Movin' On

 

26th Dec

We had a great day yesterday sat in the sun, chatting to family on Skype, and we enjoyed our Xmas roast dinner later on.

Xmas day sat in bright sunshine 22c

 

Today it was into the village to see what was open, "nothing" just a few café/bars, it was another sunny day, so we stopped at our usual for a coffee and sat outside. Back to the van for the 3 o'clock kick off and to watch us beat Villa! Now Swansea don't do things easy, and this was to be another game, where after a bright start and one nil up, we made hard work of it.. and by the time the ref had blown his whistle, I had all but chewed my knuckles off.
We plan to move on tomorrow, not 100% sure as to where, but we have heard and read that Silves is a nice town so we will probably head there.

27th Dec

We said our goodbyes to everyone at the site this morning. We have enjoyed our stay, and we were made to feel really welcome by Andrew and Leslie. We will drop by another time we pass this way.
Just before we leave, Leslie tells me of a place called Ferragudo that is worth visiting, so we set the satnav and will stop there en-route to Silves. Now everyone that has been following the blog will be well aware of the idiosyncrasies of our satnav and today was no different!!
On the way to Ferragudo it took us into Portimao into the centre, around a few streets then up a one way side street? I stopped and hesitated upon entering and then realised there was a car behind me so proceeded on! The road was narrow to say the least with car's parked to one side and with inches to spare on either side and we then had to take a sharp left down an even narrower street to exit.
The satnav then corrected itself and took us back out of Portimao, the way we came in and onto Ferragudo over a bridge further up the N125?

Portimao Bridge

The maddening thing about it is Ferragudo is opposite Portimao separated by a river so I'm not sure how the satnav thought I was going to navigate over it!!

 

Ferragudo is a very typical Portuguese village, albeit the outskirts are getting built up by modern development

We noticed an Aire 37°07'34.4"N 8°31'18.3"W with quite a few vans parked. Noted in our travel diary for future. Its just some level ground no services but great scenery and free.

We have noticed quite a few fortresses and castles on our travels along the coast through Portugal. I believe a lot are from the Moorish occupation?

From the beach you can see the built up area of Portimao

 

So after a brief stop at Ferragudo, we headed around the coast to find an Aire that was on our list in Carvalho. We passed through some nice places and a very touristy place called Carvoeiro! Many bars with English sounding names an Indian and Chinese restaurant. Then onto Carvalho, the aire 37°05'15.3"N 8°26'34.7"W is near the lighthouse, on a very large cliff top. It can take about six vans and would be ok for a night stop, although not very level.

 

 

The cliffs are very high and I walk to the edge to take a video and some pics. and saw some guys spear fishing down below there is a "what looks like" large sinkhole. I jump over a safety fence and peer down, you can hear and see the tide coming in and out below.

On the other side of the lighthouse there are more of these sinkholes? but I don't jump over the fence this time, as I think to myself they must be there for a reason. and I wander over to the cliff top and see some guys fishing below, standing on the edge with about a 75 foot drop!! I hope they are not fishing for something big?

 After climbing the last fence I decided this could be an old geezer 

 And backed off

 One good bite and bye'ee

The views these villas have are breath taking

 

So after an hour or so we travel on up inland to the historic town of Silves, and old Moorish town with an old Castle and Cathedral on the hilltop. We are going to stay at the Algarve Motorhome Park Silves. €6.50 p/d all in leccy n wifi. It's a new park with nice wide level bays leccy and water points to all, these type of sites are springing up all over Portugal as ever more people seek the warmer climes of the winter, also the extra revenue it brings to the local commerce. And it's only a 5mins walk to the Continente supermarket a bonus.

 My Dutch neighbour who has been on site 1yr & 21days

After setting up we wandered into the town to have a quick look around, plenty of shops bars restaurants etc. it's nice, we will probably stay here a few days.

 Silves has a Burger "King" Ranch

The Cathedral and old Fortress up the hill

We walked around for awhile, then headed back to the van for supper, we will have a better look around tomorrow.

 

28th Dec

 

We had a good look around the town today and wandered up the hill to the old cathedral and castle. I took a vid Max at Silves the series rolls on.

 

Silves Cathedral

 Silves Castle

 

Wandering back down the hill we came across a small Moorish water feature with statues

 

Max slurping Orangina

People were throwing oranges into the baskets of the statues, and judging by how many were in the water, they were lousy shots.

We wandered along by the river to a restaurant Churrasquira Valdemar we had read about that sells "the best" Piri Piri Chicken in the Algarve. It has quite a lot of reviews in google but unfortunately for us it's closed. Maybe tomorrow.

 

29th Dec

 

Just a quiet day at the office. Sam was catching up on the laundry, I have been pottering about in the van uploading vids to youtube for the blog, and waiting for tonight's game.  It's another glorious day, earlier I went to the supermarket  and got some stuff, a fresh chicken for the evening meal, and a bag of fresh mussels for a starter for myself.

Done in a white wine sauce

Sam had cooked the chicken  "roast in a bag with herbs", and made a potato salad. So after lunch I sat back to watch the worst Swansea display this year, against Aunty Brenda's Liverpool to boot. There was to be no chewing on knuckles in this game. We didn't start, and to be honest after the last two games it was coming, we were onto a hiding and got it. Not really looking forward to the QPR game as much now!!

Writing the blog with Max

The sun setting on our last night at Silves

30th Dec

 

We are spoilt for choice. last night we were contemplating where to head next? There is a site in Armacao de Pera or an Aire in Albufeira we had planned to stop at, but on a whim we decide to give the sister site of this place a shot Algarve Motorhome Park Falesia €8 p/d all in leccy n wifi it's another new park and 500metres from the beach.

It was a nice drive down through Ferreiras and Albufeira to Falesia.

We are in between Villamoura and Albufeira

 The site, set in a pine forest a trail leads from it to the beach

 

 Albufeira that way

 Vilamoura this way

The beach is miles long, beautiful soft sand, and it is sunny and warm. People are swimming and paddling, it's the end of December! Oh to be back home in Blighty.

We will stay here a couple of days

 

 

Dec 31st

Day 50

 

New years eve. We have been on the road 50 days, the time is flying by!! We get up early and trot down to the beach. The sun has only been up for an hour and a half, but its nice and warm it has the makings of a good day. We walk towards Albufeira and sometime later we come across steps leading to the Sheriton Hotel very posh, it has it's own concession bar/restaurant on the beach with a towel hut on the side" how the other half live"?

The walkway to the Sheriton Hotel complete with lift

 We get as far as the steps to the Sheriton Hotel and the beach continues around the bend

 Having a breather its warm for 10am

This tree is clinging on to life

We walk back and into the town centre. There are a few bars, restaurants and supermarkets it's a nice area, very affluent.

Later on we walk the other way and find a nice bar and stop for a few shandies. I took Max down to the cliffs to see the sun going down for the last time this year, looking over the Atlantic no obstructions just an expanse of sea.

The last sunset of 2014

It's a long way down little fella

So it was back to the van and see in the New Year. I had bought two nice steaks for supper Mmm. It was very quiet on site no get together's everyone doing their own thing, at midnight the fireworks went off in the nearby town, so that was the end of last year 2015 had arrived. We partied on for a few more hours..

 

1st Jan 2015

 

Happy New Year everyone; Well today we woke with quite a hangover. I can't point my finger at the culprit drink as we mixed it up a bit? It would be a day of moping around the van and taking things easy!

We had a nice surprise in the afternoon, Sam's parents Neil and Pauline Skype us courtesy of her brother Ben. We had a nice chat,  it was good to see them "they had both been ill leading up to, and over Xmas" they looked well and were enjoying.

Swansea were playing QPR and I watched the stream on the pc, another bad day for the officials, there seems to be some hidden agenda against us? Big Wilf saves the day and we share the spoils.

We take a walk down the beach before sundown and watch the sun ebbing for the first time in 2015. We then wander into the town and come across a Chinese restaurant, the menu looks good, we decide that is what we will have tomorrow. I'm looking forward to that.

No bars for us today so back to the van for supper and update the blog.

Whilst we were out Chelsea get tonked by Spurs 5-3 in the late game. That must have been some match!!