Tavira

From Porto we headed for the Algarve. We stopped in a town called Santarem, our first place with a big obvious bull-ring. It was initially a very ugly town, but we had a wee search for a cafe (more GCSE french coming in handy... it seems easier when everybody´s on their second language), on our way back to the clio we found a really nice plaza, some places just need a bit of searching out.
As we continued south we got overtaken by a van of Ukrainian surfers, and were in convoy with a van of Austrian surfers. Whilst they proved that we´d come a relatively little way compared to some, it got us wondering: how do they get into it? I´m sure the Black Sea can´t have good surf, and Austria doesn´t have a coastline...
As we crossed the hills into the Algarve the rain cleared and it was sun sun sun...
We settled on Tavira near the Spanish border for our beach part of Portugal. We got there and discovered the campsite was a short ferry ride away from the town and any roads. The town´s coast is protected by islands, with one main one; and the main beach is on the island. The campsite is on the beach, no cars allowed. So we had to have a re-package and work out what we could carry onto the ferry, and we were off to the beach.

So there was much beach lolling about done, and we took a great photo of a chameleon on the dunes ...
There were lots of boobies out for Ben to look at too (no photos though).

We did a very commendable impression of washer women one morning, and not only felt for the women of the Ganges, but determined to wear fewer clothes for longer.
Also, Ben realised his great calculations hadn´t entirely included travel time, so countries / towns need ditching. Morroco´s out, Hungary´s looking precarious, and we´ll visit fewer cities in Spain on our way to Valencia for the 5th America´s Cup race. We´ll just have to come back to places at some point in the future - too much world to see!

Porto...

But back to Porto. A wee while ago. It´s an amazing city, beautiful in its run-downness... If that makes sense. We had a good old wander and can´t understand why the people aren´t all obese given the number of tempting patisseries.
Visited the Calem Port "Cave" or cellar too (on the other side of the river - Gaia seems in a less decaying state than Porto), and learnt lots about port on a quick tour. We didn´t even know white port existed... 3 drunk brits (well, 2 drunk & 1 driver) were on the tour as well - they were in Porto to build a massive tidal electricity project. Apparently it´d been raining for weeks. We were lucky not to be flooded out of our tent in fact. Our "cleverly" chosen spot (chosen for shade from sun, not rain) turned out to be firmer ground that for those around us. It was still pouring when we left. It was a quick pack-up, trying to keep as much dry as possible...

But back to the drink, and the port was another local beverage ticked off the list of The Steve Farrar Drink Challenge. Joanna tried to join in, as the picture show, but only managed a sniff of the port before definitely deciding once and for all port just isn´t gin and tonic!


Later, we added another drink to the list - Vino Verde. Another Portugese drink which is a young green wine ... and here´s the proof!

At the Beach...

At Tavira in the Algarve, Portugal for a beach break. Just quickly as our free internet time is over already and we´re waiting for them to kick us off...

We´re getting browner, although Joanna looks like she´s been hit as an insect bite under her eye has swollen up...

Porto was great, although very wet, we´ll give more details later. Photos will also be forthcoming.

We´ve decided to ditch Morocco as we don´t have time to do it justice and still make it to the America´s Cup (such hard decisions...).

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Lots more sometime soon. Here tonight, and then heading to Seville.

Vila Real

Somewhat of a diversion on the way (due to some creative map-reading by a sleepy Joanna), but we made it to Portugal. Torrential rain wasn´t really helping either, and it was seriously heavy by the time we had to stop in Vila Real. Not too bad a town and Joanna found a great wee Pensao with a lovely proprietress. We also went out and got (other than wet) a wonderful dinner of roast kid goat. Yummy.

We´ve moved on to Porto - "charmingly dilapidated" as the guidebook correctly puts it, and are exploring it today. Don´t worry Steve, Port will be consumed, as well as Green Wine, the other speciality we´ve discovered.

All good in camp Clio; sorry for the intermitent updates. MikeB has recommended atom feed to let you know when we do get internet access and there´s something new...