Saturday 12 March

Another bright start with little wind; no rush but packing up etc. is now down to a fine art and it doesn't take us long. A lovely site this and we hope they resolve their problems as we would love to come back.

The plan today was to head to Portimao and get some gas, shopping and cash on the way. Gas was no problem but we had an aborted attempt to find an Intermarche – the signs just ran out! However we knew we had a choice in Portimao so carried on, being held up briefly at roadworks by the bridge. At last the N125 is being repaired, we've been through several sets of roadworks and apart from near the border much of it has already been completed.

Lidl has embraced motor-homing and many of their stores now have at least four dedicated motorhome parking bays and there is also usually more room in unmarked areas so we stopped at their Portimao shop. Shopping completed and the cash machine eventually persuaded to part with some money, we continued on to the marina aire at Praia de Rocha, the beach resort for Portimao.

We've stopped here several times before and met a number of our Funster friends here too. We had heard that it was very crowded, and indeed the main parking area was full but the overspill field had plenty of room so we pitched up in a biggish space and got some lunch. Later talking to neighbouring Brits we learned that up until this morning this field too had been quite crowded but had emptied quickly – more evidence that folk were starting to head home, probably for Easter in two weeks time.

Last time we were here we were taken to a cafe restaurant at Pingo Doce, a supermarket chain, and had an amazingly cheap excellent meal so thought we might do it again. Leaving Jamie on his own, we strolled along the riverfront, past the docks to the restaurant which is in an outer suburb of Portimao, about 20 min walk. Once again we had an excellent meal at a very good price then a quick “mooch” around the shop but there was nothing we needed.

The walk back was quite cold but thankfully what wind there was was behind us. A delirious welcome from Jamie then hot chocolate with Baileys rounded off our evening.