roof-or-windows shell, but, perhaps because of its position making the adjacent square look untidy, it has been given quite a paint job:

Skipping back in time a tiny bit, we took a stroll over the old (of Roman origins?) bridge, from where this snap was taken, looking up at the castle and cathedral. The river, incidentally is tidal, even though it feels like we are a good way inland - there was much less water in it when we ran around the riverside park first thing this morning:

Back again in time - after the bikes and before the walk - we were sitting minding our own business, when there came a knock at the door. Two students were selling cakes and savouries made by their mother. Well, it would have been rude not to, wouldn't it? My goodness, they don't skimp on their cake portions:

I'll finish with a quick mention of the storks. There are a huge number around here. Looking up into the sky in front of Bertie early this afternoon, there were 12 to be seen circling around. Many more are sitting on nests. The sound of clacking beaks is often to be heard. This couple seemed to be checking out the potential for this sawn-off tree as a nest sight:

The only other news of the day is that we have already extended our stay here to four nights, so we'll be here until at least Saturday.

Tuesday 19 February - Silves

Where's Bertie? He's at a commercial Aire just outside of the town of Silves. It costs €6 per day to stay here, including the usual services and good wifi. Electricity is available to most pitches (but not Bertie's) for an extra fee. Exact location: 37.19041, -8.43810.
Weather: Sunny and warm

Most Lidl supermarkets in Portugal have four extra-long bays reserved for motorhomes. That may have previously also been the case in Silves, but they now have a shiny new store in a location where their only parking is under the store, with a height limit of 2.3m. Inconvenient, but not too much of a problem (given that we didn't need much) when there's a huge town car park just across the road - except that there's a total prohibition on motorhomes entering that car park, day or night.

Bertie was feeling rebellious, though, so we went and joined the other dozen motorhomes in that car park, although in our case only for as long as it took to shop (curiously, the day when we didn't have the option of pushing the shopping trolley to Bertie's door was the day on which we needed mainly heavy things).

The Aire where we wanted to stay was only a few hundred metres further along the road, so there we went next. The gaggle of motorhomes parked outside hinted that there was no room at the inn, which was duly confirmed by the receptionist. At least here we were permitted to stay in the car park outside between 8am and 8pm (and others looked suspiciously like they had spent the night), which meant we could approach the next Aire on foot. It was only another 500m further on, and it seemed pointless to drive there when we had every expectation that it would be full.

To our surprise, we were offered a choice of two spaces (one of which was clearly never intended to be a pitch), so we picked the nicest and here we are. It's a nice place, so it's possible that our two night stay could get extended.

Although a little out of town here, Silves is not a big place, so it was an easy walk this afternoon to go into town, up to the castle and through the streets, getting a feel for the place. Here's a little of what we saw:

An eye-catching artwork on the training tower at the fire station:

A big chap outside of the castle:

I'd like to know the story behind this sculpture-filled fountain:

From the bottom of the town, looking back up to the castle and cathedral:

Sunday & Monday 17-18 February - Pêra

Where's Bertie? He's still at the Aire at Pêra.
Weather: Overcast but dry yesterday. Decidedly wet today until lunchtime, then a few light showers.

On Saturday morning I ran the best part of 10 miles and returned without any twinge, niggle or ache. On Saturday afternoon we went for a walk and I returned again without any twinge, niggle or ache. On Saturday night I went to bed in the same state. It was thus a mystery to wake up on Sunday morning with a pulled muscle in my leg (inner thigh, so not somewhere I would expect to hurt by running or walking). After putting considerable thought into the subject, my best guess is that I did it when contorting myself to bring the outside door mat in (trying to reach it without stepping outside) last thing on Saturday night, in anticipation of rain that didn't come.

I did manage to go for a walk yesterday but today have decided that complete rest is required. Thus the entirety of my exercise today has been a couple of walks over to the facilities.

I left it to Mick to walk over to reception in the rain this morning to extend our stay (no point moving when the rain and my leg means we wouldn't be doing much today anyway). On a whim, he decided to treat us to a day of mains electricity too, which was a lovely thought, although it resulted in him taking another walk over there in the rain for a refund when he discovered that there wasn't a hook up point available within reach of Bertie.

The lack of mains power isn't a problem. Even on this heavily overcast and largely rainy day, Bertie's solar panel has captured enough sun to bring his leisure battery back up to 'full'.

Mick has been rather more active than me today, taking himself off to run a couple of laps of Saturday's circuit just before lunch. I have entertained myself with my book and with a new knitting experiment: a pair of gloves. The first one is far from perfect, but it fulfils all of the fundamental criteria for a glove:

Friday & Saturday 15 & 16 February - Pêra

Where's Bertie? He's at a large commercial Aire to the NW of the village of Pêra. It costs €9.50 for the first night, €7 thereafter. Electricity, showers and laundry facilities are available for extra fees. The usual services plus toilets, washing up and laundry sinks are included. Exact location: 37.12905, -8.32241.
Weather: Wall-to-wall sunshine yesterday, but bits of high level cloud at times today. Getting breezy this afternoon.

We left Albufeira yesterday morning and pausing only at a supermarket came straight to this Aire (Mikki's Place) at Pêra. Advertised as having 150 places, we weren't optimistic about there being space as it has perhaps the best reviews I've ever seen on Park4Night.

It did look pretty full as we approached. It also looked rather nice - a landscaped area of plants and water features housing very generous pitches, rather than an uncharacterful, crammed-in car park. Only one proper pitch was available, ill-positioned right opposite the pottery shop/reception/cafe, but there was space in the overflow area around the back, and that is where Bertie is now sitting for three nights.

It's obvious, looking around the place, that a lot (most?) of the people here are settled for the long term. It's certainly the nicest place we have seen for that purpose. I think, however, that there is a key requirement for such a long stay here, in the shape of some alternative form of transport. Many people have a car with them too; almost everyone else has bikes, whether motor, electric or of the push variety. If we had just the latter, I suspect we would extend our stay to a full week. However, in the absence of a means of transport other than our feet, we're a bit limited as to what we can do around here.
We did, of course, go for a strollette yesterday afternoon, establishing that there's not much to see in the village and checking out a bit of a running route I'd downloaded from wikiloc.com.

I'm glad we did that recce, as part of it turned out to be cross-country, with only the faintest of trods to follow, which would have made it awkward to navigate whilst running.

A nice route, but not much of a path to follow

I would have only done one circuit (plus a little out-and-back somewhere) of that route this morning, except that today was fine and calm, whereas tomorrow is forecast to be wet and windy. Thus, in spite of waking with a very poorly head, I brought forward my longest run of the week and ran four laps. Mick joined me for the first two - at 5 miles his longest run since his most recent return from injury.

The earth around here is of very attractive shades of red and orange. Mick was particularly taken by the combination of those colours, plus stripes of green in this field of vines.

Post-run we sampled the showers (50c for 5 minutes). I've many a time grumbled about showers being too cold (yesterday morning in Albufeira being a case in point), but today's complaint was just the opposite: I could barely stand under it for the heat. (I later found out that the temperature is adjustable in the gents; I'll have to go in there next time.)

The rest of the day has been frittered away doing bits and pieces of not a lot. The sun plus wind dried the rinsed-through running gear in super-quick time. My latest reading book was finished. Another stroll was had. We rued not having deckchairs with us. And bikes, of course.

I suspect there won't be a blog post again tomorrow. If the weather is as forecast, we will do even less tomorrow than over the last two days.

Thursday 14 February - Albufeira

Where's Bertie? He's still at the commercial Aire at Albufeira.
Weather: Wall-to-wall sunshine, but a bit of a breeze today.

It was bit of a struggle to find myself a running route for this morning. Being in the suburbs most of the roads have a pavement on at least one side, but there are also lots of side roads. Side roads have two problems: the potential to have to keep stopping for traffic and the danger of me having an aberration and looking the wrong way when crossing. I couldn't find any off-road paths of a decent length nor identify any nearby tiny lanes that looked suitable. Eventually I found a location that would involve only one road crossing, but with the downside that it also involved running around the same block five times.

The block around which I ran was mainly huge villas, completely out of keeping with everything we've seen in small-town Portugal. There was just one empty plot, being put into use by these occupants - the four legged ones looked a little out of place in such a built-up area.

With little enthusiasm for more walking around the town, and with a good breeze blowing, tackling the washing finally came to the top of my to-do list. It wasn't an arduous chore: the Aire has a laundry, so I was able to put a load in then return to Bertie until it was done. That dried so quickly that after lunch I put another load in, which is going to almost, but not quite, dry before the sun dips out of sight (which is going to happen about ten minutes from now).

Aside from a walk to the shops to buy bread and cakes, that's all we have done out of doors today. Otherwise, it's been a quiet day of reading, interspersed with a bit of cleaning and a bit of planning (a very little bit - we've identified where we're headed tomorrow).

Wednesday 13 February - Albufeira

Where's Bertie? He's at a commercial Aire in Albufeira. It costs €9 per day to stay here, including the usual services plus (unusable) wifi, electric and showers. Exact location: 37.09881, -8.24279.
Weather: Wall-to-wall sunshine and warm.

To our surprise, last night wasn't overly disturbed by planes or trains. Early buses were more of an issue, together with the group of chaps who had a good long chat before they slammed all of the doors of their cars at least three times over, at 2.30am. Even so, we woke refreshed, ready for a day which was to include an activity that may be considered a little out of character.

Our run, to start the day, was completely in character. The rough cobbles were a little unpleasant and my loop around some city streets at rush hour was a mistake, but otherwise it was a nice route, mainly along the waterside and in perfect weather for it. When I say 'perfect weather', there wasn't a cloud in the sky and we were both aglow in short sleeved t-shirts. The locals we saw out running at the same time were all wearing at least jumpers and in a couple of cases padded insulated jackets.

Over breakfast I researched laundries and found there was one a 5-minute walk away. Our laundry mountain is getting out of hand, so I really should have gone and made use of it ... but once again, I deferred the task for another day. Instead, we headed off across town for a spot of retail therapy.

Now, this is not generally like us. With limited exceptions, neither of us considers shopping to be a leisure activity. One of the exceptions to this rule is that we do have a bit of a weakness for a Decathlon store. Alas, the Faro branch didn't have any chairs, which was the main thing we were after, but we did leave with a few purchases, including a set of cheap walking poles to do service as dog-fending-off devices (we do, of course, already own walking poles*. They're sitting at home right next to the outside chairs and table, which were also missed when packing for this trip).

Next to Decathlon was a retail area, where we probably could have spent another while, but the day was marching on, so we made do with a quick trip to the massive hypermarket to pick up a couple of items that we couldn't find in smaller supermarkets.

Back in Bertie decision time had been reached: where to go next. The conclusion: Albufeira. I knew this place was one of the main resorts along the Algarve coast, but somehow I didn't picture it to be this big, or this 'resorty'.

I didn't want to write the place off just on first impressions as we drove in, so to the commercial Aire we came, where we were lucky(?!) enough to get a slot.

The view through Bertie's windscreen. Out of shot, the van on our right is less than 2 metres away and on our left less than 3. They're not the most generously sized spaces we've ever come across.

I suppose in the context of somewhere safe, secure and legal to spend the night, it's tolerable, and it's no worse than car parks we've slept in elsewhere. In the context of somewhere to spend weeks or months, I personally cannot understand the appeal (in the manner of 'stuff of nightmares'). But, it's often said that the world would be a dull place if we were all the same, and that's how the Brit parked immediately in front of Bertie was in reception paying for another month, whilst Mick was there paying for our two nights.

The town beach

A bit of sculpture, down by the beach

After a very late lunch, enough light and warmth remained in the day for us to walk the 1.5km down to the beach and around that area of the town. It was an outing that cemented the feeling that this town is not the sort of place we're looking for on our travels. However, we're paid up for two nights, so this is where we will stay.

^{(*I can understand how the chairs and table were forgotten, as they're not on our packing checklist. However, the walking poles are. The possibilities for their omission are: 1) they are in fact in Bertie's garage and we've just not looked hard enough; 2) we were so sure that we'd packed them that we erroneously ticked them off; or 3) we made a positive decision not to bring them - this is possible, but if true, neither of us has any recollection.)}

Tuesday 12 February - Faro

Where's Bertie? He's in a large car park right on the coast at Faro. I thought it was just a car park, but on arrival we found that one row of spaces is reserved for motorhomes between 2pm and 8am. Exact location: 37.01153, -7.93178.
Weather: A few more clouds than yesterday (when there were none) but sunny and warm.

Not enough happened yesterday to cause me to put fingers to keyboard (we got hooked up to the electric for the best part of a day, with no thanks to our French neighbour; a walk was aborted due to dogs; I gave Mick an alfresco haircut, which always serves as free entertainment for other Aire-dwellers; and we got overly excited to find a bread van whilst we were out and about and bought an enormous still-hot loaf), but we stayed two nights in Ameixial. Two nights was enough, so this morning we headed south down the very wiggly (and remarkably quiet) N2 road to Faro.

Ten days after last seeing a supermarket, Bertie's fridge and cupboards were so bare that when we stopped en-route at a Lidl, it was almost a case of "We'll have one of everything" rather than needing a shopping list.

The N2 had been slow going, the Lidl stop took up some time and we hadn't been early away, so when we pulled into car parking slot at Faro at a quarter past noon, we didn't hang around. Straight into the old walled section of town we went (which conveniently is right next door to where we are parked) and we went for the first restaurant we saw. It was a bit fancier than is usual for us...

...but perfectly suited to Mick's birthday celebration.

'Fancy' meant 'not huge portions' (even thought the plates were vast), which in turn meant we were still capable of doing something this afternoon other than sitting and groaning "I've eaten too much!". Mick got the choice and opted for the Municipal Museum. Housed in a 16th century convent, the building itself is worth seeing...

...but it also proved to be good entertainment for the €2 entry fee. We'll likely remember it not so much for the exhibits, but for how we collapsed into an absolute fit of giggles when we had matching surprised reactions as we sat down on a squishier-than-expected seat to read the legend (kiss frog, get gold from handsome man - that sort of legend) explaining a painting in one of the rooms.

There were also giggles when we got to the temporary exhibition of a series of artworks of which these are just two examples:

I'm not sure how wise it is to have chosen to spend the night in Faro. Between us and the coastal mud-flats (which are only around 40m away) runs the railway line. Then there's the airport, which is only a few kilometres away and under whose take-off path we are sitting. Not to mention that to be as level as possible we've chosen to park adjacent to the road. There don't seem to be many planes, so let's hope that the trains stop early too. (Incidentally, grafitti on trains here seems to be worse than anywhere we've been. We've seen a couple today that were completely covered - including the windows. It must be awful to have to travel on one of those.)

Sunday 10 February - Ameixial

Where's Bertie? He is once again sitting on a football pitch, this time in the village of Ameixial. Exact location: 37.36487, -7.95908.
Weather: Largely overcast but with a few sunny intervals and one shower. The cloud seems to be drifting away as we go into evening. (Yesterday was sunny.)

In spite of initial appearances that there was nothing of interest around the motorhome parking at Pereiro, we ended up staying two nights. Our entertainment for yesterday was a morning walk around the local Petite Randonée route (about which you can read and see photos by clicking here, if you feel so inclined), followed by coffee at the one and only cafe in the village of Pereiro. In fact, except for a builders' merchant, it was, as far as we could find, the only business there.

Our walk yesterday showed that route not to be best suited to running, so this morning I took the logistically easy option of two out-and-back repetitions along a little road, taking me from the village and up to the highest point of yesterday's walk. Mick's calf managed a little jogette too, although with enough protest that he turned back after a mile.

View from my morning run. Even though I was around 500m away, my presence had upset the dogs at the white buildings you can see, who were putting up quite a din each time I went along this bit of road.

It probably wouldn't have been too difficult to while away another day where we were, but supplies continue to dwindle, so onwards we drove.

Based on our road atlas, I'd thought that our route would take us down a little yellow road to a place to the south of our destination, where we would pick up a slightly bigger red road to bring us due north up to Ameixial. Thus, when the SatNav unexpectedly told us to turn, I told Mick to ignore it, thinking it was trying to take us a silly route. A while later, once I'd managed to get Google Maps up and running, and pored over the road atlas some more, I spotted the little white road on the latter and realised that probably was a sensible route. Too late to turn around by then, onwards we went, but the next time the SatNav told us to turn, we thought we'd obey - provided that the road looked suitable as we approached. This wasn't even a white road on our road atlas; it wasn't shown at all.

The turn came, and a good, newish, strip of tarmac lay before us. Along it we went, joking that it probably only went as far as the first village, whereafter we'd find ourselves on a dirt track. When at the second village the road did appear to run out, we continued between buildings and found its continuation the other side, albeit for a little while with a surface more akin to English country lanes (i.e. a bit of a bone-shaker). Happily, the route worked out just fine. In fact, not only was it very scenic, but I think it was also the most direct line we could have taken.

It rained shortly after we arrived here, so looking around was deferred until later in the afternoon. It's a lively village on a Sunday afternoon, with half a dozen bar/cafes, most of which were well frequented. There are no shops, but apparently grocery, fish and bread vans visit. In fact, we spotted the green grocers van this afternoon.

The church, within the earshot of whose bells we are sitting.

As for the parking here, we're sitting on a grit-surfaced football pitch again, in the company of probably 20-25 other vans. There's a service point, plentiful bins and also 16 free electric points. The latter, in my opinion, is not a good thing, particularly when coupled with none of the Aires that we've come across to date in Portugal having a stay limit (in most other countries we've visited, a time limit of between 24-72 hours is normal). There are thus some vans that have taken up residence here, thinking nothing of making permanent use of the free electricity - such as the Brit to whom Mick chatted earlier, who has been here for six weeks so far. To my mind, this sort of behaviour is only going to appear parasitical and annoying to the locals, but maybe I'm wrong - perhaps the long-term people put more into the local economy than short stayers (although with such limited shopping options and with a coffee costing just 70c, it's difficult to see how one can repay all of the free facilities).

Until a month ago there were toilets and showers here too. Incredibly (considering these facilities are being provided without so much as an honesty box requesting donations) people have given the place poor reviews due to, taking two examples, the showers (when they were available) being luke warm, and latterly due to the showers not being available at all. Apparently, it's an outrage to some people that they can *only* get free parking, water, waste and electricity here. Yes, you can audibly hear my sighing as I type this...

Friday 8 February - Pereiro

Where's Bertie? He's sitting on a football pitch (using the term very loosely - see photo later in the post) next to an Aire by the small village of Pereiro. Exact location: 37.4448, -7.58693.
Weather: Wall-to-wall sunshine. Maybe not quite as warm as yesterday but still very pleasant.

As I ran out in the direction that we had walked yesterday, I noted the things that we could do to entertain ourselves if we stayed an extra day in Alcoutim, such as a walk to take a look at the Praia Fluvial (river beach) and a visit to the castle. We could even take a boat over to Spain. But there are so many places to visit and so little time, so we stuck with last night's plan and moved on, although not before a visit to the little grocery store, which proved to be surprisingly cheap for a little village store (I am, of course, judging this on UK village Co-op/Spar standards, but the prices we paid were mainly on a par with a Portuguese Lidl).

€7.80 worth of groceries. I'm not sure what this snap says about our diet. In our defence, the available selection of vegetables was very limited. They went in more for pasta, of which they must have stocked at least a couple of dozen varieties.

The intention was to head straight back to Bertie with our purchases, but we were slightly waylaid by the magnetic attraction of a cake stall that had appeared in the street. The woman running it, who presumably also bakes the cakes, tried her best, in a mix of Portuguese and French, to get us to buy one of everything, but we held firm, for the sake of our health, with just these:

Prices were not displayed, but I suspected they were going to be reasonable - €1 each was the answer.

We only had one other errand to run before we left town: a visit to the service point at the other Aire, as the one at our parking area hasn't been commissioned. We walked past that Aire the last two days and I ran past it this morning, before we drove there. On none of those occasions was there a vehicle there. Why? Because, per a sign on the service point, as of 1 January this year a parking charge has been imposed.

To charge for parking (and/or for services) is not a bad idea at all. The main thing that Alcoutim perhaps didn't think through is the appropriate price level. Aires and campsites in Portugal tend to be cheap (our most recent pay-Aire was €5 including good wifi and use of a hot shower, plus the usual services). So, to charge 60c per square metre of vehicle, per day, just for a patch of grit car park looks very expensive, particularly when you see the size of most motorhomes out here. The second problem for Alcoutim is that there are two other places, both better located to walk into the village, where motorhomers can park for free, including the unfinished Aire, on the other side of the village. I wonder what will happen: will they revoke the charge, or start charging for the other locations?

With tanks filled and emptied, a slight backtrack took us to the road to Pereiro, where we arrived to find ourselves a little underwhelmed, as on first appearances, this Aire is in the middle of nothing. However, I was hungry enough to eat a scabby dog, so we were certainly stopping long enough for lunch.

The first task was choosing where to park. It was only later, on foot, that we discovered what must be the original, official motorhome parking area. Most people, however, are parked over the adjacent wasteland. We opted to pop Bertie onto the 'football pitch' - if you look carefully at the photo below, you'll see the goal posts at each end.

Bertie is second from left.

I wasn't feeling moved to walk the local Petite Randonée route this afternoon, but in looking at the map I did see that there was a village just a few hundred metres up the road, so we wandered there. An information sign at the entrance told us a little of its history, which is basically that it's been dying since the 1950s and there's not much industry or agriculture around here. Mid-afternoon isn't the best time to judge the liveliness of a place, but save for two chaps sitting chatting on a bench, we saw not a soul*. The only commerce we saw was a cafe.

A (pretty incomprehensible) sentence on the information sign made us detour to the church on our way back to Bertie, to see if we could make out what the information was trying to convey, but we were thwarted by a locked door.

Behind the Aire is a reservoir. Based on the witness marks on the dam and the surrounding land, it's very low on water just now.

^{(*Mick has pointed out to me that this is not true. We also saw, at a distance, two chaps (separately) having a wee in their gardens. One could thus claim based on today's statistics that 50% of the men seen in Portugal are weeing in public. It is possible that they don't have their own bathrooms. There is a public toilet/shower block in the village. Or maybe they just like the al fresco facilities.)}