Southwold is not your normal seaside resort. Yes, it has plenty of beach huts, a boating lake, mini-golf and a pier, but there aren’t any amusement arcades or a promenade lined with pubs and cafes. What you have instead is a quaint and historic town, and a pier with rather different attractions (although there is a small amusement arcade as you enter).
The pier has a couple of classy, for a seaside pier, eateries, an attraction in the middle called ‘The Under of the Pier Show’; what this actually comprises are handmade up-to-date arcade attractions – a lot of fun and very popular and a couple of up-to-date artworks. These include a tribute to George Orwell, who lived in the town for some time, and a water clock, initially made to highlight water re-cycling. This is a lot of fun on the hour and the half hour when there is a little display involving shorts dropping and water squirting!
I was really surprised to feel so at home when we stepped back into the van after flying in from Ibiza. It just goes to show how comfortable we are in the van. This is something that we don’t think people understand – we constantly have, very kind, offers of a room when we’re in home territory, as everyone seems to think we might like a break from the van. It’s very sweet of you to offer but we really are very happy and comfortable thank you (and we’ll soon ask if we want a room!!)
We were quite busy over the weekend, including helping our friends out so that they could stay on the same site as us on Saturday night. They had a courtesy car without a towbar so we towed their caravan for them…
Yes – we did get some looks!! (We didn’t, of course, use the little car on the road – that would be illegal..)
After a night out on Saturday we had a long lie-in which was desperately needed due to our self-inflicted ‘tiredness’.
On Tuesday we set off again for Herne Bay. However, the beauty of having no particular plans (i.e. bookings) is that you can change your mind whenever you want. In this case it was when we saw that Steve & Denise, who we had met in Spain, had finally returned to the UK and were staying overnight at a Caravan Club site on our route.
So we diverted to Bearstead, having asked if they minded of course… However their wifi was hit and miss so they didn’t get my message. When Denise replied to say ‘yes, of course, where are you?’ I answered – ‘In reception!’ Continue reading “Back in the UK – home and then a return to Kent.”
As I said in my last post we were sad to leave this site after just the 1 night, but we had actually booked our next site, and with only 2 weeks to get back to Bilbao we feel under a bit of pressure now!
When we left we headed back to the town in order to follow the road to find the Historic fishing port, that we had seen signposted from the town centre. It turned out that Calv was right when he said he didn’t think we’d be able to walk it!
It was actually a good 3 to 4 miles along a back road (although there was a cycle path a good portion of the way). When we found it we parked outside what we think was a coastguard station. When we got out though we found out that the road did go to a parking area where there was also a restaurant (closed though).
We have no idea what the fishing port was called but it was absolutely charming. The harbour must be quite something to navigate into with the waves that we saw! Calv noticed that the fishing boats themselves had metal skids and he’s thinking that perhaps they haul them up onto the slipway – although he then noticed that they were all tied up so maybe the tide does come all the way up the slipway!
Homes in the Historic Fishing port
The Historic Fishing port near Zumbejeira
There were numerous cages of varying sizes, from which we deduced they were fishing for crab, langoustine, lobsters and perhaps even octopus!
Finally the day arrived that we were to move on into Portugal.
We’d looked into the toll system and it appeared that all tolls were now electronic. Having investigated signing up online we decided to wait until we crossed the border, as we’d read that tourists simply pulled over to the side and put their credit card into a reader while their number plate is read and the two details are linked.
This is exactly what happened. However, we’ve since discovered that not all the tolls are electronic (on the A2 on the way to Cascais yesterday) and that the tolls are pretty expensive…
Anyway, back to Sunday.
We decided to go the scenic route when we left El Rocio, meaning that we headed down towards Matascalana on the coast. This was a very pretty little town/resort with a lovely beach. It was very busy, as is usual in Spain on a Sunday, but even more so as there was a running race going on that was starting/finishing on the beach.
Matasclana
We carried on along the coast towards Huelva. This road has a cycle path pretty much all the way along it so is good if you decide to camp down there. We did see a campsite and went to have a quick look round. It was massive! And it was very much a live-in site. It took us more than 5 minutes to get less than 1/3 of the way through the site towards the sea – definitely not for us!!
I mentioned Huelva, which you can’t really avoid if you’re driving this way into Portugal. It’s full of oil refineries and gas – think of Fawley, only bigger.
We needed to fill up with diesel and were really glad that we did so before crossing the border (even though it was a Repsol, which tend to be the most expensive fuel stops). Fuel is way more expensive in Portugal, so we’re glad that we’ll only have to fill up once whilst here.
We also made the decision to come off the motorway as soon as possible and take the coast road. Not such a good idea (apart from the fact of not paying the tolls – I’ve yet to look at my credit card statement to see how much we were charged for the short time we were actually on the motorway… I’m not looking forward to it!!)
The road wasn’t brilliant but we continued heading towards Tavira where we intended to stop for lunch. There was a big parking area for motorhomes and we tried to have a wander round but were beaten back by the wind!
Calv decided to then take the road even closer to the coast, so we found ourselves driving through Santa Luzia, which looked lovely and did have a motorhome parking area, and spotting the tourist train (that runs all along the coast from Lagos back to Villa Real de St. Antonio near the border) before deciding that enough was enough and heading back up to the A22 (the toll road), where we struggled to make sense of the ‘cost information’ signs or to work out how much we would be paying!
We eventually arrived in our destination of Alvor, a lovely little town just past Portimao (shown in the main photo to this post). Whilst the town and the beach are lovely, particularly the beach, the campsite left a lot to be desired. We were originally going to stay for 3 nights but decided to make that 2 and do an overnighter elsewhere on our way to Lisbon (which turned out to be another good call as it still took us 5 hours to get to Lisbon on the following day).
In Alvor we chatted to our neighbours who, it turned out, hailed from the Isle of Wight! Calv and Trevor spent the 2nd evening in the bar – in fact I was getting a little worried when he wasn’t back by midnight!
On our full day there we cycled down to Alvor and along the boardwalk (there is a very good boardwalk here that goes from 1 end of the beach to the other, pretty much, and takes in a nature reserve). There’s an ‘inland sea’ leading to the harbour, along which there are several bars and restaurants. There is a maze of narrow streets filled with shops, bars, cafes and restaurants – we very nearly got lost (highly unusual for us…)
Alvor South Beach
Waves crashing on Alvor South beach
Fishing boat on the ‘inland’ sea
The beach is beautiful. There are dunes protecting you from the worst of the wind, and it is very windy, and you can sit for hours just watching, and listening to, the waves crashing on the beach. Idyllic. It helped me to understand why people come to Portugal year after year.
We ate in one of the harbourside restaurants. Calv had a club sandwich, which was perfect. I chose garlic mushrooms – unfortunately we think they must have been cooked in old oil as there was a very strange taste to them – neither of us could finish them!
When we got back to the site we nipped to the nearby supermarket, called Pingo Doce – great name, for a few essentials. Later still we went back out on our bikes to investigate a mysterious footpath that we could see ran by the site. We cycled out into the country a bit but couldn’t find the source and then headed back up past the supermarket and turned left a couple of times where we found it. We also found this little gem that we thought could be our 1st ‘doer-upper’?!!
We had managed to find a nice spot at the campsite but we were quite happy to be moving on after 2 nights and had identified a site near Vila Nova de Milfontes for our overnighter.
For the 1st time on this trip though we changed our mind mid-journey. I spotted another site that I thought might suit us better and was a little nearer in Zambujeira do Mar. As Calv says, often, ‘everything happens for a reason’, and what a gem of a site this was! I was even prepared to forgive the fact that the toilets had no paper, hand-soap, driers or, indeed, toilet seats!
If we come back to Portugal we will 100% return to Villa Park Zumbejeira J
We wandered down to the little town in the afternoon, went down to the beach – down a number of steps, and took a walk along the clifftop. Another charming little town. All the houses have window frames edged in either blue or yellow paint (except for the rebels who have edged in a sea-green or lilac or purple – we saw 1 of each. I can imagine people writing in to the local paper to complain about them…)
Little church in Zumbejeira
Beach at Zumbejeira
Unfortunately, as with everywhere so far in Portugal, people drive too fast, even through little towns like this. We watched a lorry approaching the 90 degree right hander at the end of the road at a ridiculous speed. But it seems to be how they drive as it’s not the first, or the last, time that we’ve stopped and stared after a driver going way too fast – even on the campsites themselves they drive as though they’re out on the open road L
So we were sorry to leave Zumbejeira after just 1 night and I’ll update you with our journey and 1st day in Cascais, near Lisbon, in my next post.
• The French love a roundabout – possibly even more than the Brits
• Signage often stops just when you need it most..
• There is a lot of free parking in France and lots of parking spaces
o Except in Cannes – you have to drive right through Cannes and walk back about a mile to get free parking
o And Monaco – lots of underground parking areas, not free, but not as expensive as we were expecting either Continue reading “What we learned about France in the summer of 2016”
A fitting title for this, my last post, as we spent our last day visiting the D-Day beaches in Normandy. So also a very sobering day. After all, if it wasn’t for such sacrifices we probably wouldn’t have been able to do what we’ve just done for almost 6 weeks.
As we drove through Bayeux on our way to Point du Hoc we noticed signs for the British Cemetery but decided to keep going and visit at the end of the day. Little did we realise that it would be another 10 hours before we started heading back to the van, and we would be a long way from Bayeux by then! Continue reading “Day 38 – The Last Post”
It was quite a long stint today up to Chalon sur Saone and a 4 night stay at Chateau D’Eperviere (a site that we’ve stayed at previously). We’re mainly intending to relax here, as we need it!
This site has suffered 4 floods this year, 1 very recently, which meant that we couldn’t have the type of pitch that we prefer (on grass rather than a hardstanding). We parked up so that we could get the sun in the morning and shade in the evening, but unfortunately this meant that we were facing our neighbours (not usually a massive problem) which they were clearly not happy with when they returned to their van – they proceeded to peg their towels up to create a barrier. They even pegged the towels together to be sure! Continue reading “Days 31 to 35, to 4th July – Relaxing & exploring Tournos”
Our last full day in Agay dawned bright and sunny (we could get used to this – actually we already have!) We’d already decided that we were going to go down to the beach for a few hours, and we managed to get there by shortly after 11.30am. Instead of getting straight onto the beach we went into the Auberge de la Rade (which, to be fair, was immediately on the beach!) for a drink. I also thought it was about time I tried the local delicacy – the Tarte Tropezienne. This is a sweet treat (the best type of cookery we have experienced in France by far) which seems to be a cross between a cake, pastry & sweet bread with a sugary crust, and is filled with a cross between a custard and mousse. Continue reading “Days 28 & 29, 27th & 28th June. Last day at the beach and moving on”
Time for a bit of an actual holiday today – meaning we did very little. (The image above is of the baby swifts as I don’t think we took any photos on the camera – and I still can’t get any of my phone photos to back up).
We’re finding it a struggle to be ready to leave the van before 11am as we’re so chilled out now. This morning (what was left of it) we chose to head down to Agay beach.
By the time we’d found a parking space and parked up time was already getting on. We went for a bit of a wander and found a place where you could hire kayaks, paddle boards, windsurfers etc. We didn’t bring our kayak, so knowing we can hire 1 for a reasonable price is good – thinking we’ll do that on Friday. Continue reading “Day 23, Wednesday 22nd June. Beach and the Massif”
I forgot to mention that we had another wander around the site last night (even though we now knew just how steep it is – it’s actually steeper the more you explore!) We were looking for the ranch that we’ve noticed on the site map – yay, perhaps I can go riding 🙂 Only we couldn’t find it 😦
We decided to go to Cannes today on the coast road (difficult to get lost when following the coast road so perfect for us then…)
The views are amazing – blue skies, sparkling azure seas, towering red cliffs and the railway running along by the road or directly over the sea, with it’s own viaducts or tunnels blasted through the mountains. Continue reading “Day 22, Tuesday 21st June – Cannes & Antibes”
turnrightoutofportsmouth 