Caldas de Monchique

Valentine's Day 2019

We were relieved when the wind died down yesterday evening.  We were less charmed when it came back at 1am with a vengeance.  By 04h00 we gave up on sleep and sat up to have some coffee and view our options.  The windmaps we looked at showed the entire Algarve would be howling, the only area relatively close by was Monchique, inland from where we were.  It seemed to be in a localised area of calm air, we assumed protected by hills.

So we set off at first light and were soon climbing into the interior on narrow, hilly roads and pretty villages.

It was a stunningly beautiful drive, but needed a lot of concentration - the narrow roads meant we would have to slow down almost to a stop to get past any oncoming traffic, fortunately there wasn't much.

We took a chance on a private Aire we had found in our guide-book and were lucky to get their last spot! Thankfully the site was well protected from the wind.  

The view from Bokkie's IMAX screen is stunning from our parking spot

Looking down on the Aire during our walk - Bokkie's on the left

We decided to go for a walk/hike in the stunning hills surrounding the camp - the highlight (or lowlight) of which was us being chased and stung by a bee.  We had walked down a track to find our way back to camp and it turned out to be an access road to someones bee hives.  I wasn't worried by the hives until I suddenly had a few bees buzzing around my face and was quickly stung on my throat which was a surprise.  By then Toni also had a few buzzing around her and we had to clear out of the area before we could try to remove the sting.  It was a bit tense, but we managed to get away with just the one sting and luckily I am not allergic.  Very unusual for them to be so aggressive; we'll be more on our guard next time.

This was the steepest track and really worked our legs

You can just see the camp in the distance

You can't see it in the photo but we could make out the buildings in Portimao, 17 km away on the coast

The devastation of last year's fires was very apparent

We chatted to the owner about the fires (August 2017) and she was still quite shaken; she said that they fought for 10 days without sleep to save the camp and stated that she couldn't ever face going through that ordeal again.  You realise that it's a miracle they didn't lose everything when you see how the surrounding area burned to the ground.

We succeeded in hiding from the wind today, and finding a beautiful spot but the Aire is full tomorrow so we'll have to head off again.