Where's Frankie?

Merry Xmas Everyone

24th December 2015

We’re back in Aramacao de Pera, right on the beach watching the sea.

We went to Faro last Saturday to check out the airport and make sure we knew where we were meant to be, checked out a Lidls (with service area) and found an aire within sight of the airport where we could overnight with the new arrival.

Mother’s plane was 45 minutes late, we thought she may have thrown a tantrum on board but it turns out she had just run out of Pixie dust and had to get her broomstick jumpstarted.

The aire at Faro was recommended to us by our neighbours at Pera, John & Brenda, who had spent two weeks there. Not sure how they managed it since there was no water or service point, it was OK but during the night it rained and as I walked over to the bins I could smell that some of the vans had dumped their grey waste. The morning was warm and after a little potter about we moved onto to Albufeira. A proper site with electric, showers, launderette and wifi but €8 per night! It was OK and obvious that some units had been there a significant length of time.

There were lots of Swedes at this aire and they have a lovely sing song voice but I am certain that they were swapping chicken recipes, I’m sure one of them said “Put the chicken in the bowl, put the bowl in the oven…”.

We were far from any action and mother isn’t walking as well as she could so we needed to find somewhere near a beach and a bar.

After chatting to some more Bits who insisted that Portimao was full up we headed back to Aramacao de Pera and got a premium spot opposite the beach restaurant with free wifi (I say free wifi but it cost €6.80 to get the code and a couple of beers). We are 5 metres from the beach, it is €1.50 per night and we were given 10kg of oranges (lovely and juicy, the best that mother has ever had).

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Tree’s up, tinsel all laid out, mother is asleep, we had a little walk to Paulo’s cafe and a pot of hot chocolate has worn her out.

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It seems everytime we go to Paulo’s we see Ursula and Bernhardt.

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In Aramacao there is a raised bluff so I‘ve taken a couple of photos so you can get your bearings. In the middle is the fishing “village” and behind them to the left is the aire, Frankie is hiding behind one of the other vans.

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Again from the bluff is Paulo’s bar, with a couple of Hot Chocolate and Almond, Fig and Carob cake eaters soaking up the rays.

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And a slightly zoomed out view, it is such a long walk, back and forward. We’ve sat on the beach four days running, been to the bar three days on the trot and are now chilling out for all the festive action to start. I’m about to crack open a crate of Old Speckled Hen, anyone want to join me watch the sun go down?

There are about 60 vans here, most are French, a few Dutch and Germans and a late arrival, a second Brit who was evicted from a wild camping spot in Alvor. The Police really seem  to be cracking down on wild camping at the moment. However, John and Brenda sent me a maps.me file of over 800 wild camping places which may be of interest to you, if they are email me at mark@wheresfrankie.co.uk and I’ll email them back to you.

Finally, Lucy and I (plus Mother) would like to wish all of you a very Merry Xmas, a Happy and Prosperous New Year and we hope to see all of you one day wild camping, on an aire or in a pub!!

Merry Xmas.

14 thoughts on “Merry Xmas Everyone

    1. Mark Post author

      Great to hear from you, I hope you manage to do your dream, it may not be the same as ours but this really is about as good as we need!

  1. Ann and Eric McLaren

    Have a great Xmas. We will take things slowly also as I have somehow managed to pick up Shingles. Good job the children had already offered to come here and cook so I only have to preprepare veg, turkey, bread sauce etc.
    Hope you can find a Panto for next week!
    XXX A & E

    1. Mark Post author

      Ann, I hope you feel better soon. You missed off Eric from the list of things you have to prepare.
      I’m thinking of doing a one man panto here tomorrow, With all the French, Spanish, German and Portuguese I’ve learnt no one will have a clue about what is going on. I was asked to stop speaking Portuguese in the bar today, they didn’t know what I was saying.
      Feliz Natal

  2. Thomas burrell

    Many happy returns this is the only time we have seen the sun is on the blogs it has been raining almost non stop for 5 weeks here in Ireland its soul destroying I hope to go down to Portugal soon if plans workout regards tom

  3. Peter

    Merry Xmas
    Looks like you’ve got yourself a good spot!
    We’ve been planning our big escape for what seems like forever now but have finally booked the ferry for Dec 31st. The plan is to head down to Portomao or there abouts so we may even bump into you if you loiter down there for a bit.
    We spend much of our time wildcamping so I’d very much like that maps.me file. I note people are saying the police are cracking down on it down there – we’ll see. People say you can’t wild camp in the UK too and we’ve never had much trouble.
    Best wishes,
    Peter and Elaine

    1. Mark Post author

      Just booked another week at Mikki’s Place to Stay.
      Last night heard of another person fined for wildcamping. It was at Altura and they were the only ones to be fined though. If you don’t put out a mat, leave your satellite dish down, don’t open side windows and don’t use chocks you should be OK though. No camping when you are wildcamping is the rule.
      Hope to see you soon
      Mark

  4. Chris and Ray Clements

    Sounds like you had a wonderful Christmas in the sun. We really can’t wait until we are on our travels again at the beginning of April. Ray had his operation just over a week ago so hopefully we will be ready. We have missed it soooo much. It has been great looking at your pics and reading your blog though – It really has put us in a good mood. Happy New Year to you both. xxx

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