Early February Update

Havent worked out how to get some assemblance of the photos as yet, but at least they are on the site

Photo 1 : Antonio and Briar - Domengo Comida - Santa Catarina (The Algarve)

Photo 2 : Antonio, Jozy, Suzy, Alfonso, Antonio, Brira & MC - Sabodo comida - Jozy´s Pizziera

Photo 3 : Barbacao Dourado fish for comida

Photo 4 : The bridge border crossing into Portugal

Photo 5: MC & three musical hombres on pedestrian bridge in Tavira (Portugal)

Photo 6: Windsurfing - Isla Christina (Costa Del Cruz - Espana)

Photo 7: Old hombres and the daily debate - plamed promenade - Isla Christina

Early February 09 Update

Well we were heading to Portugal February 1^st, but mother nature disagreed and turned on nasty nasty weather, the worst they have seen on the Costa Del Cruz in 15 years, so we had to stay put in Isla Christina a bit longer. We did leave the following day and the sun was shining and headed across the border, ya wouldn,t know it really.

We took some pictures of a bridge which we depicted as the border. There was a officina building with Portuguese policia vechiles or as they are called here Carro’s near the bridge, but no sign of anybody or booths,checkpoints . So far we have crossed three borders without having to even think abount getting our passports out.

February 2^nd 09

We stopped in a small fishing village called Tavira, a little touristy, but hey this out of season and it is the infamous Algarve coast. Supposedly 300 days of sunshine per year and so far we have struck four days of the wettest, not quite that bad, the sun has shone periodically, with lotsa cloud. It seems to rain mostly during the night. Well after doing the tourist thing in Tavira – coffee con leite in the plaza, briar had some Apple (romana) – slice, bueno ci. Listened to te three amigos playin “What a Wonderful World” on one of the pedestrian bridges spanning the Tavira Rio (river) bought back memories of me old man (his favourite song) A few snappies and wandering the alleys and ruins we headed off again to Olhao to stop at a campground for the night. We did however make a comida (lunch) stop in Fuzeta a small coastal village, we pulled up at the harbour carpark which is right next to the local campground. There were several campervans freecamping in the carpark right next to the campground.

February 3^rd 09

The Olhao campground is a very well run campground, the biggest and probably best facilities so far. There were a lot of campervans here from all over Europe, mostly german and french, but a fair spattering of poms also. Had its own very well stocked supermercado(its own bakery) and restaurant/bar which was well patronised in the off season. Briar and I spent Wed 4^th nite watching some Uk super league, Asian golf and yachting replays of the Louis Vutton Pacific series match racing held of Auckland at the mo. It was great to see some live pictures of home, a bit jealous of the beaut weather it looked like everyone in good old NZ seems to be enjoying. It’s a very interesting perspective, when you watch TV programs of other countries like over here in Europe, it is painted at its best, and when ya get here and see it in the flesh, you appreciate what we have in good old NZ, we have a beautiful country and its not until you sit on the other side of the world and look at NZ on TV that you realise how lucky we are. We set up camp and decided to head off into Olhao centro about a 3-4 km walk and also to check out the local train station and train times, we were going to head into Faro the following day, do the touristy thing again.

After doing the sussing out of the local Olhao centro and the old township we headed down to the esplanade to walk back home. We watched a ferry come into dock from one of the islands, Farol I think. There are several small islands or with little fishing villages on them. If the weather had been better, we would have probably headed out to one of them for a few hours of wandering. On our walk home we wandered past the marina/harbour carpark and it was full of campervans freecamping right across the road from the local Policia station, hard case we both thought. It was well worth wandering through the campers as we ran into some poms, who gave us some advice on several solutions to some questions both Briar and I had , regarding campervans and othe queries , etc.etc. We found out where to fill our UK gas bottles which we thought we might have problems getting filled, we found a fellow campervanner with the identical camper as our Hugo, just a year or two older than Hugo but same model.

We have been having some issues regarding the electrics, especialy the leisure batteryset-up, so after some questions we found alittle bit more about our Hugo.

After a brisk walk back to camp, a full belly of food and you guessed it Vino tinto, we hit the hay. Next day , up early and caught he train into Faro, we ran into a couple of the pommy couples we chatted with in the carpark the preceeding arvo also heading into Faro for the day. We wandered through the older parts of Faro, the walled of Castillo/ Cathedral/ Palacio area and then through the narrow cobbled pedestrian alleys and upmarket shops. We stopped for a café con leite and a couple of pastries yum yum. We then did a wee bit more wandering before heading back to the train and back to Olhao, where we headed down to the Esplanade area in search of comida (lunch). We ended up at a buffet type restaurant, which was offering $5.00 euros per plato. The food looked and tasted traditionally portuguese and was excellent value for money. Baby whole snapper / Sardines/ Meatloaf and a pork dish which was delicious.

We waddled home between intermittent showers with one umbrella between us, but managed to get back to camp reasonably dry. We didn’t bother with chena as we were still full from comida, but did have a couple of basso’s of vino tinto. We headed across to the campground bar restaurant to watch some UK soccer, but there was other TV on, however we persevered and got our hands on the controls, so after some master chef, rugby league,golf and Louis Vutton yachting (Auckland NZ- yeahh) once again time for some zzzz’ss.

February 4^th 09

The following day was as crappy as the preceeding day , but alas we decided that we weren,t going to let that prevent us from getting on with it – famous last words as we were about to find out. Packed up camp and headed off to the LPG butano gaseo station in Quelfes. ( A tip from the Pommie freecampers in Olhao). It was bucketing down when we got to the station out in the back blocks which appeared to be run by an old lady, who spoke f..k all inglese. However she fulled our bottles and we headed off smiling that we might be able to put the gas heater on at last as now we should last until we hit France in early march. How things can change in a flash, we got about 5km’s down the road and a rather loud bang come clang from the motor in off course an outer the way unamed countrylane brought us to a very quick stop, after a quick look under the bonnet, it was decided that we weren’t going to be going anywhere in a hurry. A rather suspiciously lookin and rattling loose bolt near the cam belt, Hugo was not going to be started again today. After spending an hour tryin to get the mobile one-roam europe phone working, we decided to perhaps try one of the several casa’s for help. Came across some very helpful swiss couple who could speak inglese , who organised a mechanic to come and look at the camper.

Like Spain the portuguese also do not do things in a hurry and even more so if there’s any sign of rain. Briar made us some comida of canned Spanish version of Watties Baked beans and sausages, which was somewhat comfiting inour plight. Fortunately a local sympathetic pommie stopped to see our plight, he knew a little bit about motors and also knew off a local mechanic who had worked on several of his vechiles. So off we went in search off his portuguese mate Jorge and left Briar to hold the fort. Several hours later we were back with tow truck in tow (pun) and Hugo was transported to a rather interesting workshop come scrap yard. We were intending to do some freecamping in the forseeable future, it was now a case of having too. So locked in the scrap yard with about 5 or 6 guard dogs of various breed and size, we battened down the hatches and huddled in for the night. Yes of course it was raining again and we didn’t have electricity or leisure battery power for the igniting the gas heater or lighting. We had however brought a camping gas lantern several weeks ago just in case, this was one of those cases. Hey we had food,cooking faclities, a toilet, light several bottles of vino tinto, a pack of cards and each other. It was our first night playing several hands of crib by gas lantern light after Briar had made a very tasty pork stir fry. We were both pretty tired after the ordeal of the day and retired to bed around 10.30pm. The following morning was again crappy until the sun shone through about 10.30-11.00am. Portuguese Jorge appeared at the door , armed with tools to begin pulling Hugo’s motor apart and within ½ an hour gave us the not so good news, I guess we were expecting. The cam belt, sum of the casing’s a couple of bolts and some bearings need replacing. This would mean travelling to Faro to get the parts ordered, needed to repair Hugo’s motor. While Jorge headed into Faro his father Antonio who could speak a poco (little) inglese kindly offered to take us into town to stock up with some food supplies from the local supermercado. He also took us to a local café for you guessed it café con leite and a tosta (ham & cheese toasted)

which was made out of the local portuguese pan or bread which is bit like rewena bread . Delicioso. He then brought us back to the scrap yard, and also god bless him brought a spare TV for us to watch the local TV , which to our surprise had some english speaking programs on. We later heard from Jorge that the parts are not available until segundo feira ( Monday next week) today is Thursday, so it looks as though we are going to be here for a little while longer than we had hoped. Hey we now have electricity and heating, a TV, I can watch DVD’s ,we can work on our lappies if the weather is fine we can jump on our bikes and head into Fuzeta or Moncarapacho.

If anything this forced stop has allowed us to experience some fantastic Portuguese hospitality, Jorge’s father Antonio has warmed to having a couple of Kiwi’s staying

in his sons scrapyard/come garage workshop and has been our tour guide for the feen-de-semana(for the intelligent kiwis- the weekend). He is a spritely seisante-otcho (68 yrs old), and has minimum grey hair and lotsa colour in his cheeks for an old bugger.

On Friday 6^th (Waitangi day in good old NZ) so it was a bonus to be invited to join Antonio and two of his sons who work at the yard for a typical traditional portuguese comida(lunch) a la scrap yard style. Antonio took us into Moncarapacho the closest village once again to stock supplies for the weekend. He took us to the local mercado (fresh markets) which are in just about every village/town/city in Espana and Potrugal, and no doubt in many countries in Europe. He purchased dourada’s (peceonio- smaller ones) and fresh verdura’s for an insalata. Of course we purchased some carne (meat- pollo and porko) for the weekend. Then onto the supermercado to buy other neccessito bits and pieces( Vino tinto brings to mind). We then headed to Antonio’s local cardeira (bar/café) for café solo and a shot of Agregado Figuro( a rather potent fig liquer) - mann talk about rocket fuel. After adouble shot of Figuero we hit the trail home to prepare Waitangi day comida. Antonio laid out all the fresh dourada’s on a tray in the warm sun and coated the lot in generous amounts of special sal (salt). The pesca’s were left to bake for approx. uma to uma medio hora’s (1-1 1/2hrs), Antonio prepared the barbacao (barbeque) a la scrapyard style in an old wheelbarrow, he also made a insalata which we noticed also excessive amounts of sal spread over ( the insalata consisted of lettuce/tomato/onion and lots oil,vinegar and sal). He also had some of the traditional pan (rewena bread – as briar and I call it). Some local preserved acetuna’s (olives – grown out the back of the scrapyard which is about 2-3 hectares with Olive and orange trees) . The acetunas were marinated with carrot, lotsa garlic and aceite de olio (olive oil) – they were delicioso, we were even treated to some of the local fresh goats cheese (queljo). About an hour later the dourada’s were thrown whole on a wire grate over the wheelbarrow and took 15- 20 mins both sides to cook.

Antonio’s other son Volta had set up tables etc. of course we provided the wine glasses and some fruit kebabs (via briar) The day was warm and sunny , and the fish and inslata were as good as I have ever tasted. Like the spanish , portuguese people eat simple food with bare minimum of seasonning or flavouring, so you get the full taste of the fish or vegetables prepared. The dourada’s were eaten with the skin peeled back some olive oil and lemon juice squeezed over – na buon ( very good) as the portuguese say. It was great two different cultures/ familia’s celebrating an important day in Nuevo Zelanda history, not that our nuevo portuguese familia/amigos knew of course, but we did and that mattered to us. After several hours of eating / grazing / drinking we of course were invited to join Antonio to travel down to his local cardeira for a café solo and you guessed it a shot of Agregado figuero, duas café’s and duas shots of figuero later we were give a tour of the surrounding hills and countryside , where Antonio had lived, of course we stopped at another car for the café solo and figueiro shot. After showing us the vista of the Algarve coastline from the top of the mountain and some land he owns complete with his old casa de Ruino- now in ruins, made of stone and would be (40-45 years old) he dropped back at the scrap yard. The rest of the evening was spent horizontal watching the local TV, before we both crashed with no need for dinner.

February 7^th 09

The next morning we tested the camper’s boiler with our first showers (our first shower in three days) and relished both being clean and smelling normal again. Around 1pm Antonio knocked at the door, we had prearranged to go for comida at his daughter and son in-laws pizziera in Fuseta. So we jumped on his trusty mercedes and headed to Fuseta. We arrived at the pizziera, which had just opened in August of last year (2008) so it was relatively new and looked it both inside and out. And the local playa is perfect for it. The name of the restaurant of course was named JOSY’S pizzeria. We were introduced to Antonio’s daughter suzy (susannah) and their son Antonio’s 2^nd grandson- Alfonso. We ordered garlic bread and pizza’s of course for lunch and enjoyed some vino tinto de la casa, the garlic bread came out quickly and soon we munching on some of the best garlic bread I have tatsed. It was made from homemade pizza base with garlic, mozzarella, oregano, seasoning and then rolled up to from a parcel, it was sensational, as to were the pizza’s, better than anything I have had at home or in Australia. We had the Milano pizza’s( of the menu) – which were olives, anchovies, mozzarella, tomato paste and oregano, simple but delicious. Of course we over ordered and had to get some wrapped up to take home with us. Still we had great afternoon with Antonio’s familia once again , and Josy who could speak

a fair amount of inglese made the conversation flow even more easily. Again after several hours of grazing, eating and conversation we were given the royal tour of their casa and roof terrace and the vista’s(views) of course. We were also given a tour through the old part(town) of Fuseta and given a tour of one of Antonio’s casa’a in Fuseta, don’t know if it was a prelim, just in case Hugo’s motor problem was grander than we might have thought, and it would give us a more comfortable stay for a longer period while Hugo was being repaired. Antonio rents it out to tourismo’s as we are called in Portugal/Espana for about $20.00 euros per day. After a bit more driving around Fuseta once again he dropped us back at the scrapyard, around 5.30pm. Once again to full to eat dinner, anibble later on while we watched some TV and a DVD we hit the sack for some zzzzzzzzz’sss.

We awoke on Domengo (Sunday 8^th) to a beautiful morning, decided to clean out Hugo, do some so handwashing, top up Hugo’s tank with agua and dump the toilet waste out in the paddock and clean and refill the cheical toilet. No sooner had this been done than, Antonio knocks on the campervandoor, both Briar and I looked at each other, another day touring, what the hell, we are getting a first hand look at

Potruguese lifestyle with a very proud Potruguese patriot. So aonce again it was jump on Antonio’s mercedes and this time we headed into the country and Santa Catalina / Forte De Bispo – Antonio’s home town where he grew up , went to school , etc.etc.

We stopped at you guessed it (you guys/gals are getting good) a Cardeira (mate of Antonio’s for the customary café con figueiro shots, but we were fed Barbequed chorizo sausage on the rewena bread , some sliced jamon serrano, aceituna’s and vino tinto. It was an out of the way cardeira set on the side of a country lane, it had been built only a few years earlier. It was right across from a river – Rio Tavira as we found out. After some more wining,dining and contrived fallas portuguese-inglese banter we headed of into the main part of town, of course the streets and town were rather quiet being Domengo, just like home in NZ. We stopped at another Cardeira and were once again sat down and fed platos sliced chorizo, pan (rewena bread), aceituna’s and some local queljo (Cheese) it was a bit like brie semi-hard outer and soft inside, I think also made from goat. Several hours later we arrived home in the dark this time about 7pm. Once again a very light dinner a DVD and of ta bed hoping

Dreaming that Hugo’s problema was not grande and that the parts neede would arrive tommorrow and we could hit the trail again amybe Tries feira ( Tuesday).

Monday 9^th ( segunda feira- D Day for Hugo)

After we both had a restless nights sleep worrying over Hugo and whether we were going to be stuck for another couple of weeks in Moncarapacho, we dragged ourselves out of bed. We decided that if we showered it might put us in a more positive frame of mind, so showered breakfasted and even gave Hugo a mop out inside. Around 10pm Jorge and another chap, I think was a local auto-electrician opened the bonnet and peered in, looked at some of the parts of Hugo, chatted and

gave me a prognosis of what might possibly happen today. I’m hoping that I understood it right, that Hugo’s problemo could be fixed as soon as the parts arrived ( new cam belt, bolts, casing) and fingers crossed is not as major as first thought.

That was treis horas ( 3 hrs) ago ) so it has given me some time to write more of our adventures. We have both thoroughly enjoyed the generosity and hospitality of Antonio and his familia while being laid up here, but are now itching to carry on and explore new horizons , vistas and adventures elsewhere. Hopefully my next entry will be from a different town/ camping ground.