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| Faro marina |
Portugal, 20th – 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?
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| Who needs a sandcastle when you have a flexitub and a load of dirty clothing? |
Given that we were getting close to spending two months in
Portugal, we decided it was time to make more progress and get a few of the
more major sites under our belt, so we moved on to Faro. After getting into the town and taking a
somewhat dubious route suggestion from Daisy the Satnav (during which a passing
local made hand gestures to say it was too narrow ahead), we decided to stick
with the road signs until we reached the main parking area at Largo de São
Francisco. It’s free here (and there is
a designated parking section for motorhomes), although a ‘helper’ tried it on
by wandering over and calling to us through the window, saying our parking spot
was okay but insisting another spot was much better. After closing the cab blinds and hiding in
the back of the van until he gave up trying to relieve us of our money, we
finally went for a walk around Faro.
Faro is the main city in the Algarve, and home to the airport where all of the holidaymakers arrive. Despite this it didn’t feel too touristy, with an attractive old town and marina area and few in the way of tat shops. We called at the tourist office for a map, where the guy we spoke to gave us the heads-up that near enough all of the main points of interest close on a Saturday afternoon and Sunday, and then the museums are also closed on a Monday. Naturally we’d rolled up on a Saturday afternoon, so probably didn’t time our visit too well! It wasn’t too much of a problem for us given that we usually like looking at the outside of buildings more than going inside so were happy enough just to have a wander about, but might be something to bear in mind for anyone else considering visiting.
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Most of the beaches around and to the east of Faro are island beaches accessible by boat, but Faro’s main beach Praia de Faro (just beyond the airport) is an exception as there is a small road bridge connecting it to the mainland. We’d heard a couple of people mention it as a stopover place, so decided to have a look. It’s a long sandy stretch quite built up with bars and restaurants, and was the first beach we’d visited that was still busy in the winter (possibly because it was a surprisingly warm Saturday afternoon), with the car park nearing full. We got parked up (GPS: 37.00796 -7.99489), and after sunset it started to empty out, leaving just motorhomes. It was an okay place, but after being spoiled with some of the other places in Portugal it didn’t feel like anything special. It was at this point when we decided to check our emails and notifications after a few days offline, and discovered that Colin and Ro (who we’d met in Romania and again in passing in Hungary) had been following our blog and got in touch to say they were staying at the aire in Falésia, the one that we’d very nearly visited; if only we’d logged on earlier in the day!
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We might have missed Col and Ro, but we did have plans to
meet other motorhomers in Loulé, Matt and Ellie of Postcards from the Road, who we’d
befriended in northern Spain in November. Loulé is mainly known as the home to one of
the biggest carnivals in Portugal, and on the weekend of our visit was playing
host to a chocolate festival. Of course
we turned up on Sunday, only to discover that the chocolate festival was
Friday-Saturday (what is it with us this week?). Matt and Ellie said that we’d managed to
catch the town at the quietest they’d seen it in the post-chocolate festival
slump, but we eventually managed to find an open coffee shop for a catch
up. They’ve been living around Loulé for
a couple of months now with Matt working for relatives in the area, but are
hitting the road again shortly.
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There was no aire in Loulé and we didn’t want to end up
getting moved on in the middle of cooking for guests (or after several of the
drinks that would accompany it), so we went to Estói (GPS: 37.09313 -7.89605, Free),
where the small aire was shared by local vehicles but we managed to get a
space, which conveniently looked like one of the few spots in the car park that
didn’t require levelling ramps. We also
spotted a dozen or so vans parked directly behind the aire on a dirt-surface
sports area.
Ellie & Matt arrived, so the four of us went for a walk
around Estói. It’s not a big place, with
the main sight being a palace that’s been converted into a posh hotel surrounded
by huge gardens, which were locked up. In
the evening I managed to cook a somewhat edible dairy free, coeliac friendly
meal (Thai curry), of which I take the fact that I haven’t had any reports of
illness to be a good sign. We had a
great evening catching up on each other’s travels and making notes of
recommendations for countries that lie ahead. Like me, Ellie is facing the
challenge of trying to eat more meat-free meals whilst living with a die-hard
carnivore, and seems to be having some success, with only a couple of meals a
week having meat. Meanwhile on Planet
Wander Wagon, this week I had the audacity to cook veggie meals two nights in a
row, and had to give promises of a chicken dinner to conquer the resulting
sulk!
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Back on our own the following day, the wheels stayed firmly
rooted in Estoi. My head seemed to have
developed a strange aching sensation, which I am sure had absolutely nothing to
do with drink, nothing at all. We opted
to have a chill-out day, clearing the fridge of various leftovers for dinner (including
a questionable chicken curry stuck in the freezer 3 months ago, the chicken now
having gained a somewhat rubbery texture).
We’d read that the gardens were open Monday-Saturday so went for another
look to see if we could get in, but there were still padlocks across the
gate. We did find another locked gate we
could peer through but it appears the gardens have been neglected, with a lot
of sorry looking grass and weeds all over.
Whether they’re only maintained during the high season or whether
they’ve just given up, I couldn’t say.
Later after our rubbery chicken curry the telly came out, and after the
last couple of years or so of gradually getting through Lost we finally watched
the ending of it (conclusion: Matt was not impressed).
After 11-odd months of travelling without issue, in the morning we finally saw a warning on the control panel to charge the batteries with the voltage on our leisure batteries having fallen to 11.8V. Usually we recharge through driving but we’ve not travelled much distance since we were last on hookup 25 days ago (averaging 25 miles a day compared to our trip average of 79). The biggest factor is probably that we haven’t moved much since the week Matt’s parents visited, when we only gained 12 miles.
Our nearest known place with hookup was near Moncarapacho, at what Camperstop referred to as ‘Far West Style Camp’ (actually named Route 66), a French-run motorhome park that for some reason has a Wild West style theme. It seemed to be okay, if a bit scruffy around the edges, and we possibly would have thought about staying if not for the fact that the price had increased (from €7 to €8) and electricity was no longer included, instead having a confusing system where you pay a €1 base fee plus €0.45/kWh. Without any idea exactly how much electricity we’d need to fully charge our batteries and not being particularly impressed with the site, we decided we’d check out another nearby site first.
Caravanas Algarve (GPS: 37.09548 -7.77402, unfortunately forgot to get pictures) is just a few km away and a much smaller site, with capacity for about a dozen motorhomes, but was much more peaceful and attractive. At €10 a night the price was a little higher, but included electric so probably saved us overall. With free WiFi, clean shower/toilet blocks and well maintained pitches, it was worth every cent. A British van parked next to us had been there for four months, so clearly we weren’t the only ones who enjoyed the place. As much as we knew we should utilise the internet access to get some jobs out of the way like updating records or route planning (or get caught back up on this blog!), it was difficult to want to do anything other than getting chairs out and relaxing under the clear blue skies.
The WiFi certainly proved useful in one area however, and that was in researching water pump problems. After all of the palaver going without a water pump for a month, we turned on the taps at the campsite to find that nothing was coming through the pipes no matter how long we ran them for; not what you want when you’ve just installed a brand new pump. The pump appeared to be running but there was no suction beneath it. It seems if you run your tank to empty and then fill it (as we’d done on our arrival), sometimes this pushes air into the system and causes an airlock. The cure came by turning on the nearest tap to the pump (in our case the kitchen) and sucking on it until flow returned and water came back through. Not the most pleasant fix, but at least at this rate we’ll be experts at diagnosing water pump issues!
We debated staying on the site another night as it was a nice spot but it’s time we sped up a bit through Portugal, so it’s on to new grounds.
- Jo
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