Friday 6 April 2018 - Day 33
We’re parked up in Sagres, overlooking Henry the Navigator’s Fortaleza. It’s been raining most of the afternoon, so we’re just chilling out, deciding whether or not we want to go for a walk. Sagres is a well known surfing town and legs of surfing world championships are held nearby. The parking area is basically a large car park, which out of season has a few motorhomes parked here. It’s about 500m from the town. The weather forecast for the next few days is a bit grim - not just for here but most of Portugal, Spain and southern France. It’s because of a series of Atlantic lows passing through, slowly heading north.
We had a lazy morning at Mikki’s Place, cleaning the van and prepping to move. Last night I noticed a motorhome with the streamline - A blonde, a dog and a motorhome - on the back. A quick Google and I discovered it’s the title of a book written by a lady called Sandie Dunn, travelling with her dog - Rosie. I downloaded the book from Amazon. It’s not long but it’s a great read and had me laughing out loud in places. It covers Sandie’s journey to full-timing in her motorhome after taking early retirement and has lots of useful hints and tips for achieving this and buying, equipping and travelling in a motorhome. This morning I introduced myself and she and Rosie came over for a chat and a coffee (not Rosie, she had water!). It was a pleasure to meet her and it was clear we had lots in common. Sandie’s following a similar route back to us, so we may bump into her again. If you want to read her book - you can download it here. She also has a Facebook page which includes a short daily blog.
On the way to Sagres we stopped off at one of the many pottery shops along the road. Cathy wanted some tiles to re-design our fireplace at home; we also bought a couple of long rugs for the van as they’ll be easier to wash and dry than the rubber-backed ones. We had every intention of eating out for lunch today. We stopped off at an ‘aire’ in Alvor with the intention of staying the night and walking into town. However, the ‘aire’ was a large open area of dried mud and sand, with what they may describe as pot-holes but I would describe as bomb-craters! It didn’t have a nice feel and we’ve always gone on gut instinct when finding somewhere to stay - if it doesn’t feel right we move on. So that’s how we ended up in Sagres. It was raining hard on arrival so Cathy made lunch and we’ve sat catching up on admin and reading. I think we’ll head out for a walk shortly - might even ‘hang ten’ with the surfing dudes - what ever that means! Otherwise, I'd heard of Sagres before as it's a make of beer here in Portugal - when in Sagres.....