Day 9: Tight Streets... were they even streets?

In Algarves, Portugal

By Tim

In the darkness we managed to find a campground that was open. Although it was on the coast in a quant little town called Setubal (just outside Lisbon), this place was creepy! We essentially had it all to ourselves - which sounds nice, but with all the empty white camper vans (over 100) lining the streets it had a ghost town-like feel. Seriously, sometimes we had to second-guess whether we were the only ones when the strong winds made some chimes ring or an open door slam shut. Turns out this is a popular place for holidaymakers, and many just leave their campers there year-round, complete with gardens, outside decorations - and even hanging laundry in one case! But once we were set up and hanging out under the stars, all those campers fell away, and it felt like it was just us and the water!

This morning was a bit of a downer: after setting up everything for a cooked breakfast of eggs and bacon (still haven’t had them), we discovered that the two-ring gas cooker that came with the supplied gear didn’t work! We tried different things but nothing. So there we were, with a full tank of gas but no way to use it to cook our food! The resourceful people that we are, we thought the campground office may be able to help. We walked down to the office to find out, but the office was not yet open. We decided to wait there until then, but then the rains came... again! This time it was a torrential downpour. We had shelter on the porch - but then we realized the roof tent wasn’t closed, and all our food prep stuff was still out! So we raced back to our site (about a 15 min walk), getting soaking wet, and quickly packed up our things. To make things even more adventurous, a wind gust made the awning go airborne while I was packing up the tent on top of the Land Rover. Had I not realized it, I would have been knocked off the top of the car by the flying awning! I managed to catch it in mid-air, saving myself injury, but the damage was done to the awning’s stabilizers as its “flight” bent the riveted joints. We’ll need to pick up some hardware at some point to fix it, but for now - no awning!

After some cleaning up (and drying off!) we set out to see Lagos Beach in the Algarves which was beautiful despite the weather. Many friends in the UK highly recommended the Algarves for holiday, but we never made it until now. Unfortunately the low season makes it a bit of a ghost town with closed restaurants and bars lining the beaches, but we could imagine how fun high season would be like. We must come back!

We headed off from Lagos along the Algarves coast and all along the southern coast, We really liked our time in Portugal and look forward to being able to go back some day.. when it is not so rainy! On our way out of Portugal back into Spain, we were met by a roadblock.. a first for us on the trip so far. It was a combination of Portuguese and Spanish border agents just wanting to see who we were and where we were going. So after a quick “questioning” we were on our way again.

After another long-haul afternoon of driving, we made it to Seville in southern Spain. We had planned to stay at a hostel in downtown Seville due to the lack of camping options this time of year, but to put it simply, it was too tight! Getting to the hostel was a bear; we managed to navigate the Land Rover through some of the tightest streets I’ve ever driven (or seen). One right turn had the Land Rover’s right rear fender flare literally a millimeter away from the corner of a stone building. Another turn had us in the middle of a pedestrian-only church square! After a few minutes of nervous planning, we stealthily got the Land Rover back onto proper roads. “New rule,” I said to Natasha tonight, “No more inner-city driving.” We’ll park and walk instead! But it was funny.

The hostel itself had beds available, but the price was a bit high and out of our camping budget. And the hostel also did not have any parking facilities; we would have had to leave the Land Rover somewhere parked on the street. This was not an option for us, as we have too many valuables. So it was off to another budget hotel; for a bit more than the cost of the hostel, but we got secure parking for the Land Rover - and no tight streets to speak of!