Saturday 2nd February 2008

A big day in the rugby calendar – England v Wales in the Six Nations tournament. As we were leaving the campsite, I chatted to another English guy who assured me that they would be covering the game in the campsite bar – he had installed the Sky system and was well in with the 'management'! He also told me about a very good satellite TV specialist not far from the campsite and in the direction that we were travelling. I needed a new cable for the satellite disk and a new connector for the satellite meter. We found the shop and paid €10.50 (£8 ish) for a 19m cable with connectors and a new connector fitted to the meter cable. This would have cost £20 in the UK!
We then visited the Nature Park that was just the other side of the railway line from the campsite and it was a most enjoyable visit. We paid out €1.50 each and read the English guide that told us that it would take two to three hours to complete the visit, which we thought was unlikely. We saw the fish breeding area with its many fish ponds and then walked though the (flattened) sand dunes admiring the typical flora of that environment. We then saw a huge variety of birds including storks (just for a change), redshanks, white and grey herons, little egrets, ducks, coots, and many wading birds but not the flamingoes that were noted in the guide and mentioned by the warden – it was obviously their day off! We nosed around the tidal mill – still in working order but not actually working when we were there. And then there were the Portuguese Diving Dogs. These dogs used to accompany the Portuguese fishermen and could smell fish that were lurking below the surface. They would guide the fisherman to them and dive after the fish up to a depth of approximately 3m. The lady called the dogs to her (they were out exploring when we arrived and arrived back smelling ......interesting!!!) and then showed how their feet were webbed – each toe joined to the next by skin. Unlike most other dogs, they swam using all four legs and were very good swimmers and divers.
Back then to the campsite in time for a very late lunch and then over to the bar to watch the match. Needless to say there were lots of other English supporters, mainly long-term campers. I still haven't quite worked out how we managed to lose a match that we totally dominated for 60 of the 80 minutes. At half time we should have been even further ahead than we were and, if we had been, we may well have won. Wales quite rightly celebrated their historic victory, their first at Twickenham since 1988, but it was England who gifted them the win. It was a young, talented but inexperienced England side and we hope for better results in the future.
A depressing end to the day, but I must keep remembering that I could be working for a living!
Photos: The interior of the Olhao tidal mill showing all of the grindstones, each one of which has a direct drive to a wheel under it that is turned by the water as it is released from the tidal pool; One of the Portuguese Diving Dogs – they are often seen with there back half shaved in order to enable them to swim faster in competitions.

Friday 1st February 2008

Today we decided to go to Faro by train – a twenty minute walk into the centre of Olhao and then the 09:40 to Faro, a trip of 10 minutes duration and at a cost of €1.04 per person each way – First Great Western, please note the fare structure!
The journey was very pleasant as it took us all along the coast, past salt marshes and salt pans, depositing us on the coast right by Faro old town. We stumbled across a children's parade, part of the Faro Carnival – there are many of these at this time of year around the Shrove Tuesday bank holiday. Regrettably, there were no pancakes on sale but the children were very cute in their fancy dress – the theme seemed to be recycling but we thought that the Red Indians were the best! We stopped at the tourist information office nearby, obtained a map and asked if there were any interesting events on during the carnival (e.g. Folk / traditional music) – there wasn't. The carnivals at this time of the year tend to be mainly for children it seems.
I have always thought of Faro as a large city, probably because of the International Airport that is the hub for so many flights to the Algarve, but the old town is very compact and it took no time to walk around it. The cathedral was interesting and the view from the clock tower was excellent, all along the coast with its sand banks and salt marshes and the mediaeval walls were still intact on the sea side. We walked between the walls and the sea and came across a very basic, small restaurant. The smells were lovely and we decided to stop for lunch. This was an excellent decision as it was obviously popular with the locals and there was soon a queue for tables as there were only a dozen or so. It was right by the sea and, not surprisingly, specialised in fish but had a very restricted menu – nothing fancy, just charcoal-grilled fish served with small red potatoes boiled in their skins. As is very common in Portugal, we were given bread and some small dishes before the meal – a simple tomato and cucumber salad with an oil and vinegar dressing and a dish of green olives together with small carrots that had been cooked (and were served with) a large amount of sliced garlic – absolutely gorgeous, although I couldn't convince Jane to eat any of the garlic, so I had to finish it (a great hardship, as you may imagine). Jane had a huge piece of salmon and I had Dorada and I can honestly say that it was the best fish that I have had on the Odyssey. The secret was that it was so fresh and after being charcoal grilled, it was sprinkled with salt, which brought out the flavour. At this point, I vowed that I would, at some point in the Odyssey, buy fresh fish from a quay and barbecue it the same day. The meal was washed down with some good Portuguese red wine drunk out of tumblers – just the way it should be!
We wandered around the town and Jane looked at jewellery and handbags but without finding what she was looking for. Don't ask me what that was, because I have never been able to figure that out. And then, after a coffee in a café, we took the train back to Olhao and enjoyed those views from the other direction.
There is an Intermarche between the station and the campsite and we popped in to get some fresh bread. We also called in at the Vetimarche, the clothing part of Intermarche, and Jane tried on some clothes but without success. Today turned out to be a very cheap shopping expedition!
Photos: A frightening pack of Red Indians at the Faro Carnival; Stork and cranes seen from Faro cathedral; We have seen many statues of saints who suffered awfully and were martyred – this one is suffering from a very bad headache!

Thursday 31st January 2008

Despite the fact that this is a very busy campsite and that a railway line runs less than 200m from our pitch, we slept very well. It appears that the trains don't run during the night, which is very handy.
The air temperature is slightly cooler today so the other campers were spared the trial of looking at my white legs and knobbly knees, although they did see my very pale arms. If I took the time to sunbathe like many of the other campers, then I would be brown like them but it just drives me mad!
We took time to look around the site - more of a town than a campsite – it really is huge with many of the pitches occupied by long term campers overwintering. I spoke to a Belgian guy with a motorhome a few pitches away from us. He and his wife have been here since October and are paying €7 a night (approx. £35 per week), which has to be very good value.
In the afternoon we walked along beside the railway line into the centre of Olhao and then to the port and old town. I have to say that the walk to the town and the commercial port were uninspiring but the view out from the promenade with its view of wetlands, sandbanks and islands was quite pleasant. The old town was also moderately interesting but, in summary, there is nothing here that makes me want to return.
Photos: Octopus drying with the Olhao port in the background; Boat in Olhao port – note the evil eye on the bow; Part of the intriguing contents of a partially derelict building on the way back to the campsite.

Wednesday 30th January 2008

We had a wonderfully peaceful night with just the sound of a Scops Owl hunting in the olive grove next to the site and we were there at the door on the dot of 09:00. The door was closed and there was no sign of life. We waited for 15 minutes and then gave up, it looked as though it wasn't going to open.
Still, we had another Roman site lined up for the afternoon and we set off Olhao, near Faro but we decided to call in at Cuba on the way. We couldn't resist posing for a photograph by the Cuba sign just a few kilometres down the road from our overnight stop. I wonder if there was any connection between the village and the island?
Lots more storks today including a flock (if that is the right word, a dozen anyway) flying over us and another group walking in line across a field. Nests on telegraph poles, chimneys and derelict windmills amongst others. I will stop mentioning storks from now on – they are far too common! However, as I was calmly driving along there was a great exclamation, a mixture of excitement and disbelief, from Jane - “Ostrich”. “Nonsense”, I thought, “You don't get ostriches in Portugal” but, sure enough, running along beside a fence on the other side of the road was an ostrich. It was obviously a farm animal but there was no sign of any others in the field. Strange but true!
After stopping for lunch at a super viewpoint on the Serra do Caldeirao hills, we arrived at the Ruinas de Milreu near Estoi just north of Faro. The good news was the site had just reopened for the afternoon. The site was very well presented with good information boards in Portuguese and English and, together with a very reasonably priced guidebook, this made the visit much more interesting. The site was a large and very wealthy villa that was occupied for a very long time, from 1st century AD to the 7th century AD, probably due to a plentiful supply of water and good agricultural land. There are many mosaics in position although most have been badly damaged since they were uncovered in the 18th century. The cold bath mosaics were particularly impressive, even covering the steps down into the bath. The working side of the villa has also been found with a area for wine production and storage and also five olive presses with the pipes used to transfer the oil to 36 storage vessels in the cool, dry cellars. The area was famous for its almonds, olives and figs, all trees that survive well in dry conditions but these have been largely replaced by other crops that can be grown with modern irrigation methods. Even so there was plenty of evidence of very pretty pink almond blossom all around the site and for much of our journey today.
Arriving in the late afternoon at the campsite in Olhao, we got a bit of a shock – it was seething! We were advised to drive round the site to see if we could find a pitch before we registered - “there may be a few” said the receptionist. The vans were parked everywhere – in the car park, all along the sides of the access roads, in all sorts of places not designed as pitches. We had problems finding a pitch where there was also a free socket on the electricity supply but eventually we found a very small pitch with awkward access and decided that we better take it. After struggling to get on to the pitch, we walked to reception and discovered that there were quite a few pitches hidden in the centre. So we moved the van into a shady pitch and decided that all of the vans on unsuitable pitches were simply there to be in the sun.
The weather has been excellent for the last week, getting steadily warmer as we have moved south. It is really warm here today and short sleeves are definitely required – you never know, it may have to be shorts tomorrow, a frightening thought for you all!
Photos: Henrietta enjoying the view at lunchtime on the Serro do Caldeirao; The cold bath mosaics at Milreu; The huge Milreu Sea Santury temple – this is only the 'cella' (the holy part of the temple), it was 10m high and surrounded by a pillar-lined gallery – an amazing size for a villa and incorrectly identified as a 'cathedral' when first excavated – note the sea-themed mosiac on the walls of the podium; My favourite mosaic at Milreu – the squid with fantatic eyes!

Tuesday 29th January 2008

West of Evora is an area known as the 'marble towns' where there are many large marble quarries and it was there that we headed. On the pleasant journey to Estramoz, we passed the fortified town of Evoramonte that is visible from Evora. It is in a commanding position and the view of its walls and tall castle are very impressive as one approaches. We decided not to stop as we had a full day and we likewise decided to by-pass Estramoz, the first of the marble towns, and head for Borba. This is a much smaller town and has the added attraction of having a well respected wine cooperative. We stopped and had a very brief tasting (I was driving) and purchased 6 bottles of wine and a 5 litre box of red. We bought a variety of red and white and different qualities and the whole lot came to €29 (approx. £21) with the 5 litre box (€5.26) costing less than the best bottle of wine (€5.54)!
Borba was not very noteworthy, although it was interesting to see that even the most humble of houses had a marble doorstep, door and window surrounds and often a marble balcony. I suspect that marble was also much in evidence inside given that it used to be such a cheap material in the area. The quarries outside Borba were very impressive, deep and with huge blocks of marble waiting to be extracted. The roads were also lined with factories cutting the marble and producing finished building materials in a variety of coloured and veined marble.
We didn't stop in the next marble town of Vila Vicosa although we wished that we had stopped there rather than Borba. The town was much prettier, with the streets lined with orange trees and with a much cleaner and more spacious feel to it. We had decided that we should have time to visit a Roman site that we knew nothing about. 'Ruinas Romanas de Sao Cucufate' was marked clearly on our map, just off our route down the IP2 to Beja. We got there just after 17:30 to find that there was a 'Closed' sign on the door and the opening times showed that it closed at 17:00. From the little that we could see, the site looked really interesting with at least one building still standing to many metres in height. We decided to park in the car park over night and be at the door as soon as the site opened at 09:00.
Photos: Evoramonte fortified town and castle; A building in Borba showing the use of marble; A marble sculptured head on the outskirts of Borba with one on the many marble quarries evident in the background; Borba marble quarry – for scale note the steps down the marble quarry face.

Monday 28th January 2008

Jane definitely had a temperature during the night but today she felt much better and was determined to walk into Evora and explore it. And we did!
The walk into the town took less than half and hour and, conveniently, we arrived in the main square right by the tourist information office. Jane spotted that they had an audio tour of the town and we splashed out the huge sum of €2 (£1.50) each for the handsets. The tour was interesting and amusing at times – it took the form of a conversation between two people e.g. “And what is a Roman Forum?”, “It is a large open space at the centre of the Roman town and is the market place with shops around the edges”. Informative but a little artificial, we thought that we had got the children's commentary at first (there was one but this wasn't it). There was a great deal of interest with extant Roman walls, remains of a 1st century AD Roman temple (reused over time for number of different purposes including as a slaughterhouse), a long 16th Century aqueduct probably built over the original Roman one, Portugal's first university founded in 1559 and a large number of interesting buildings and churches. Between the 14th and the 16th centuries, Evora was a patronised by the Portuguese royal family, which brought a great deal of wealth into the city and much of the impressive architecture dates to this period. When the Spanish took over the throne of Portugal in the late 16th century, the city declined and this probably lead to the preservation of the city and has kept it as compact as it is today.
One fascinating stop, not mentioned in the audio tour was the Capela dos Ossos in the church of Sao Francisco. The walls and pillars of the 'chapel of bones' are lined with the bones of 5000 monks and the effect is quite sobering especially when you read the sign over the door that translates as “We bones are waiting here for your bones”.
Photos: The Evora Roman temple locally known, incorrectly, as the Temple of Diana; The bone-lined chapel of the church of Sao Fransisco; A lecture room in the Evora (formally Jesuit) university with its painted tiles and lecturer's 'pulpit'.

Sunday 27th January 2008

We travelled to Evora today, East and slightly South of Lisbon and were expecting less exciting scenery as we had read that the area, Alentejo, was relatively flat. However we started the journey by travelling over the River Tejo on the Vasco da Gama bridge and at over 11 km (7 miles) long, it was very impressive. Just over the bridge, Jane spotted a flock of flamingoes on a lake – the journey had started very well!
There was hardly any traffic on the road and we drove along gently enjoying the views of cork oak plantations, fields with many little egrets and storks nesting on pylons, standing in fields and one flying. Jane was feeling shivery, so we decided to keep sightseeing to a minimum, stopping off only once at an archaeological site, which we also combined with a picnic lunch. There were too sites very close to each other and our guidebook suggested that a reasonably long walk was involved but we found signs to the sites up a dirt track that was good enough for Henrietta. We expected to have the site virtually to ourselves, as we had done with other sites, but there was a steady stream of people including two other British couples. The first site, the Menhir of Monte dos Almendres, was a menhir (standing stone) over 3 metres high, which was quite impressive and it was at this car park that we had lunch. We then drove to the next site, the Cromlech of Alemendres, indicated as a further one kilometres but turned out to be two and a half kilometres. This was very impressive – a complex Celtic circle of 92 standing stones on a hillside with 10 inscribed stones with similar inscriptions to those in Brittany. One stone at the top of the hill had a large number of cup marks where, I assume, libations or offerings were made. Others had small dips cut in the top of the stone with shallow channels down the side of the rock. It was built between 5,000 and 4,000 BC, aligned with the equinoxes and is thought to have been used for religious and astronomical purposes. There are many other menhirs, stone circles and dolmen in the area and alignments have been detected between them.
We then drove the short distance to the Evora campsite and found ourselves amongst a large number of other British vans – something that we were not accustomed to! Also there were a very pleasant couple that we had met and chatted to at the menhir, so we had another chat.
Photos: Menhir of Monte dos Almendres with its modern counterparts in the background; The Cromlech of Almandres – note the dip cut in the stone in the foreground and the view from the hillside; A denuded cork oak tree, Cork stockpile (found later on the way to Olhao 30/1).