More from beautiful Portugal

Sines Sao Torpes, Sines - Monday 17th March

It was a nice morning, so we moved a little faster and got away at 10am. We were actually going to do some sightseeing today!

We stopped at an Intermarche for shopping. It appears that Intermarches in Portugal, or certainly in this area, are geared up for motorhomes. This one had three parking spaces - under cover, and washing machines.

We moved on to the Fortaleza de Sagres. There is a park over there so we parked up and walked to the fortress. The sky looked very black and yes, you guessed it, down came the rain, but not too hard. We paid our 5 Euros each and walked in to have a look round. We really wanted to walk out to the point, which is the most south westerly point of mainland Europe, but it would have been silly as the sky was getting blacker. We walked back to Kiwi getting extremely wet in the process and then the storm started. Thunder, lightening, hail stones and really heavy rain - it was so noisy in the van! By the time we had had our lunch the storm had passed.

It was from the Fortaleza de Sagres that Henry the Navigator devised his 15th century expeditions to the uncharted seas around the western side of Africa, which heralded in the golden era of Portuguese exploration.

As we drove out of Sagres the floods were quite bad with orange water everywhere.

We took the coast road to Sines. The roads were, as usual, diabolical. It always sounds and feels so much worse in the motorhome. The scenery was lovely with acres and acres of small dumpy fir trees, they might be stone pines. All the houses in the villages were white with red roofs though some had painted round their windows and doors in a colour.

Our stop over was just before Sines. It was a car park just across the road from a beach, which Rio really enjoyed. The waves were quite fierce, I assume after the storm, they looked really dramatic. Rio found the skeleton of a sea bird which had long legs (well one long leg!), we tried to get it from him but he wasn’t having it. Every time he stopped there was a horrible scrunching sound as he chewed a bit more. He would shake it and a bit more would fall off each time. It was funny really but he was naughty as he was not going to let us catch him! There was a river running into the sea which looked a bit scummy. Rio decided he could jump over it but he couldn’t and landed in the scummy water! When we got back to Kiwi we used the outside shower for the first time - it even has hot water!

98 miles

Sines Sao Torpes - Searchforsites

ASA Peniche, Peniche - Tuesday 18th March

It was a lovely day with NO rain!

Another first for us. We needed to dump grey and black water and get clean water. In Europe there are lots of places to do this and today it was at an Intermarche. I had to spend 15 Euros in the shop, show the receipt to the person in the petrol station who gave me the keys to the services. It worked a treat - come on England, you can do better!

We had planned to go to Sintra but decided against it as half a day wouldn’t do it justice. Next time we come over to Europe I think we will possibly spend 6 weeks in Portugal. We are loving it so far.

We ended up going to Peniche which is an old town with huge great walls. We went to a park over but I misread the sign to be no Motorhomes but I was wrong. We ended up in an aire. It was a bit like the one Castell de Ferro but they have squeezed too many in but it is only 13 Euros which included electricity.

We took Rio on the beach, the sand is golden and sandlike, not like Spain. There were surfers in the water but the waves were tiny, they should have been out the day before after the storm.

When we first got onto the beach there was masses of dried up brown stuff which looked like horse poo! Further along there was the same stuff but wet. It must be a type of seaweed but I’ve never seen anything like it before.

Richard took the wrong lane at a peage. We have a toll tag but the mistake meant we had to take a ticket. When we finally got off the motorway I had to pay. The trouble was that there were two ticket stations. One for cars and one for lorries - I needed one in the middle! 22.30 Euros.

158 miles

ASA Peniche - Searchforsites

Costa Nova Beach Parking, Costa Nova - Wednesday March 19th

They were forecasting strong winds today. We woke up to the van rocking about. We could have stayed put but Richard decided to move on - well it wasn’t the nicest of sites. It is a shame they had packed so many vans in because the facilities were brilliant and super clean. It even had a van wash with a high ladder so you could wash the roof. However it was 50 cents to use the loo!

Richard said that it was a bit blowy driving along, but nothing he couldn’t handle!

We arrived at our park over. It was just behind the sand dunes, so it was a quick pop over and you were on the beach.

Rio went mad on the beach as usual. He is such a good dog - most of the time! There is a lot of time he spends asleep in his bed while we are driving but I guess he sleeps a lot at home too.