Almost Northbound

After leaving Lagos on Monday, we headed east again back to Portimao Marina.  The intention was just to stay a couple of nights and start heading north.  However, as the weather still wasn’t great, we decided to hole up here for a while longer.  We also figured that after a budget busting (but very enjoyable!) few days in Lagos, we’d be as well to stay here for the rest of the week as it’s only 2.50 a night, to balance the books and wait for the weather to improve.

Well, improve it has and I’m sitting here typing this at 10.30 on a beautifully sunny Monday morning, a week after we arrived.  There’s not a cloud in the sky and Dora’s habitation thermostat is reading 25 degrees Celsius; more than enough for shorts and flip flops!  Since we were last here, things have picked up pace, with more shops and restaurants having opened as the holiday season approaches.  This week is actually Spring break, so the place is buzzing and it feels like summer already.  Powell has been happy to lie in the shade during the day and have his walks early morning and early evening, with just a quick loo break in between; he seems to like sunbathing, but he's less keen to walk when it's warm!

We’ve had a real holiday within our trip this week and been rather lazy with it; but to be fair, it’s been that hot, there was nothing for it but to sunbathe and read!  I now have a healthy glow and Pete is still milk bottle white from the neck down, having opted to leave his shirt on, unlike most of the men in the aire (most of whom are twice his age and look like they’re expecting...!).

We did some catching up this week too...on Wednesday, we got a message from an old friend from Pete’s old job.  It turns out that he and his wife were in the area on holiday!  We arranged to meet up the following night for a meal and a catch up.  It was lovely to see Cookie after so many years and meet his wife, Jeanine.  It really is a small world!

I think you could call this week the calm before the storm, as we start moving north tomorrow and will be back to moving more frequently.  Pete’s had enough of the hot weather too, so he’ll be looking forward to the cooler temperatures up north!  It also means that we should be doing far more sightseeing than we have of late, which should hopefully lead to more interesting blog posts!

As we’ve slowed down so much, we’ve left ourselves with a bit of a challenge to get to Scandinavia by mid June; it’s by no means impossible, but knowing how sidetracked we can get and how we love to meander, we just need to take stock of our mileage and make sure we don’t lose track of where we’re supposed to be going.  We still haven’t figured out a route.  However, as we’ve read over and over, that Lapland is a mosquito nightmare in July, we’re looking at reversing our original plan and going in through Germany, to Denmark, Sweden, Norway from Jun to Aug and then Finland in Aug, before getting the ferry to Tallin from Helsinki to start the journey back south in time for winter.

For now, we start with Monchique tomorrow before heading back to the coast via Santa Clara and Odemira.  From there. We’ll take a steady drive north, bypassing Lisbon in favour of Peniche, Nazare and Porto, finishing our west coast adventure with Santiago de Compostela in Spain before we swing north eastwards towards France.  Everything else is as yet undecided, but as usual, we’ll update the blog as and when the internet allows.