Life on the Algarve with Bessie.

24th October 2015
Turiscampo, Praia Da Luz, Portugal

We settled into camp life at Turiscampo it is like living in a tiny close nit village where you get to know most of the neighbours, everyone says Hello, some like to chat, some just pass the time of day. This is something I miss at home, people just don't talk to each other nowadays, you can go years without knowing the people that live in the same street as you, here it is different and it is probably because we all have something in common...We have all taken the plunge and living abroad in a box on wheels and we all like a drink!

The weather has been mixed with rain and warm sunny days on the beach. Our dear friends, Sue and Steve came out to see us for a few days which was lovely! Our past holidays in Portugal were always spent with them so it was great they could join us again.

Sue and I got to spend some time together over a jug of Sangria reminising over past holidays here with all the kids and their friends, they even came to Portugal on our honeymoon along with other family and friends so this place holds lots of memories for us both!

Sue caught the sun!

Turiscampo Pool

Turiscampo grounds and waterfall

Neil finally gave in to the kind offer from Mork and Mindy to take us out in their little Renault Twingo and Neil has actually enjoyed himself, we didn't go up any mountains though! One morning we all decided to go to Continente, a Tesco Supertore equivalent where you can spend hours browsing as long as you have your purse strings tightly closed, apart from me!  They wanted to show us the lighthouse in Lagos first but we got lost and ended up driving through the tiny backstreets of the centre virtually getting wedged between walls  good job we were in a Twingo! but it was so funny passing shops and nearly being able to reach in and grab something off the shelf! Typical tourists taking a wrong turn! Eventually arriving at Continente, we had much needed coffees to calm our nerves the bill for 4 coffees and 4 pastel de natas (portuguese little pastries served warm with a custard filling) €7! Puts Costa Coffee to shame!

The following day, our neighbours had to leave to catch the Santander ferry home, we said goodbye to Mork, Mindy and Twingo  Brit row will be so quiet without them! 

We ventured a little further with the bikes the next day and biked to the next small resort to the West called Burgau. A tiny village with a very steep slope down to a pretty beach! We have now done 200 miles on the bikes and they are worth every penny!

After soaking up some sun, we headed back towards home but on the way Neil spotted a tasty menu!

We didn't stop!

Our new neighbours Charles and Michelle turned out to be in similar circumstances to us although they are now full timing in their new motorhome. Charles took early retirement and are also living a dream.  It turns out that Neil and Charley both worked in the same industry and knew the same people! We had a great evening with them before they moved on to Cadiz in the morning where they are setting up home for 3 months. We hope to stop at the same site for a few days for pre-xmas get together on the way to our site in Spain where we will be setting up home for 5 weeks over Xmas.

1st November

The first of the month brought a real pinch and a punch with a massive downpour, our site wasn't too badly flooded but Albufiera was hit hardest with flooding in the resort damaging lots of restaurants and shops. According to the local paper 139 mm of rain fell on the Algarve in 10 hours.

Bessies Soggy Pitch

The photos from the local paper of the flooding.

After a soggy few days we drowned our sorrows with our other neighbours Ray and Val from Tiptree Essex. We had another good evening with plenty of wine flowing but we had a complaint from a very grumpy french lady on the pitch behind asking us to be quiet she was trying to sleep! oops black mark against our pitch!

3rd November

Today we hired a car for the month costing €300 for 4 weeks hire. It was great to get out and about  and not worry about what size the roads or how narrow they are, we could just nip around and go where we wanted.  A dose of retail therapy was long overdue so with the rain still pouring we headed to Portimao indoor shopping centre and guess what i bought!?

 My first xmas decoration for Bessie!

Living in Bessie for the past 3 months we have realised what things we are missing, having the awning up is a godsend especially in the wet weather, it doubles your living space and means we can still sit outside. The evenings are still mild but we do need a little heater so we bought one from Continente, the largest supermarket here.  We also needed a better workspace and storage in the awning as Neil cooks a lot on his hotplate, so Amazon came to the rescue and delivered us a camp kitchen within five days of ordering from the UK plus £15 postage!

Our little home outside.

The following day the sun came out and we drove to Sagres and the most southern tip of the Algarve, Cabo Sao Da Vicente  and the scenery is stunning!

Cabo Dao Sa Vicente

Heart Cove

We stopped at the huge Fort just outside Sagres and right next to a nice Aire we will remember for future reference.  Neil was in his element pretending he was a soldier again!

There is a blow hole 40 metres in from the cliff edge which was a 500ft drop so you can imagine the sound as the air blew up!

I actually drove the car home much to Neils surprise. I asked him how did i do? and he said "I'm proud of you, we didn't hit anything but you need to do 50 instead of 70 approaching a roundabout!"

I thought i did well considering it was my first time driving abroad and being left handed and driving on the right is not the easiest of things!

6th November

We drove north along the west coast to a small village perched on the hilltop called Espartal to visit John and Sandra at their villa.

We met this lovely couple whilst having lunch one day at Turiscampo, they had p

opped in to have a buffet lunch. They have lived in Portugal for 7 years. We had never been to this part of the Alagarve before so we were really looking forward to seeing an ex-pat community away from the popular resorts on the south coast.

We were stunned when we walked through the door of this villa! John had bought a piece of land   7 years ago and had the house built to their own spec. The villa from the front looks quite modest and nothing out of the ordinary until you walk inside! They have a 180degree view of the mountains sea and beach, the villa is set on 3 levels with the lounge at the top, you may just be able to see the view through the door! We had a lovely lunch and took a walk around the area and to the beautiful unspoilt beaches around them. We had a wonderful day, thank you to you both.

John and Sandras garden and view from the back of the villa.

The sun has decided to return and we were quick to get back in the car and explore the beaches around Luz. We drove to a resort called Alvor between Lagos and Portimaio. The beach is huge and long with a pretty resort centre facing a harbour.

Alvor Beach. Heaven!

Alvor harbour front

Lunch on the harbour front 

Neils cheesy smile!

Neil has had toothache for the last few days and like me he is a chicken when it comes to dentists. I think he had had the pain for a while but he finally gave in to visiting a local dentist that John and Sandra had recommended to us. I think Neil had visions of going to a dentist here where they only have a pair of pliers and board to lie on! He couldn't have been more wrong the dentist had better equipment than at home! The X-ray they took came up on a screen right next to the chair so Neil could look in detail at his lovely mouth. It turns out he may have an infection but no signs of rotting teeth so with prescription in hand we were quickly at the chemist with no waiting! The antibiotics looked like horse tranquilizers but job done at a total of €20.

Salema, is another short drive from the campsite. A sleepy fishing village with a huge beach.

Neil decided to take the reclining chairs in the boot of the car to take to the beach!

For those of you thinking everyday can't be as good as this you are right. Some days we do get cabin fever and get on each others nerves or we are bumping into each other trying to pass through Bessie. We get in each others way if we are both trying to do the same things like get dressed, So it easier to take in turns while the other one does something else. The awning is our saviour and does mean we can shut a door on each other if we need to get our own space for a while. At home we both had our own car and were used to doing our own thing, me spending time with my friends lunches and drinks out shopping, doing the garden etc and Neil liked going off fishing for hours and generally pottering about.  It takes some getting used to being with each other 24 hours a day,  but so far it is all worth it.

Algarve Pottery!

11th November

The site is quieter now but the sun is still shining. We took a drive north to Aljezur and then back along the coastal road to a small village called Bordeira with another vast beach full of surf dudes and multicoloured makeshift campervans.    This is when you wish you were 20 again with not a care in the world just bumming around pleasing only themselves. You can see them all doing their food shopping in Lidl barefooted, one will be clutching onto the kitty money stored in a makeshift box, one with a sort of list they don't really follow and the trollies end up being full of bread, meat and beer..... Oh thats us but with flipflops on 30 years older clutching a real purse!

'Lifes good' as our friend Dave would say!

Sunsetting over Bordeira beach.

Some evenings have been spent with our neighbours Ray, Val and their lovely dog, Sky.

They are real londoners and could drink anyone under the table I have tried and failed. We've had some fun with these two, I tried to play Mr and Mrs the other night but Neil always loses so he wouldn't play! Val got a little too tipsy last night and accidentally tripped over the lead to the heater that was sitting in the door of their motorhome,  pulling the wires out of the plug, tripped over the dog and fell off the step 

 knocking the dog into the table tipping over the bottles!  now thats when you need your camera!

We didn't get told off this time from the French lady, I think she has bought earplugs or given up!