Monday 14th – Sunday 20th October 2024
This week started well – not!! We discovered when we arrived at Vilamoura Rustic Motorhome and Caravan Park a couple of days ago we had forgotten to change the fridge from mains electric to gas so all our frozen foods had defrosted and over the past couple of days we have been eating it, fortunately it is a small freezer so although we did have to eat a double fish potion one night and a double lamb chop portion another night, luckily our shoulder of venison was still perfect for a Sunday roast with all the trimmings, we drank a bottle of our posh Spanish wine with it – delicious.
`We came to this site to hunker down while bad weather went through. We arrived Friday and as I write this on Tuesday night we have yet to have a day without rain if fact Sunday and today passed with hardly a break in what seemed continuous heavy rain, still the forecast for the remainder of the week is better – here’s hoping.
Wednesday had the weather we had come to Portugal for, the sun shone from a clear blue sky, the whole day was a delight we even decided to go to the site clubhouse for a drink after dinner, sadly by that time the rain had returned with a vengeance, making so much noise on the roof we could not hear the TV, still Thursday turned out nice again with the sun shining from a clear clue sky (the first time this entire trip) and at 12.30 we called an Uber to take us down to Vilamoura Marina to have lunch with middle sister Marion and husband for 60 years Syd.
As we were getting out of the taxi at the marina another cab drew alongside us and, would you believe it Marion and Syd climbed out. We went to a restaurant “News” and sat on the sun terrace, built over the water, and had a most splendid lunch – good food and good company. After going back to Marion and Syd’s apartment for a cup of tea (and a nosy around) we returned to our campsite only to find the owners had opened their small clubhouse and invited everyone to a South African style Curry and Rice dinner, choice of 3 puddings (we had one of each between us), with beer, wine and brandy we are not quite sure what was paid for and what was complimentary as the bill for the two of us came to just €24.50. It was very good indeed.
Friday morning and it was time to move we are planning to go to Vila Nova de Milfontes we had to pay not only for last nights meal but for our seven day stay so couldn’t leave until we had seen Anthea and Gerard, the evening had obviously gone on some while after we left as they didn’t appear until nearly eleven and by the time we had said our goodbyes it was nearly noon but it was a two hour journey and we knew the site we were going to closed for lunch.
The journey was magnificent, through windy rural roads and isolated villages we arrived at our new home for a few days – Camping Milfontes – at 3.00pm only to find that reception was closed between 1.30 and 3.30pm -DOH!!.
The receptionist returned at 3.20pm and booked us in, although there are less units than we have ever seen (we have been coming to this site since 2011 and have spent lots of Christmases here) all our favourite spots were occupied but we found a flat shady spot and settled down for what will probable be stay of 5 to 7 days.
Saturday morning saw us walk to the market for the first time since 2018 but the lady on the fruit and veg stall recognised us and gave us us a warm welcome. As well as lots of lovely fruit we were able to buy fresh sardines from one of the fishmongers, we cooked them on the BBQ for our dinner. They were delicious, a glorious end to a wet but good week,
