30 June – Celebrated our half way point by giving “Lefty” a thorough clean outside. We used some toll roads to get over the “25th of April Bridge” across the Lisbon harbour and out of the city of Lisbon. The bridge was a spectacular 3km suspension bridge, the longest when it was built. We struck more sea fog when we got to the coast. Lunch was at the seaside resort of Nazare. This was like a Portugal version of Brighton (UK) complete with a cable car up the cliff. The waterfront that had little old grannies sitting under sun umbrellas, dressed in a strange aprons and a funny scarves on their heads, with signs advertising rental holiday apartments. We hope that’s what they were advertising anyway.
We stopped at a camp at San Pedro de Moel. This was a cliff top town with a beach. The architecture was very different. It had houses that had a slightly Swiss chalet look. The camp had a great swimming pool with a hydro slide.

1 July – We decide to bypass the coast up to Porto and go inland to the Rio Douro. This is a river that runs from Porto up east into the mountains to the Spanish border. The river is a series of dams and locks and is navigable over the entire length. Our camp was right on the river about 50kms inland. This is a beautiful spot which reminded us a bit of the Muskoka lakes in Canada. Several large passenger boats went up/down the river.

2 July – The road back to the coast took us into a motorway around Porto. Unfortunately we ran into a traffic jam on this motorway and we took 45 minutes to travel 3kms. Porto is the same size as ChCh but for some reason everyone was travelling down the same 4 laned motorway. Eventually we cleared Porto and drove up the coast to Rio Alto. The camp was right on the beach which was very rugged, a bit like Woodend. Between the camp and the beach was a golf course. To get to the beach from the camp there were 2 tunnels under the fairways. Very unusual!! The day was overcast and we had an electrical storm with rain in the evening.

3 July – The day dawned without a cloud in the sky. We drove up the coast to where we stopped and off loaded the bikes and rode into the centre of Viana do Costelo. We arrived just as a parade was starting. There were 4 or 5 bands. 1 drum, 2 accordion but the highlight for me was a pipe and drum band. All the players were dressed in beautifully made black uniforms with intricate gold embroidery. The band paraded up the town and played in the square. This was followed by folk dancing all in traditional costumes. We sat at a cafe and had lunch and enjoyed the entertainment.

We drove on to a camp at the mouth of the Rio Minho which is the Portugal/Spain border. There is a river beach and a sea beach within 100m of the camp.

4 July – After a huge washing we rode into the village of Caminha, about 5kms on a cycle away around the water front. The main square was great with some stalls selling handcrafts and many locals enjoying Sunday morning coffee and a read of the paper at several outdoor cafes. When it cooled down a bit we went back to the beach.

We shouted ourselves a meal at a local restaurante. I had sardines. Much bigger than the tinned version (200mm). They had to be eaten carefully as they were not even gutted!! Very tasty though.

5 July – We followed the Rio Minho to the bridge at the border into Spain.
Portugal has been great with really friendly people. It seems less sophisticated than Spain in a good sort of way.
The drive into Spain was thru lovely countryside and eventually around some huge heavily populated bays. We have camped at Aldan. There were two great beaches down the hill. The water is crystal clear and warm. We are back to the ladies beach dress code of Spain!! This place is so nice that we have decided to stay another day.

6 July – Back down the hill to the other beach. It was even nicer if possible. The routine is to go to the beach in the morning, return to “Lefty” by 1300, sit in the shade when it’s really hot (32 degrees), and return to the beach at around 1630.
The beaches are a bit like the Able Tasman but with more people.
We have run out of everything so we will have to have a big shop up tomorrow.