Saturday 28th March
This is our aire, 20 units with logs dividing us into little pitches. €3 per night plus €2 for water but one of the fastest internet services we’ve ever experienced. We’re hoping to watch the Grand Prix tomorrow morning all being well. The biggest problem is the start time, 8am but the clocks are moving. Are they moving in Portugal as well? Will I be getting up an hour early or an hour late? You really don’t know half the things we have to worry about.
We’re just outside Lagos, or as us locals say Lay Gosh. It keeps everyone confused if you dress like a half baked englishman and speak a mixture of Portuguese, Spanish, French and German with a smattering of Scottish or Welsh thrown in for good measure.
Our neighbours told us how to get into town (they were Norwegian so didn’t have to suffer my foreign language skills, they had enough problems with my English). This is the first sight we see – we’d seen lots of Storks flying overhead using updrafts to gain height but this really upset Lucy, until we looked closely and saw it was a bag hanging down and not a deceased Stork.
Lots of boats in the harbour.
And lots of fish. More Grey Lipped Mullet if my ISpy book is correct.
Don’t know what this was, he was three times bigger than the Mullet.
We found a lovely covered market, fruit, veg and homemade jams, pickles, honey and stuff we haven’t got a clue about. Next door was the fish market.
Who remembers this guy? He used to come round Upminster when I was a lad but he has since lost his beret.
Lagos is a lovely town, lots of shops and cafes and fountains everywhere you look. There was a sign, pedestrianised area, look out for vehicles!
Lucy went into raptures over this building or was it the three hunky blokes in front of it?
Today was hot, not just hot but really really hot so finding a beach to sit on was a stroke of luck.
Clean, empty and free from any distracting distractions.
We sat on the beach, had our picnic whilst this young lady spent the whole time walking up and down the beach posing. Lucy was getting quiet annoyed, she had to keep moving to block my view and stop my eyes popping out.
As soon as I get a dog I’m getting a canoe.
Part of Lagos fort. It wasn’t much of a fort but then they didn’t have to defend themselves against the English. We’ve had a very friendly association with Portugal for hundreds of years which is why we get lots of Port to drink and they aren’t part of Spain. That’s a very condensed version of the history of Portugal, you really need to read a book if you’re half interested.
By now I was starting to get a bit hot and bothered so wandered back into town for beer o’clock. We’ve been told that the MEO shops sell a €10 sim card that lasts for 10 hours internet browsing. This seems well worth it since we expect to be almost wild camping for the next week and could do with keeping in touch with my solicitor but since the queue was extended it was an easy decision to have a beer first. The queue wasn’t moving so another beer was calling just as they shut the doors to the shop. It turns out the MEO shop has half day Saturday so we’re no nearer to getting a sim card.
Love – I’m just going to the bank. There are a lot of horse and carts running around the streets as well as brand new Rangerovers, BMWs and Lexus.
Two weeks ago we bought a new solar panel regulator off of one of our neighbours. The batteries didn’t seem to be charging and the only indicator was a colour changing led which is a fat lot of good when you are colour blind! The old regulator was MPPT device which is meant to be top notch (and top dollar) but the new one was €20 and as simple as a simple thing. When the batteries are fully charged the led flashes which even us colour blinders can see. The batteries are now fully charged by 10am. Even the percentage indicator is now on 100% so I’m now thinking that maybe I don’t need new batteries, more solar panels and earlier nights. It has been three weeks since we were last on electric hook up, as long as we stay in some sunny places we won’t have to hook up again for ages.