Portugal, 4th – 10th January 2016
We’re now about 2/3 of the way down the Portuguese coastline, less than an hour’s drive from Lisbon and, more importantly, a minute’s walk from the water’s edge. We’ve experienced a week of rain, with the sun occasionally peering out from a break between the clouds to taunt us before hiding for the next downpour. Our water pump has stopped working, so we currently have no running water in the van. However, I think it’s important to point out that we’ve somehow managed to avoid killing each other or any passers-by, so we’re taking it all in good spirit.
When we finally found a pause in the rain that looked promising enough to venture from the van, we went to investigate the abbey. We’d already had one false start at visiting it earlier, when we got around the corner from the van before we realised Matt wasn’t equipped with the camera, and walked back to the van just in time to sit out a torrential downpour. This second time, with camera in hand, we made it most of the way to the abbey before the rain started again. We found an alcove to shelter in for a while but with no sign of the rain letting up, braved the elements and walked around to the abbey’s front door. Inside the abbey, the main part of the church is free to visit, or you can have a look around a couple of extra areas (such as João and Phillipa’s tomb) for an extra €5. The main section seemed quite long and narrow, thanks to the big heavy arches running through it giving it a corridor-like feeling. Apparently the architecture has some English influence thanks to a couple of English architects working on it, but despite all the churches we’ve visited all over Europe now I still haven’t picked up enough knowledge on architecture to be able to tell you what these features were!
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Post Batalya, I’m afraid to say we had several days where we really didn’t do a great deal. We were in for a bad week of weather, with the rain being too unpredictable with sudden downpours for us to want to venture much further than the inside of our van. We’ve mainly been moving from place to place at various free spots (which I’ll list at the end of this post) waiting it out for things to improve. It’s a bit dull being stuck in a confined space when it’s raining for days on end, but I keep trying to remember that with the constant updates we’re receiving about weather back in the UK (one relative now has a pond instead of a garage), we’re still pretty lucky and things could be a lot worse.
The Spinny Wheelie Bit (or Impellor) |
View of Mafra from Santa Susana |
- My New Year’s Resolution (to cook at least one meat free meal a week that Matt will also eat) is going well, with 5 of our 12 meals so far being veggie friendly.
- Despite not getting in more than an average of 19 miles a day driving since the New Year and having no solar panel, our devices still have some charge and our leisure batteries haven’t fallen beneath 75%, so our LED lights are still serving us well
- This week has been our cheapest week so far at around £35 (exact amount to be determined once we have credit card exchange rates)
- We’ve checked the weather forecast, and it looks like we’re now experiencing the light at the end of the tunnel!
- Jo
Our Overnight Stops:
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São Martinho do Porto (39.50196, -9.14165): A circular section of parking with walkways to the beach, overlooking the bay and town of São Martinho. During the day our company was mainly elderly couples parked up in cars reading the paper and enjoying the view; at night our company became couples enjoying something else, so be warned about looking outside of the windows too much in the dark!
Reguengo Grande (39.28502, -9.22135): A parking area in front of a quiet new housing development in a rural village. There is a (free) service point in a municipal area just in front of the housing site but parking is limited so we opted for this spot near two motorhomes that looked like they were parked in storage by residents.
Outeiro da Cabeҫa (39.19462, -9.18507): Parking overlooking a circular lake with an island in the middle that looks to be some sort of activity centre. During our stay we experienced no other vehicles or people (with the only disturbance being from a couple of ducks who chased away other birds as well as a poor kid goat who dared attempt to shelter from the rain in the same spot as them), making it one of our most isolated spots so far, despite being on the edge of the village. Free service point with limited parking at the sport centre in front of the lake.
Praia de Foz (39.10277, -9.39864): A free Aire in a quiet coastal village with a large beach accessible by a footbridge. The official motorhome parking area on sand/grass looked like it could be a bit soft in the rain so we parked in the mixed parking area just next to it as it was very quiet in the low season.
Mafra (38.95465, -9.33514): A small gated Aire (water €0.50/40L) on the outskirts of Mafra which is very well maintained but looked like manoeuvring would be difficult if multiple vans were staying due to the layout of the bays. There’s a motorhome club building attached which a man came out of to give us a leaflet about the local amenities. We couldn’t quite decide what to think about the place as it felt like a strange level of service for what was a free Aire.
Santa Susana (38.91836, -9.38338): A free motorhome parking area and service point on a large gravel area set back from the main road in a village north of Sintra near a sports complex. Some light traffic noise but not noticable at night. Very exposed to the wind, but it does have views out over the countryside and Mafra.
Hey Matt, its Matt. Whilst we were in Sintra we had to pick up some bits for the motorhome and went to http://www.parrachoautomoveis.pt/
ReplyDeleteThey had a large selection of parts and also were doing some repairs. They also spoke enough english to get by. Hope this helps and that you get the problem fixed soon.
Ps weather in the algarve is 18° and sunny today
Hi Matt, thanks for the info, unfortunately we've left that area though now! That's a downside of this being a few days behind real time, we've moved further south.
DeleteLuckily the weather changed here the day after this post covers so it's been similar up this way too since