Adios Piri-Piri, Hola Tapas! Seville and El Rócio

Portugal and Spain, 29th February – 4th March 2016

After two months we’ve finally put Portugal behind us, which means that we’ve got to swap our ‘obrigad(o/a)’ for ‘gracias’, and also that sadly there’s no more cheap piri-piri chicken on the horizon.  The good news is that I’ve already found a way of filling the food-shaped hole in my heart; after all, we’re in tapas territory now.

The Final Stretch of the Algarve and Mina de São Domingos

Portugal, 24th – 28th February 2016

We have finally left Portugal, after two months here we've spent about twice as long here as we’d originally planned as we've enjoyed it again down here and found lots more nice and interesting places. We were aiming to get over to Morocco this winter and had gone as far as having immunisations while back in the UK and buying a Rough Guide and Camping Morocco books, however were not completely decided. The key thing that was still required was a vehicle insurance green card for the period that we would be there which would have to be arranged and posted, and after realising we were going to be in Portugal for a longer period it would be March before we would arrive which would be too late really as we’d want to allow 4-6 weeks over there. In addition there would be the added mileage on the van and a service due, so decided it will have to be left for another time.

Eastern Algarve: Faro, Loulé and Estói

Faro marina

Portugal, 20^th – 23rd February 2016

We’ve finally moved on from the Portimão area, and after a few weeks on the southwestern end of the Algarve we are covering new ground in the east, with the Spanish border coming ever closer.  We’ve had a few learning experiences this week, namely about the limits of what our solar-free electric setup can cope with, and also about what may drive a person to physically suck on a tap (the good news is the water pump still works, and hot showers are still within my grasp).  We’ve also been catching up with fellow motorhoming friends Matt and Ellie, which marked a special occasion in our fridge: the cans of Lidl lager were replaced with not just bottles, but branded bottles.  First bottled wine and now beer, aren’t we fancy pants?

Ferragudo, Monchique and Alvor

Portugal, 15th – 20th February 2016

Taking over from where Jo left it last time, we had several more days of a busy week with my parents on holiday visiting us. It was nice to spend time with them down here and we had a great time doing more sightseeing and walking. It was a shame the weather wasn’t too good, it was mixed with mainly dull skies, some rain showers and a bit of sun. Typically after my mum and dad went home it improved that day becoming sunny and warm, then the following days were very nice with sun and temperatures around 22°C.