Monday 14 March

Day 72 – the time just seems to fly by and the channel crossing seems a very long time ago.

We hadn't been able to make our minds up to stay or move on, taking into account the weather forecast which was predicting a cloudy day today with a possibility of rain tomorrow. The day started sunny, although we were probably not going to be sunbathing after burning yesterday, but then started to cloud over so we said move on.

Along the N125 we had noticed a lot of orange sellers and having already decided to stock up enough to take home we planned to get them today – last year after taking a wrong turn we got off the N125 and didn't see any so this time we'll make sure. So with the inland town of Silves programmed into the satnav, after emptying the waste tanks we headed out. But no orange sellers! Was it too early (after 11.00) or Monday? Whatever, we resolved to stay on the N125 (which is the main non-motorway road through the Algarve incidentally) until we found one, which of course we eventually did. Three big bags of large oranges at €2 each later, we headed again for Silves.

Silves Castle

We've passed through Silves before and thought what a nice place it looked although parking at that time was unofficial and chaotic. Since then the local council have cracked down and parking is now confined to three aires so we had a look. The first, a finished but not officially open site, was grotty and packed, probably because it was free. The second, a commercial aire (i.e. a basic campsite) looked nice but again full, and was a little way out of town. We had no reports of the third, just satnav coordinates so TomTom took us through the back streets of Silves, behind the castle and to the cemetery. It was a very nice looking place but small and, we thought erroneously, again a little way out of town so we gave that a miss too. It was only when we headed back toward the coast we realised we had come in a big circle and it was in fact quite close to the town, but we had by then made our minds up.

Another place we looked at last year was Alvor, on the coast about 15km from Portimao and where Terrys friend Ed stayed two or three winters. At the time the aire, right on the beach, looked a bit scruffy and forlorn with a lot of motorhomes actually parked in the beach car parking areas (now prohibited but there are still a handful parked there). The beach (for Jamie) being the attraction we headed there and found a somewhat more pleasant aire where some effort seemed to have been made to tidy it up and which was quite busy. With the reception caravan closed for lunch we drove around and found a pleasant spot in a corner with plenty of sun and parked up next to some more Funsters – they get everywhere! This'll do us for a couple of nights and we spent the rest of the day doing, well, not a lot. A bit of sitting out in the sun (but not for long) and some chatting to the new neighbours. Dogs of course make a great talking point and next door had two, a chocolate lab and a labradoodle who Jamie loved playing with.