Thursday 17 March

The only noise during the night was the crashing of the breakers on the beach, just over the sand dunes. Waking to yet another warm sunny morning (yeh, we know, it gets a bit monotonous.....) we were in no particular rush so after clearing up we took Jamie onto the beach again for a half hour run around and occasional plodge in the lagoon.

Then, as there were no servicing facilities here, we headed for the main town of Vila Nova de Santo Andre where the Intermarche supermarket had kindly provided a free service point in their car-park. Just to reciprocate we filled up with nice cheap fuel although there was no obligation; this happens all over Europe and is a sign of how everybody tries to attract and support motor-homers, who do have money to spend. Wish it were so in the UK.

Having decided to stick to the coast this year, having done the inland route last, we now had Lisbon to negotiate. A look at the map revealed a bewildering choice of routes, most of which followed motorways, so we just input an aire in the region we expected to be able to get to without too much rushing, being careful to programme the “no motorways” choice. It's proposed route looked okay to us, basically avoiding Lisbon although we did go through some of the outer suburbs and dormitory areas.

The first part of the route took the main IC1 trunk road, used a lot by HGVs avoiding the toll motorways. All the money spent on motorways means, of course, there is nothing left for normal road maintenance and it showed – some places were worse than Morocco! But once we got away from the major roads it was fine and we paused near Porto Alto (an altogether unattractive town) for lunch.

Shortly our route went cross-country, on good roads and through intensive fruit-growing areas. Along with vineyards we saw huge orchards of what we thought were pears as well as other fruits, but few oranges which grow better further south. Eventually after a lovely drive, we spotted the castle at our destination town, Obidos.

A picturesque touristy walled city crowned with a fine castle, our Rough Guide recommended it. The aire servicing the town is just behind the main car-park only a few minutes walk from the walls and the main gate. With room for a dozen units there were plenty of spaces and all facilities, including very good free WiFi for a reasonable €6 a night. We decided to stay a couple of nights and perhaps go explore tomorrow.

Obidos Castle