The wild Atlantic - love it!

Sunday 15 April 2018 - Day 42

We’re still at the campsite in the village of Aios.  We slept well and it was good not to have to pack up and leave after one night.  I think some of my tiredness has come from researching and planning the next stop each night, then getting the van ready to go, followed by a drive to the next place.  Now we’ve find a lovely place to stop, we’re enjoying the relaxation, especially given our lovely view out to sea.  The bread man came in his small white van this morning with a large variety of freshly baked bread.  It’s rained on and off today, but we managed to get out for a beach walk in the afternoon, just getting back as the rain started again, but at least the wind has reduced.  From the van we’ve also watched dolphins swimming by and playing in the breaking waves.  We’ve made the most of being on electric hook-up to get everything charged up and used the Remoska for cooking dinner.  I’ve completed the monthly accounts and topped up the CaxtonFX card, which I mainly use for withdrawing cash; a Halifax Clarity card is used for the rest as they use the more beneficial international banking exchange rate of the day.  Tonight we may watch a movie or part of a series (stored on a Passport HDD) on the MacBook.  Or we may just stare out and watch the waves crash on the sure just 30 metres away.

Monday 16 April 2018 - Day 43

It’s been a much brighter and sunnier day, but the Atlantic wind’s been relentless.  I’ve been at sea in the south Atlantic - clear blue skies and blinding sunshine give the impression of good weather, yet the sea has been wild and stormy, throwing us about as we drop and twist through the deep swell, the wind whipping the top off the waves.  It’s like that today.  So it’s not a day to sit outside the van, but from the relative peace and quiet inside the view is spectacular.  The day started cloudy with some rain but it soon cleared away.  The bread man was an hour late today, but no matter, we still enjoyed our breakfast.  The two vans either side of us (both British) left today, so we wished them bon voyage and now there’s just us here.  Today I was on a mission. I need to replenish victuals, most importantly teabags!  So with rucksack on back, I cycled out of the site, climbing steeply, puffing hard and wishing I hadn’t eaten so much of that delicious bread!  Cathy was going to square away the van and then spend some time down on the beach, cleaning it of some of the micro-plastics washing up with each wave - every little helps.  I followed the coastal road out, up and down the hills, eventually reaching Sanxenxo.  Originally a small fishing harbour, the fish market still exists but it’s now a thriving tourist town with its own sandy beach and bay.  Although surrounding areas haven’t yet surfaced for the new season, Sanxexno was bustling, with many of the shops, cafes and restaurants open.  I managed to end up cycling along the seafront the wrong way down a one-way road, but nobody seemed to mind.  Cutting up through the town along steep roads, I eventually found a Lidl, where I spent an enjoyable half an hour or so filling a basket - it doesn’t take much to please me these days. With just a rucksack I only bought the essentials.  Back on the road, I tackled the hills and strong headwind to return to the site and pack away the purchases.  Shortly later Cathy returned from the beach with a bag of rubbish, although battered and beaten by the wind, which was now strengthening into the afternoon.  The rest of the day was spent doing some hand washing, which blew and dried well on the line, and sat inside reading.  The cab seats were best - in full sun - so warm, but out of the wind.  Dinner was some chicken wings I bought in Lidl, spiced up and roasted in ‘Oska’, with vegetable and egg fried rice.  I washed up outside, with the campsite dog for company (sorry, no tidbits!), as Cathy wan’t feeling well so went to lie down.  Some of our washing was dry (even the campsite owner was saying it’s ‘too windy’) and the rest came in later, aired on the van dashboard in the sun.  A brew, a bit of TV series watching on the MacBook & HDD and an early night I think.  Tomorrow, we’re moving on….I suspect we’ll have some more wild weather before we turn the corner and starting heading east along the northern Spanish coastline.

The Bread Man cometh

Mission Accomplished!

Proper dhobying!

Are you coming out to play?

Delicious

It's raining again!

Saturday 14 April 2018 - Day 41

We’re at a lovely little family-run campsite in the village of Aios.  It’s set on 3 grass terraces, all overlooking the sea and islands.  This part of Spain is very much like Cornwall, craggy cliffs, sandy coves, deep inlets and estuaries and the wind….always the wind!  It’s a really peaceful stop though and, at €10 per night including electricity, we plan to stay here for a few days; it’ll nice to put down roots for a while, chill out and get some walking and bike riding done….if the weather lets us.  Speaking to the locals, they tell us it’s been the worst weather for March and April in 20 years - we can well believe it!  After a sunny but windy day, it’s now raining heavily and is due to continue through the night until about midday tomorrow.

We woke quite late for us - about 0900.  It could be due to moving the clocks forward to Spanish time again, or it could have been the wine we drank last night!  It was a beautiful, still morning; the tide was out and there was a light mist over the estuary and hills.  A few of the local fishermen were out in small rowing boats, followed by an expectant flock of seagulls. We made a brew and sat on one of the benches by the water, soaking up the view.  By the time we’d breakfasted and secured the van, we were the only ones left.  I’d walked into town earlier to get some cash and we drove off to our next stop here in Aios.

There’s a lovely family who run the site and live in their house right next to the beach.  Their little dog came to say hello, then regularly checked up on us during the day, rewarded with a scratch behind his ears!  We threw some bedding into the washing machine and once it was done, Cathy took great delight in hanging it out on their line to dry in the sea breeze. A couple of the Camino trails run past the site, following the coastal path north towards Santiago de Compostela.  On our coastal walk this afternoon we followed part of one the well-marked Camino trails linking the fishing village of Sanxenxo with Portonovo - the Sendeiros litorais de Sanxenxo.  Another trail was signposted following a similar route, although I couldn’t tell which Camino it was from the sign.  Our walk took us along the rocky coast to the village of Barbeito, where the trail crossed a sandy cove, up to the village of Paxarinas.  I’d taken a rucksack in the hope of finding a little local store, but both villages clearly only come alive in the season. Both had lots of closed hotels, empty holiday apartments and caravan sites, but no shop.  We can make do for a couple of days - although teabag stocks are getting critically low! - so I’ll go hunting again on Monday when I go out for a bike ride (tomorrow is a right off due to the forecast heavy rain).  

It was lovely to get out for a walk for a couple of hours after days stuck in the van. Back at the site, the washing was dry and after a brew I cooked some seafood tagliatelle. We bought the dried pasta in a vegetarian shop that also baked bread and vegan cakes, when we enjoyed our vegan lunch (we’re not vegans but we enjoy the food).  The seafood was tinned clams and baby squid; the Spanish and Portuguese have a great selection of tinned seafood; their large tins of tuna are delicious.  We’ll certainly be taking a few of them home, along with plenty of good Spanish olive oil.   On the way back from our walk we could see the dark clouds forming out at sea and not long after we returned the rain started.  It’s still going and it’s really chilly, so we’re staying in the warm van with a hot cup of tea.  Tomorrow’s forecast is similar so it’ll probably be in ‘in day’ again! It’s time for me to do the monthly accounts and reconcile statements, so that’ll keep me quiet for a while.  But the weather’s supposed to be improving for Monday and Tuesday, so we plan to stay here four nights to take advantage and explore the area a bit more on foot and bike.

Lovely view - enjoying our morning briew

The campsite dog likes a bit of attention!

The family are converting this bus into a motorhome

In Galicia

Friday 13 April 2018 - Day 40

We’re back in Spain and very happy!  We’re parked up in an aire in Arcade in Galicia.  We have a great view of a fjord-like bay, with gin-clear water and plenty of large grey mullet swimming around.  The hills are green, the blackbirds are singing, we have an extra hour of evening sunlight and we like it!  Portugal was oppressive.  Since arriving in Spain and parked up, we’ve watched children out playing football and laughing. It made us realise that we didn’t see a single child out playing in Portugal.  Also, they have roads in Spain! Real roads with no bomb craters, loosening your fillings and wrecking your van.  Again, I’ll say this is our observation, and others will love Portugal, but its not for us. 

We had planned to stay overnight in Portugal at Esposende; it sounded good on paper.   However, on arrival it was a large car park, in front of a busy bus station, with HGVs coming and going.  It was about 1km from the coast - typically for Portugal, stuck in the middle of nowhere.  But it was an ideal place to stop and take a long, hot shower, as we could empty the grey water and top up with fresh.  It was warm and sunny, so we made the most of the stop. Feeling refreshed, we drove on, but not before I’d moved us one hour ahead to Spanish time.  Once over the border, we enjoyed the smooth roads and made our way to our current stop.

We’re now parked up between two Dutch vans. It’s a typical Spanish town (ie laid-back) and we’re between the working port and the marina. As I mentioned above, the view is like overlooking a Scottish loch or a Norwegian fjord - we like it.  We had a wander and a chat with our Dutch neighbours before I cooked a pork curry with rice. I think we’ll sleep tonight and we’re looking forward to exploring Galicia. 

We also survived Friday the 13th!

Shower and tea stop in Esposende

Tucked in amongst the big boys....back in Spain!

Me and my mate had a boat like this - a Cornish Clinker called Fuga. It sank under us when we were fishing!

Slow down and smell the....piri piri chicken!

Thursday 12 April 2018 - Day 39

We’ve spent some time trapped today!  The experience of being woken early by a stall-holder wanting his pitch was actually quite funny - I leapt out of bed (and luckily remembered to get dressed!), opening the sliding door to see we were completely hemmed in by market stalls, with our stall-holder expectantly and politely asking us to move!  We’d heard some noise a couple of hours earlier but thought it was workmen; it was actually other stall holders hammering iron pegs into the tarmac!  Luckily there was some room further up behind another motorhome so I quickly moved us out of the way; I could then seen the other vans had also had to move and were also squashed up together, stuck for the day.  There was no sign on the aires board here, or in any of the books, to suggest today was market day.  It had started to rain by then, but I popped back and offered my apologies to the stall-holder - smiles all round. I looked for a way too drive through but it was clear we were going nowhere until the market packs up. 

In our new pitch we had a cup of tea and woke up.  Later (during a gap in the rain), I popped out for a walk around.  The nearest stall to us was a food stall (more about that later).  There were a couple of butchers, a couple of stalls selling bacalao, cheeses and preserved sausages, plus a couple of fruit and veg stalls.  The remainder were mainly clothes, kitchenware and wooden products, plus one selling live chickens.  I walked down to the Padaria to buy some bread and cakes and had a quick espresso while out of the rain (which had started again).  This town is built on several levels on the steep valley side.  Despite the rain it looks a nice place and on a warm sunny day, we’d no doubt explore and try and find a walk.

Back across the road to the market, I popped over to the stall whose pitch we’d been on - again smiles all around.  I bought a small round of goat’s cheese to give something back.  It was then time to queue for breakfast!  I’d been looking forward to piri piri chicken for our whole time in Portugal, but thought my chance had slipped away. Here it was being cooked over large half-drums of charcoal, slowly turned on a flat spit and regularly basted.  I joined the queue of people buying hot, spatchcocked chicken to take home.  There were long tables and benches under cover, where locals sat to eat, drink and catch up.  With my hot chicken and chips in a bag, I stopped for a cup of wine, swapping a hello and smile with the old chaps; not a word was understood between us but that didn’t matter.  Back at the van, we tucked into our unusual breakfast!

The market started to pack up around midday, which allowed us to make our escape.  The route out was interesting, including creeping past a section of road that had partially collapsed down the hill and with a steep and slippery hill start on wet cobbles at traffic lights, with an immediate sharp right turn into a very narrow lane with high buildings on either side - there was just enough room for us but a larger motorhome would not have made it. The journey was a wet one, with a quick stop for diesel, before we arrived at this aire in Furadouro, on the edge of the village, with dunes between us and the beach.  It’s supposed to be a popular fishing and surfing spot, but, like the other van occupants here, we’re huddled inside out of the torrential rain. I think we’re now set for the night.

The rainy confinement has allowed me to take a slower and longer look at our route through Portugal and into northern Spain.   I’m feeling much happier after a rubbish day yesterday. Perhaps getting blocked in at the market was a sign to slow down and smell the…….BBQ piri piri chicken!  I think the weather over the past few days hasn’t helped, with days of wind and then heavy rain confining us to the inside of our small van.  Cathy summarised it well on our drive here, when she said that out of the six weeks we’ve been away, we’ve sat outside the van less than ten times.  I hope it’ll improve sometime soon, although the forecast back home on Anglesey for the next week is looking better than northern Portugal and Spain!

A few kind people have sent me details of places to visit or stay in northern Spain and I'm really grateful to them, as it's always good to have a recommendation from someone who's been there before.  Thanks GlorYa and Roaming Man!

Our new blocked in pitch after moving for the stall holder

And here's a happy stall holder on the right!

You can see how close we were to the food stall!

hhmmm - chiiiiiiicken! 

Nice and dry while I drink my breakfast vino

Now THAT's a breakfast!

Some lovely views across to the river and other valley side

Swollen Rivers

Wednesday 11 April 2018 - Day 38

No, the blog title doesn’t refer to a country singer!  It’s been a bit of a weird day.  Probably the highlight was visiting the laundrette at last night’s stop!  I found it last night when wandering around and we had a good bag of washing, plus some clothes that could do with a ‘refresh’.  We were able to park almost alongside and the lovely Portuguese ‘Mrs Overall’ showed us the ropes.  While Cathy enjoyed the novelty of not having to hand wash our clothes, I stayed in the van and did a bit of research.  

With dry, fresh smelling clothes back in the van, we drove half an hour to the Buddha Eden Garden in Bombarral.  In the guide book it’s described as an amazing place to relax and reflect amongst plants, gardens and sculptures.  It’s certainly in a lovely position, next to a vineyard and with great views.  It’s very much a work in progress and not a great deal of thought has gone into the planting, with large areas covered in the same plant or shrub; there’s also lots of bare ground and the watering system is just lying on top of the soil, so it looks very unfinished.  The sculptures and statues are nice but there are just too many of them. You’re saturated - less is more.  Rather than looking forward to seeing the next one, they just completely overpower the view.  And whoever thought of making the Terracotta Army Warriors look like smurfs was clearly smoking something very strong at the time! Still, there were very few people there so we walked around enjoying the peace and quiet.  It’s next to a working winery who sell their wines in the shop as you exit. Some of them were great value for money; Cathy tried a blue sparkling wine - it was actually blue in colour!  She said it was very bubbly but couldn’t get the blue colour out of her mind. The reds looked good but were very heavy at 14% alcohol, so we settled on a light bottle of rose. 

After lunch in the van we discussed where to head next.  Heavy rain was again forecast so we thought heading inland might be a better idea.  The first place wasn’t that great so we continued on.  We drove through some lovely little villages but the roads were so dreadful, I had to leave them and join the toll motorway.  We plugged in an aire in Coimbra, but on arrival it was rammed with ‘freeloaders’ (looked like they’d been there for months).  Plus the river was really high and looked ready to burst its banks; with more heavy rain forecast tonight and all day tomorrow, it didn’t seem a great idea to be there overnight.  Besides, it was one of the few aires we’ve pulled into that we both didn’t feel comfortable with.  So I picked an alternative about half an hour away.  The route was along a very windy road hugging the side of a steep valley, with the swollen river below us. It was an ‘interesting’ drive although I focused on staying on the road (in some places there was no barrier between us and a 100 ft drop to the river) rather than looking at the scenery.  We eventually arrived in the town of Penacova, where I parked behind a small van on a surprisingly flat area (given most houses are built on stilts around here).  It’s p****ng down with rain again and this is forecast to carry on through the night and tomorrow.  I hope the roads and bridges survive.

Tomorrow morning I need to do some research for our route north.  

Too weird for words

Some sanity in a surreal place - the vineyard

Our current spot - high in the hills and well above the raging river

Piso em mau estado

Tuesday 10 April 2018 - Day 37

It’s been a wet and windy day and the temperature’s struggled to get into double figures.  We woke to find the stormy gusts and heavy rain had returned, so we had a rethink on our plan.  We’d seen plenty of cliffs and wild seas, so it was time for something different.  Instead, we took advantage of the poor weather to put some miles in, heading further north.  The roads were, as always, dreadful. Combined with HGVs overtaking us in torrential rain on blind bends, I was glad to make it to our current stop in one piece. Hence the title of this blog - Piso Em Mau Estado - meaning ‘the road’s in a bad state’. In other words, it’s cheaper and easier to put up a sign saying the roads are shit, than just crack on and fix them!  You’ll probably be guessing that we’re still not taken with Portugal.  

I had in mind a night stop but we would have reached it before lunchtime, which made no sense. So we stopped at Lidl to top up on food and eat lunch in their large car park.  Back on the road, the Sat Nag clearly was also having a crap day, taking us off piste down a number of very dodgy bomb-cratered roads.  Having said that, we passed through some nice, countryside villages, many with really lovely potagers (mixed veg, fruit and flower gardens) and surrounded by grape vines - this is a much nice part of the country.  The next aire looked promising but was overgrown and covered in graffiti - no thanks. So we moved on to our current stop, which is a bit quirky but actually we really like it.  We’re in the village of A Dos Cunhados (meaning the Two Brothers-in-Law) on our own in a large car park which doubles as an aire.  It overlooks a large cemetery built into four terraces - as I look at now in the dark I’m sure some of the gravestones are lit up!  I wonder if you need to pay more to be buried on the highest terrace!?

On arrival Cathy prepared dinner - delicious veggie fajitas. She was suffering with a painful back after a day sat in the van, so a couple of G&Ts and some painkillers seemed to do the trick!  I wandered into town to have a quick look around and buy a bottle of wine.  It’s relatively small although the road through is quite busy.  I found a few cafes, plus the local market which included a butcher, greengrocer and a laundrette; we plan to use the latter tomorrow.  Thankfully I also found a local shop for the vino.

Well fed and watered, I’ve been watching some locals being put through the hell known as ‘military fitness’. They’ve been at it for a couple of hours, through torrential rain and darkness - so respect to them.  One lad is wearing a large heavy bergen and carrying a heavy wooden pole in lieu of a rifle as he yomps along, clearly training for selection - good luck fella!  It’s still blowing a hooley, still chilly and the showers continue.  Tomorrow we plan to visit a Buddha Garden just up the road, for some peace and solitude.  I hope it’s a bit warmer and drier…

All on our lonesome

At least the neighbours are quiet!

Unlike this church bell - at least it's only on the hour