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.
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.
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.
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