Chicken Run

19th Dec

Today we woke up to glorious sunshine, although the temperature dropped last night, I left the Truma heater on low, as we are on EHU so the van was quite snug in the morning. We met a few other British people on the site, and it was nice chatting in my native tongue for a change.  After a cooked breakfast "it's been two weeks" a welcome change from Cereal and Yoghurt, or Ham and Cheese baguette, we wandered into the town. It's a small village, a few bars and restaurants a couple of small supermarkets, a bank with a hole in the wall, so pretty much all we need. The walk took about 15mins, uphill for most part, so easier on the way back. We stopped at one small bar and had a quick bottle of beer.

 Parked up at the Chicken Run

 

Mexilhoeira Grande this way

 

Today I found out I am a Belarus drinker? I took this test on BBC News Health?  It appears the amount of wine we have consumed lately has pushed me over the national average? It said, after inputting my data.
"Your drinking habits are unlike the average from any country. But your closest match on overall consumption alone is Belarus, the heaviest-drinking country in the world"
Typical BBC scaremongering. I'm not buying into it!!

                             Max has his eyes on the chickens, he'll make em run

So it back to the van and chill. The sky is clear and the stars are resplendent, there is hardly any light pollution, but it's damn cold? Chicken Madras tonight, and a few games of cards! The grape diet is back on by the way..


20th Dec

I got up during the night "call of nature" and checked the thermometer while I was at it! minus 2 it read? Maybe it's because we are in the mountains?
Today when the sun rose it was another glorious sunny day. A stroll into the village to the butchers, our meals over the weekend, and to the small supermarket. We stopped at the bar we frequented yesterday and had a coffee and a brandy each, I was given a two large 6cl brandies with the two coffee's €3.40? = £2.79 so we had another. (Be rude not to)
We plan to stay here till the 27th then move on towards Spain, we will be going to Cabo de Sao Vincente, and up along the coast to Bordeira for a day whilst we are here to break things up, probably on Tues.
A gritty performance against a poor team IMO in Hull, and yet we played better last week and got jack, so 3pts in the bag onwards and upwards, the Xmas period is coming.
Tonight we got chatting to my sister on Skype "my brother set it up for her" I have not seen her since Dale & Helen's wedding in 2013, so it was great to chat and catch up, like my brother she can also chat for Wales! " Maybe it's a Chaves trait" Thankfully we have great wifi on site, and we are not using the data card.
I just finished Neil Young's biography (Waging Heavy Peace) "I started reading it in France" we have had the book for sometime and ended up replacing the original lent to us by Neil "Sam's Dad", due to Max chewing the back cover! It was an enjoyable book albeit quite strange, "he talked his way through it, a kind of monologue, and flitted back 'n' forth in time", even so I was captivated and read it with ease, knowing many of the characters! A legend. Long may you run.  

21st Dec

We took Max up to the next village Figueira for a walk and stopped for a coffee n brandy, "the sun was blazing down" then we followed the road up towards the motorway adjacent to the road we came from. But we got a few miles up and realised the road did not join with ours, so we cut across an old discarded vineyard, then came across the river, fortunately it was shallow and we were able to cross balancing on the outermost stones, and so a few hours later we were back to the van.
Andrew had picked me up a case of beer and also a sheet of clear Perspex which I plan to install at the bottom fly screen door (Max pawed the fly screen netting out of the original)

24 x 33cl bottles €7.44 = 24p a bottle or 44p a pint

 Enjoying a frosty before the sun drops behind the mountain

We are enjoying our time here at the Chicken Run. Andrew and Leslie are great hosts

"a smashing couple" they have a nice place, living the dream so to say,   and it's so relaxing for us, You make your own way in life, and we are envious.. 

Pork Bifano's for tea tonight

 

22nd Dec

 

This morning we took a stroll down to the coast, it was a fine day and on the outskirts of town is the main train station, not busy "it looked abandoned" and no commuters. 

Billy Bridgend was here!

We seemed to walk for miles along the road, there were two trails down to the estuary, the first one took us 45mins and the second, 35mins to walk back.

There was a guy spear fishing out in the bay. Max had a run around for awhile and I took some vid clips, so it was worth the long hot walk, an hour and fifteen minutes in total, from the van to get there !!

 Portimao to the right, in the background

 

 

Stopping for a snout.

 

I hadn't noticed previously on a pic I had taken a few days ago, that the Xmas tree was made from empty sprite bottles..

 

Looks effective from the distance

 

We stopped at our usual bar and had a coffee n brandy on our way back to base, Then back home for supper and plan our excursion for tomorrow. 

 

23rd Dec

 

We set off quite early today, as we wanted to check out some places we may like to stay at on another visit to Portugal. The drive was easy, no satnav required straight down the N125 through Lagos and onto Sagres. Our first stop was Ponta de Sagres it has a huge level car park and overnighting is permitted N37° 0′ 18′′ W8° 56′ 42′′ there are quite a lot of Motorhomes parked up and we will return here.

 

There is a fort at the tip of the peninsula and it has beaches and coves all around. The views from the cliff top are stunning, and I take some vids and pics standing on the edge of the cliffs a short while later I come across this sign "bit late for me"

  

We then went around the corner to Cabo de Sao Vincente, you can see it from Ponta de Sagres. There is parking there and a lighthouse with a museum inside, it is possible to overnight there, but Sagres would be our preference.

I took this vid while I was there. Portugal is truly a fantastic country.

We then took the coast road up to another beautiful place called Praia do Amado

37°10'32.6"N 8°54'33.5"W the road took us back into the National Park we had travelled through last week (Parque Natural do Sudoeste Alenteyo) it goes from Porto Covo to Cabo do Sao Vincente and covers over 100km, it is the only place in the world where White Storks nest, and the only place in Portugal, and one of the few places in Europe where Otters live in a marine environment.

 Quite a few campervans were parked up

There are so many fantastic beaches here, I took this vid! There was a guy spear fishing in the bay and when he was done, I asked him could I take a photo of him with his catch. He had caught a few small fish a large ling cod an octopus and he had a bag of abalone and various other shell fish "nothing like catching your own supper"

It was getting on by now so we headed up to Alfambrus, and picked up the N120 back to the Chicken Run, we stopped in Portimao at the Continente super market for some food and bits for Xmas dinner, now for the size of the place it hasn't sufficient parking, and it has no large bays for bigger vehicles! so the tail end of the van was protruding when I managed to find a spot. Whilst I was inside shopping and Sam was walking Max some wally managed to clip the rear end of Dylan and crack the moulding leaving a red paint mark, "not  massive damage"  but how the hell can you not see a 21' motorhome? The shop was rammed, everyone was doing their last minute Xmas shopping, people had trollies laden with stuff and I was behind two of them. I came out stressed and was bouncing when I saw the damage to the van, and to top it off I was blocked in!! I had found a place in front of the exit that had no parking permitted and was marked by lines so I thought I could reverse out with no problem, but two cars were now parked on the lines and I was stuck.. Eventually the person next to me came out and I was able to swing it out and leave.

We had done 92 miles today it was a nice change, an enjoyable drive, and we had two more stops for future in the bag.

 

24th Dec

 

Xmas eve and you would not know it, It seems strange? We have not missed the commercials on TV or the build up to it. I walk into a bar today and I see Nemo showing on TV "he is speaking Portuguese" they re run the same old films here too, The weather is sunny and we sit outside the bar enjoying a coffee, it is forecast the same for tomorrow

Coffee and a Brandy

25th Dec

Well it's Xmas day and we wake to bright sunshine. Sam is busy preparing the dinner and we sit outside and enjoy the sunshine.

 

I put some drinks out in case we get visitors

 

I get a couple of Skype calls from my brother and sister and their families and Sam's brother and family, it's so nice to see our families everyone looks well.
Finally we sit down to have our Xmas dinner, Sam is the master of the roast dinner, and this one is no exception

We enjoyed our Xmas dinner, the first of many we hope to have away. We have had a great day. more so for chatting with our families. We hope everyone has had a good day. Merry Xmas

Blowin' In The Wind

11th Dec

Yesterday we had been on the road 4 weeks, It seems to be going so quick? We are still holed up here in Peniche. The Royal Mail tracker says our letter is in Portugal, probably in a Lisbon sorting office, so we stay another day. "I can think of worse places to be"
Last night I got chatting to my brother Carl and his family on Skype, "a couple of hours later we had caught up on a lot of things". Modern technology we are thousands of miles apart, yet we can chat and see each other as if we were in the same room.
So it will be another day of lounging around waiting for the postman. We are keen to move on, we have had a fantastic time here in Peniche, but it's time to move and find other towns like this.
So we strolled down to the beach. There were plenty of surfers out today and we watched them catching the waves.
We stopped and had a coffee. It is warm, unbelievable for a December day, but there again we are in Portugal

A fantastic beach "miles long"

The entrance to our site

Tonight we went to the bar and uploaded our vids onto YouTube to save on our own data, it took a while to upload one vid, we had happy hour to contend with also, but I was able to post the linky to the surfers above.

12^th Dec

It is cold today, it is overcast 13⁰ a vast change from yesterday’s glorious day. The mail has not arrived, and they will not have any more till Monday “postie’s here, don’t work on the weekend” so we pay for 3 more days. Later today the heavens have opened up. Now normally since being here in Portugal we have had a few sun showers that blow over within 10mins, but this is relentless, and it has not stopped. And it looks like it has no intention either.

What’s more this afternoon our data runs out on our second data card!! We are consigned to Dylan, It feels like we are shipwrecked with no contact with the outside world. We have used two cards in a week “yikes €€” I suppose streaming football games and having 2hr plus Skype calls does not help, we will have to limit the Skype chats to a more reasonable length of time. “Big mistake chatting to my Brother he can talk for Wales, when he gets going”
We have the radio on its dire complete dirge! I have scoured the channels available on my Roberts dab radio they are all the same. Taylor Swift "Shake it off" plays several times over the afternoon, they also seem to be into the boy bands here big time. ”nice one Simon Cowell and your motley crew”   and if it’s not that, it’s in Portuguese, so back to iTunes and some good music.
I make a Bolognaise for later, we have the heating on and we settle in to play cards. I can hear a van outside he seems pretty close to us? and I hear foreign tongue's being spoken, then it drives off, it is pitch dark and raining outside. Maybe he has noticed my GB plates? 

13^th Dec

It’s bleak outside, but it has stopped raining. It was still chucking it down at 7 this morning when Max woke us to go to the toilet. Sam takes him out and comes back after 10mins to say our windbreak is on the floor? Don’t worry about it now I say, it’s still raining I’ll sort it later. I begin to think back to last night it was raining, but not blowing a gale! It has endured severe winds from the Atlantic, on some nights since I put it up? We are on a Peninsula here. I then remember the van that sounded two feet away, the voices and then drove off. That explains it Tosser!!  Maybe he or she will be over later to apologize? I don’t hold my breath
We get up about 9.45 it has stopped lashing down, there is a Sun up there albeit obscured by clouds, it is 13.5⁰ and I survey the damage to the windbreak? It’s all together one of the poles is out of the pocket that harnesses it, it’s soaking, there are tyre tracks but I don’t have the right equipment to take a tyre cast. People are milling around their vans, there are a few new arrivals but no one comes forth to own up..
Another stroll into town ensues. We need another data card and something for dinner tomorrow! There seems to be a lot of Chinese emporiums in Peniche and we come across another.

 A little cove Sam found, the beach was deserted

Max had the beach to himself while I was shopping

They sell everything you can think off, from fishing rods and reels, clothes, everyday household items to a 5/8 tack! All made “you guessed it” in China. (Cheap as chips too)
I hit the supermarket and come out laden with stuff “nothing changes” I manage to pick up Max a treat he loves pigs ears, check out the Grunters tattoo “pretty primitive”

You can't make a silk purse out of this

It looks like it was done with a needle and a bottle of Indian ink” I pick up the 4gb data card next door, and we shoot back to Dylan before the heavens open up again. We stop on the way back to have a break in a nice little park, and I notice a few anomalies with the finish of the park? Now anywhere else in the UK with the compo culture they would have a field day here with the potholes and the standpipe jutting out of the floor.

 How many claims would this council had in the UK?

It looks ominous the clouds are black, and no sooner have we put all the outside furniture away and settle down to a baguette (ham n cheese) and coffee, the rain starts again. I put my rain jacket on, and take my PC to the bar to do the update on the blog, also I want to upload a video to Youtube, and save my 4gigabites for the Swans game. Its cold and my Raynaud's is playing up for the first time since Northern France. It's happy hour but I'm not!! Sam and Max have decided not to join me "they got more sense"  the weather is atrocious we need to move south again, and soon. Blog and video updated, and 3 drinks later, I buy a box of wine and it's back to the warmth of the van and a bite to eat, another day to cross off the calendar, and another closer to Xmas.

14^th Dec  

Not much to report! Another bad day at the office, for the ref at the Liberty, Shocking!! 3points dropped, a game we could have won!! 
Steve Bruce was right?   the refs bottle it with the so called big teams, and Spurs must be ever so grateful to get the extra 2pts.  
I watched the game at the bar and shortly after the game, the gloats crawled out of the woodwork and I then received this pic. "I'll share it with you"

Inbred Yid's 
Andy Raff  "The Landlord" and Kieron, showing they have six fingers between them?

Sam and Max joined me later on, we would not be stopping long! the wind was picking up. I received a Skype call from Charlotte and we spoke to a few friends.

Back to the van for a Sunday roast with all the trimmings. (Well done Sam)


15th Dec 

We went down to check on the post at 3pm and bingo "happy days" the letter arrived, but another twist in the tale? The sim cards they have sent are standard and not the ones that I believe fit in an iPhone, I believe we can cut them, I will youtube it. but now we can move on. We pay for the last day and trundle up to the bar to say our goodbyes.
We originally stopped for one night on our way south, and ended staying nineteen! we have enjoyed Peniche, it will be a place to stop at on another trip.
On reflection we think with last Monday being a Bank holiday and with the Xmas period, probably accounts for the delivery time? the letter had been in the country for days,but hey ho we have had a bash here, the people have been so welcoming. And we said our goodbyes, Feliz Natal, Feliz Navidad, Joyeux Noel etc etc, and so we return to Dylan for the last night at Peniche,
Satnav set we sit back enjoy our last night and ready ourselves for the next phase of our trip.

 The last sunset at Peniche " we have seen some crackers "

 Those clouds look ominous hopefully they will blow over?

 

So our last night at Peniche we have a good tuck "Pork kebabs n Spicy sausages"with the obligatory side salad

The grape diet is on the back burner for now! We had seen off two 5L boxes in just over four days? I woke to the most celebratory of hangovers yesterday, and realized this is not an all inclusive holiday. Maybe it's time I got back on the running circuit near the beach?

16^th Dec

We finally but reluctantly left Peniche this morning and headed south, we headed for Cabo de Roco, the most westerly point of Europe.

It was a bit déjà vu as we drove the same road to Torres Vedras, and that was where the satnav did the first mistake! It took us on a different road that we had planned, and after a quick reconfiguration we are instead of heading to the coast are now heading to Sintra? Ok no big shakes till we get to Sintra, then we do a figure of eight through the busiest of streets and emerge the other side shaken but in one piece. Cabo de Rocco is sign posted and we vow to follow the signs and disregard the satnav “we didn’t” and took a sharp right down a small side street we follow the road,  “I thought it was straight on I said, and was reassured it is probably going the fastest route? Half a mile down the road it reconfigures, and tells us to go back on ourselves!!  I also know that the sharp right it took us down a steep hill, and on the way back I am met with a T junction, I have to stop and I stall it, then restart and try and to do a handbreak start on this hell of a hill “tyres screeching it rolls back then it grips and pulls onto the brow” thank god nothing was coming around that corner? And so onto Cabo de Rocco, and I vow to throw the satnav off over the cliff when we get there. We reach the further most westerly point of Europe and find the Aire we planned to stay on park up and walk the very short distance to the point, across the way lies America we take some photos and walk about a bit, there is a coach load of Japanese tourists there snapping away. 

 Max and I posing for photos, we will be on twitter & facebook shortly in Japan

A memorial to Paul Harris the founder of the Rotary Club, erected there as it being the nearest place in Europe to America  

The lighthouse was built in 1754, and the first purpose built lighthouse in Portugal

America in the distance

We then return to the van and decide that the Aire 38°46'54"N 9°29'46"W  although ok, it is too busy with the tourist coaches etc. We decide to go around the coast a short distance of about 7 miles to Figueira Do Guincho to another Aire 38°43′39′′N 9°28′29′′W

                                                  The view from the van

A forlornly figure on the cliff top

We get there, three other vans and a few cars are there also, it is basically a carpark on a clifftop with campervan parking, there are two fantastic coves below with steps leading to both of them, and we walk down and let Max loose! "he loved it”.

Who's the King of the castle

 

The clifftop has numerous large restaurants and a few hotels it is compact, and I imagine very busy during the season. We returned to the van, had a meal and settled in and played some cards, the wind was howling off the coast, and the van was rocking like a boat. We looked out later and noticed we were the only vehicle there! The other three vans have left. "maybe it was too windy"A few nightcaps and we turned in.

17^th Dec

I was windy all night "the van shook like a council house" and we woke early! We set off and had decided to stop at a place called Porto Covo on our way down. We have heard and read some nice things about this place. It was a pleasant journey all bar one hitch at Cascais! We then skirted Lisbon over the bridge towards Setubal,

Leaving Lisbon

then on to Alcacer do Sal where there was a LPG station. We have only used one bottle since the last fill up and only three since we left Horsham, but as were passing we thought it be better too, and then it was onto Porto Covo. 37°51'07"N 8°47'18"W

 

We arrived mid afternoon there was about 15 vans on the Aire, free with services. (No lecky) Mostly French a few German and I spotted a Brit van, I would seek him out to have a chat later? The place was as described, Idyllic springs to mind, we parked up and walked the short distance to the beach. It is much warmer today it gets better the further south we are.

 The only footprints are Sam and Max's

 Enjoying a cold one

The scenery is stunning, on the cliff top there is a bench and it reminds me of Papillon on Devils Island I have taken loads of photo's and vids, it's all we had heard about and more. Back to the van for dinner and we witness a truly remarkable sunset

Every picture tells a story

18^th Dec

After a quiet night "no wind for a change" I catch up with the Brit van, the chap's name is Ernie a Yorkshire man, he has been here two weeks and will be staying till he returns home in February, we have a good chat and I say our goodbyes. We walk down to the cove for the last time to let Max have a run, and then we are on the road.

We are headed for the Chicken Run near Mexilhoeira Grande we take the coast road and pass over a beautiful inlet called Vila Nova de Milfontes,  passing through numerous villages and we stop for a break at a place called Azenha do Mar,

again another gem. Portugal is blessed with so many beaches and small coves. We stop there and wander for awhile, then have some lunch and carry on south

The weather is glorious today, we have the windows rolled down, the driving is a doddle no need for the silly satnav we follow the map, and just follow the signs for the Algarve. We drive over the Sierra de Espinhaco de Cao through a national park, and a few hours later we arrive at our destination. We are greeted by Andrew and Leslie the owners and they show us a few pitches we may like, we find a sun trap and level up. It lives up to it's name  chickens are wandering about the place Max scares a few off. We will stay here till after Xmas then into Spain for the New Year.

So for the meantime. We would like to wish all our family and friends a very Merry Xmas. Have a good time and wrap up warm..