Long time no see…unfortunately, we were a bit careless with the blog and our plans spontaneously changed a bit. Therefore, there was less time to write blog entries...
After we left Seville towards Portugal, we had to make a short stopover in Spain and stayed one night not far from the Doñana National Park. We had actually hoped to find a nice place near the sea but nothing came of it. Finding drinking water in Matalascañas was also almost impossible, because all the fontanas were out of order. The city also seemed like a ghost town in the off-season. We then stopped at a nearby gas station and were allowed to fill up our water supplies there. Then we looked for a middle-of-the-road cozy place in the forest and spent the night there.
Here again all the garbage that is deliberately dumped in the forest was noticeable. And it's not even about refrigerators or paint cans, but normal household waste. Completely incomprehensible when you consider that there are more rubbish bins than inhabitants in Spain - in other words, there are rubbish bins for plastic, glass, paper and residual waste on every corner in every town.
The following day we crossed the Portuguese border and, as recommended by the famous Fred, THE Algarve jewelry maker, whom we had met in Tarifa, we drove slightly ignorant of all the signs telling tourists to drive out and buy wireless toll devices. So far, no one has reported that we had not paid the motorway toll. But it is also a bit opaque in Portugal, because there are also sections of the motorway that can be paid for with machines and cash/card.
Our first stop was near Quarteira in the Algarve directly on the beach under the pine trees. A dream pitch, for the weekend it was a bit full (especially Sprinter motorhomes) but still relaxed because the place was very spacious. The water was now warm enough to go swimming, but only for a short time 😉
We stayed there for a few days and got to know a nice family from Berlin, with whom we traveled for the next 2 weeks.
After we decided to go further west, we actually planned to go to a beach near Vila do Bispo, which was also recommended to us by Fred in Tarifa. The path that Google suggested to us (from the east) was very adventurous and the hikers widened their eyes as we drove along it. As the crow flies, less than 500m from the beach was unfortunately over. The path became extremely steep and had very deep gullies so that we (at least alone) did not dare to drive down there. So we turned around and tried from the other side (northwest), but unfortunately we got lost and the kids needed something to eat and then soon had to sleep. So we went to another place that a syncro fanatic on the beach in Quarteira recommended. It was terrific, right above the Atlantic coast on a small plateau. It was extremely windy but in the middle of the plateau where we were standing there was almost no wind.
The next day we tried to meet up with the Berliners again, which we had unfortunately missed the day before. But also this time it didn't really work out and we found a very nice place in a bay down by the sea. However, it was so windy that you couldn't really enjoy it. The next day we met again with the Berliners a little further north in a small pine forest that was wonderfully sheltered from the wind. Here the children could play in the sand, we could go jogging and hike over the dunes to the sea.
After two relaxing days, we parted ways again. We really wanted to see Lisbon, then to Nazaré, hoping that we would see a few more monster waves, and then to the Picos de Europa as directly as possible. Lisbon was very nice, we found a good parking spot near the port and took the S-Bahn downtown. From there we continued on foot and returned to the bus in the evening to drive a few more km. When we arrived in Nazaré exactly two days after the Berliners, the sea was smooth as glass. Not even the slightest sign of waves - a bit sobering. But saying goodbye was all the easier and we found a great place directly behind the dunes - alone. The way there led a few kilometers over slopes and the last part through nice deep fine sand. In the German manner, I drove with 3.6 bar in the tires to about 50 m in front of our night spot. I was amazed at how far you can get with the Syncro without making any adjustments (that's also why I didn't deflate sooner). After we got stuck, we dug the wheels free a bit, let the air out to 1.3 bar and drove on without any problems. You could probably have saved yourself the air if I hadn't forgotten at the moment that I also have differential locks - well, it worked out well.
When we climbed over the dunes and saw the beach the next day, we were amazed. Not a single soul for miles, just a white sandy beach and a few quad tracks. But wait - there's something there - of course, plastic. And lots of it. Not visible at first glance, especially from a distance. If you got closer, you could see the thousands of small (and also larger) pieces of plastic. We were stunned there too. And most of it certainly not from people on this beach but washed up from the sea. Among them, above all, lollipop sticks (you know which ones I mean, those little white ones that are in every Chupa Chups and other lollipops) and the remains of old fishing nets. We got two 120l garbage bags and started to fill them up before we left. After an hour we had both bags about half full, but they were so heavy that we left it at that, after all we had cleaned about 40m of beach...
Then there was another night ride – before that, just get out of the sand, pump the tires back up to road pressure at the next gas station and then off to the highway. We got as far as the Picos, where we spent the remaining 3 hours of the night at a lake and then drove a little further. We actually wanted to drive a slope over a pass to a cable car station, but unfortunately the snow blocked our way, so we had to drive around the outside (2 hours extra). The next day, after a great track over a pass, we met the Berliners again, much to the delight of the two girls, and spent a few more days together in northern Spain.
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