Wednesday 9 March

Move on today after a surprisingly pleasant stay at Vila Real. First call to find Lidl for a few groceries and the telecom shop, which Terry passed within 10 metres of yesterday! Then top up the fuel tank and head westwards.

Our first call was at Manta Rota where there is a lovely aire we stayed at 2 years ago. However we had heard that it had been full since December and this proved to be the case – strike 1. So trundle along the coast and on a whim turned into Tavira, following our noses towards the Praia (beach) and finding a large piece of open land very obviously being used for wild camping although there were only a few vans parked when we arrived. As it was lunchtime we stopped for an hour but really didn't much fancy it, although it would have been okay at a push, so looked up a couple more places, this time at Albufeira.

The TomTom took us inland and then along a stretch of the A2 motorway, which we had been trying to avoid – naughty but we didn't spot any toll cameras so we may have gotten away with it. The first was a little bit out in the sticks but looked very nice, both in the book and in real life. Unfortunately, although we were told we could overnight in the overflow car-park and wait for a space tomorrow, it was also full so we pushed on. Strike 2.

The next was in a suburb of Albufeira on an old football field which again looked nice, but again was full. Strike 3. Not yet unduly worried we set off for two more, one of which appeared uninspiring but was almost certain to have room and another which looked just the ticket but had received some negative comments on the forum. We passed the uninspiring one, which was almost empty, and found the last one just down the road; and up a cart track; then another cart track.

Mikkis Place to Stay (yes that's it's title) near Pera at first glance looked a little quirky and rather full, but the lady in the bar told us to go find a spot and then come back to reception when it opened at 5.00 pm. Getting further in we found a delightful “aire” with plenty of spaces, all in marked out bays with lots of room in each one, so we plumped for a spot which would give us full sun all day and hopefully a bit of shelter from the wind. It was really more of a campsite that was attached to a pottery with friendly and enthusiastic staff and we were persuaded to stay for 3 nights for only €5 per night (we declined electric hookup at €2.50 extra, we don't need it) a real bargain.

We quickly found other Funsters, as well as a lot of Germans and Dutch (the French hadn't managed to take over here!) then settled in. There's even a small accessory shop, but he didn't have the bit we needed for the cassette; he offered to order it, but it would take too long.