Portugal & Spain 16th Dec - 21st Dec

16th Dec - Olhao

The beautiful sunset at Olhao! Today we headed off towards Olhao, knowing more or less exactly where we wanted to stay - makes a change as we just normally go with the flow. We stopped at Lidl en-route for some food & had a spot of lunch on the carpark (classy or what?) We arrived in Olhao early afternoon, it's a great place - got parked up, I did a bit of work.... then we headed in to town for a walk along the front as the sun set. We decided to stop at one of the many small cafe bars along the front to finish watching the sunset with a coffee & a brandy (pure indulgence), it was truly magical! Back at the van Mal made a wonderful mushroom risotto. almost forgot as soon as we arrived here I spotted a huge nest on top of a chimney stack, so we got the binocs out & it was a stork with her baby....so cute & an awesome sight.....then guess what.....looked out of the door to see another chimney with yes you guessed it another stork with her baby!!! Taken whilst sat enjoying brandy & coffee....delicious 17th Dec - Conil El Torro Our garden area in Conil.... We got up reasonable early & decided to head towards Spain, not sure where at this point, but thought we would see where the mood would take us! Anyway we travelled for the whole day having a bit of lunch on the way. We decided to go to Conil (a place recommended to us by Brian & Mary), they had stayed on a couple of campsites there. Jane (sat nav) took us on a couple of scary turns through the town, one of which we decided to ignore her on....thankgod - we would definitely still be stuck there now! We thought we would check out the beach area first for a spot of wild camping & found a couple of other MH's so we pulled up & bedded down for the night. We awoke to a wonderful sunrise & took a stroll on the beach, wow this is life! 18th Dec - Estepona Again we decided to head on into Spain unsure of where to spend the night. En-route we decided to stay at a campsite in Estepona (we needed a site to re-charge the electric & do the regular waste disposal etc.) We found a little campsite which had once been a garden centre, it advertised hot showers & a heated pool - the pool sold it to me as I hadn't been swimming for a while 'cos of the change in temperature. Needless to say the showers were luke warm & the pool was cold .... all running off solar panels - so would only stay there again if we were desperate! At 18 euros per night you would expect better. Almost forgot I drove the MH & got her set up in her spot for the night!! 19th & 20th Torrox area Beach Our garden in Torrox... Today we decided to head on to Nerja so we could have a couple of days relaxing before the Wilsons arrived. We came across 3 MH's on the beach just outside of Nerja, just down the hill from where the Wilson's are staying. We pulled in & asked them if they were spending the night - well they couldn't have been more helpful, even moving one of their van's over to give us room to pull in alongside them! People are so accommodating & friendly, nothing is too much trouble. Two of the MH's left the next day & we were left with a lovely chap (not sure of his name yet) but we affectionately named him Captain Birdseye ....Mal thought he should be snowed under with work offers this time of year!! We spent the whole day sat out reading & generally relaxing. We have decided to move to a campsite tomorrow, to re-charge the electric & I need lots of water to do the pre-Christmas van cleaning! Oh we had another MH join us with two guys, Mal affectionately named them 'The Pet Shop Boys'! 21st - El Pino camping (Torrox area) Off to El Pino camping just 500m up the hill from the beach - arrived here at 9.30am, found a convenient spot & set about our chores. Did 3 loads of washing & spent most of the day cleaning the van, fresh sheets for us tonight. Did some admin too, then treated myself to a long luxurious shower....wow it's amazing what you come to appreciate when you are spending your life on the road. To add to my unfinished jobs I thought I would complete the blog too....Mal cooked a wonderful spicy pork & pineapple dish for tea....we hadn't eaten since our breakfast so devoured the food in no time. We had a nice man arrive at our door, to offer us some freshly caught Mackrel....free of charge of course.....it truly is a different world on the road - so that's lunch for tomorrow sorted. The Wilsons arrive tomorrow, so no doubt it will be a while until I blog again! So a Merry Christmas to you all & a Happy, Healthy, Wealthy 2009!