No Particular Place To Go

We arrive in Portugal on Valentine’s Day and the road leads us straight onto a toll road. Now, we usually do everything in our power to avoid these, not because we’re cheap (okay, maybe a little), but because figuring out how to pay them is like cracking the Da Vinci Code. If our Portuguese friends can’t even explain the system, what chance do we have? But for once the weather is on our side, it’s dry and bright so we can’t complain.

Lee and Gabriele who we have got to know from previous visits ask if we fancy meeting up for lunch so we head to the pond at Barril De Alva, where we enjoy the Portuguese version of fish and chips and a chocolate dessert to share for Valentine’s Day. 

We are in the area to house-sit and have already made plans with Anne and Geoff to house-sit in April, but they would also like some other dates. So, in the afternoon, we head off up the mountain to see them. We only get so far through Vinho when there are cables down across the road and they are so low we can’t get under them, so we decide to take the other route and try to get up the white road, but I’m sceptical about this. 

As we make our way up this rubble track we follow a car that seems to think it’s a good idea to hit its breaks which means we have to stop just when we need traction up a very steep hill, at one point we roll back so its a scary few moments and to be honest, it’s something we both agreed won’t be doing again, if the road in Vinho is impassable we won’t be house-sitting.

Once we get to Anne and Geoff’s we spend two nights there with them (we don’t fancy heading back down that mountain tonight)  –  so whilst John gets to order new batteries, Anne and I head off to the market in search of a bargain. 

With further housesitting dates decided we head off for a few days to see other places in the area but being Sunday afternoon we decide to go down to Barril De Alva and stop at the site there for the night – when we arrive there are lots of hippies who are quite loud but come evening its all quiet, and the site returns to an area with community spirit where if you have plenty of something it’s good to share with others.

The next morning we go shopping and wanting a change of scenery we decide to head to Tábua to find Lidl to pick up the essentials then from here we find Camperplaats Terra-de-Iguanas a small site run by Ronnie. This too is a great site with a community feel and several places to to walk. Over the week the weather is mixed and changes daily from cold, to sunny then by the end of the week the rain returns just in time for us to head back up the mountain to house-sit let’s hope that the cable is fixed. 

We wake up to find a little surprise waiting at our van door—fresh oranges!

At Barril de Alva we find the closest thing to proper English fish and chips 

Camperplaats Terra-de-Iguanas is worth €12.50

Ronnie delivers fresh bread every morning to our van step at Camperplaats Terra-de-Iguanas

Rolling into Barril De Alva, we were greeted by a cloud of “mystical” smoke and a group of hippies juggling balls and passing around something that definitely wasn’t sage.

Barril de Alva is one of those places where you’re bound to run into a few stray dogs. One of them—Burt (well, that’s what I call him; who knows if he even has a real name?)—is a friendly fellow with a soft spot for ham wraps and the occasional digestive biscuit. 

As for the van, the leisure batteries that gave up the ghost the moment we arrived in France, have funnily enough started to work, just the act of ordering new ones seems to have given the old ones a second lease of life! God help me.

In Vinho the cable is still down but Lee comes to the rescue with a good old broom

Coordinates for Aires in Portugal

Barril de Alva

N 40° 17′ 11

W 7° 57′ 40

Sao Joao de Areias

N 40° 23′ 26

W 8° 5′ 10