Bokkie did us proud again, hauling us over mountains, through valleys and back to the Atlantic. We knew we had a difficult day's driving ahead, the area we are in is very mountainous and there are no straight roads, even Google Maps made it quite clear what we could expect.
Luckily there is almost no traffic in this area, so we had the roads pretty much to ourselves, which made it a bit easier - however the Portuguese do not seem to know the meaning of the word 'slow'. They barrel at top speed on all these tiny mountain roads. which led to some hair raising moments!. Once we had descended we then passed through such varied countryside it was remarkable. We've run out of superlatives to describe the Portuguese countryside, it really is stunning.
We passed through rolling mountains to a green, fertile valley, into a dry landscape dotted with cork oaks, all constantly changing until at last we were back at the coast, destination Vila Nova de Milfontes. This seems to be one of the last coastal holiday villages to have resisted the commercialisation brought about by foreign tourism. As it is equidistant from the airports of Lisbon to the North and Faro to the South with poor transport links it has been overlooked by the foreigners and remains very Portuguese.
It is beautifully positioned at the mouth of the Mira river and is simply stunning.
 |
| Impressive statue titled: 'Archangel' at the river mouth |
Bonus pic, if you want to stand out in a Portuguese village, paint your house anything but white...
We were pulled over by the local police who were checking all motor-homes for licences and insurance. Of course I couldn't find our insurance document but luckily Toni came to the rescue and tracked it down; the policeman couldn't have been more pleasant, even stopping the traffic to let us back on the road.
We will probably stay here the weekend to see the area more before continuing North.
No comments:
Post a Comment