Pont a Brac, France

 Saturday 25/09/21

Bokkie is relaxing in Cognac country just north of Bordeaux after a long day's driving.

We left the house-sit on Thursday and have been making our way through Portugal, Spain and now France, on our way to Brittany.  Once there, we'll need to do our final packing, get our Covid tests and meet B&T to set Bokkie up to spend the winter in Brittany. They will then kindly drop us at the airport in Nantes for the beginning stages of our journey down to the Cape in South Africa.

We probably won't be blogging much until we arrive but hopefully we'll be seeing some of our loyal followers soon.

The scenery in Northern Portugal was simply stunning

The Portugal trip has been fantastic and we've learned a lot.  We really love the country and want to keep visiting it.  That said, it feels very familiar to be back in France and we squeezed in a lovely walk in the country after our drive today.

Bonus pic:

We really miss Rufus, our favourite dog, so far!
He was an absolute beauty to look after.

Reriz

 Sunday 19/09/21

The view of the house from the river

We've been having a lovely time at our house sit, so have not posted for a while. 

The sit started with a very tense descent down the steep driveway in Bokkie, literally millimetres to spare at one point, but we managed to get in.  

The house has a fantastic view of the terraced garden, river and forest.

We parked Bokkie up and met the owners, a lovely Anglo-Australian couple who have spent many years living in Spain and now Portugal. After the handover they treated us to a lovely supper in the local restaurant, before leaving for Spain the next morning.  

We have four love-birds, a pond of goldfish and Rufus, a lovely Podengo, to look after.  Rufus is an absolute delight, our favourite dog so far, apart from an annoying habit of running away regularly.  As promised, he does come back after a while, but it is a house-sitter's nightmare.  We are keeping him with us at all times now.

The village of Vila Nova, opposite to Reriz on the Paiva.

Pretty chapel in Reriz

Fixer-upper in Reriz

The property is perched on the side of a hill overlooking the Rio Paiva and is surrounded by forest.  It is absolutely beautiful, the only drawback being the distinct lack of sunshine on the house itself, making it quite chilly and damp.  We are not living in the main house, but in a beautiful guest lodge on the property, which is usually let out during the summer holiday season, so we feel very privileged to have this as our home for a fortnight.

Can you see our Lodge, nestled in the forest?

Charmaine has spent the last week with us, having braved all the Covid testing required for international travel.  The weather hasn't been as warm as we'd hoped but it has meant we've been able to enjoy some guilt-free relaxing.

Chill time!

I know it looks like I am loafing but it's my job to look after Rufus...

Unfortunately Charmaine will be leaving tomorrow so we'll enjoy one more evening and take her to Porto in the morning for her flight back.  Then it's time to start packing up for our next adventure. 

Bonus video:  (no sound)

This is the view from the kitchen, apologies for the reflections in the window.  It's a time-lapse video of the morning show we have while eating breakfast, wonderful!

Sao Pedro Do Sul

 Friday 10/09/21

We left the tranquillity of our mountain campsite this morning, as we needed to buy groceries for our impending house-sit. We're only about 9km away and can still hear the chapel bells ringing every hour.

We are in a small aire in a touristy village built around thermal springs used in Roman times.  The main reason for our move was to avoid having to do our shopping on Saturday but we really miss the peace and quiet of the campsite.  We will definitely try to come back here in future, as there are many cycle routes in the mountains to explore.

There are a number of very impressive hotels here

The Vouga

The aire is packed and we were lucky to get the last available space.  It's right on the main road so we'll be using ear plugs to try and sleep tonight.

You can hardly see Bokkie squeezed in between the tree and the bins in front

Tomorrow we head off to Reriz to meet our house-sit owners and the animals we will be looking after. We're also looking forward to having Charmaine visit us next week.

Biking to Vouzela

 Thursday 09/09/21

Yesterday the forecast for today looked like rain all day, so we thought we might have to cancel our cycle plans.  Luckily, this morning it was looking better so we got the bikes down and planned a trip down the hill into Vouzela.

I wish they had invented Smell-o-vision so that we could share the real experience of the early(ish) trip down the valley into the village.  We could smell the vines, the grass being cut, the trees, the rain that had passed and the different woods being burned in the houses.  It was sublime, made even better by the fact that we hardly had to pedal at all right into Vouzela.

Looking down on Vouzela

We parked the bikes and walked around the village, ending up in a lovely café for some coffee (tiny espresso, Portuguese style, of course) and some pastries to give us energy for the trip back.  The village is pretty, has a very relaxed feel and we felt right at home.

Our favourite - disused railway converted into a walking / cycling route.

It's always great to find a lovely 'resting bench' with a view

Definitely a farming community - our view from the coffee shop!

Soon, however, it was revenge time for the downhills, which had all mysteriously turned into uphills punishing us on the way back up to the campsite.  Quite a different cycle to the flat Torreira, very enjoyable and very tiring - but all good exercise.

Usually seen as a creeper, this was the most amazing bougainvillea

Tomorrow, we plan to catch the bakery lady in her van (for breakfast bread) before heading off to stock up on groceries for our next house-sit and, hopefully, a stay in an aire in a nearby village.

Vouzela

 Wednesday 08/09/21

In spite of the fact that I love the ocean, we both really enjoy being off the beaten track like we are now.  It is pitch dark at night and much quieter than where we were and we both feel very happy here.  We took a walk in between showers this morning, and both agree that you can't beat a beautiful view where all you can hear is the wind in the trees and birds singing (apart from the church bells, obviously).

A view of our campsite 

Lovely picnic spots below the chapel built on the old castle foundations

Inside Capela da Senhora do Castelo

It feels like you can see most of Portugal from here.

We hear the bells toll from the campsite and were a little disappointed, if not surprised, to find they were from a huge tannoy system and no longer the bells.

As we got back to Bokkie the rain set in for the rest of the day so we have had an indoors afternoon.

We are hoping to get the bikes off tomorrow for some exploring.

Since the fires of 2017 destroyed much of the surrounding area, this campsite has not been as busy as in the past and no longer has it's own shop.  We hadn't realised this so didn't really stock up before arriving.  We were busy working out how we would stretch our provisions when Toni noticed a white van pull up outside our neighbour's tent.  We hurriedly dressed and went to investigate.  It was, as we had hoped, a local lady who bakes traditional fare and visits the campsite so we couldn't resist supporting her.

Lovely traditional pastries and breads

Vouzela

 Tuesday 07/09/21

We were thinking about extending our stay at Torreira, things had quietened down considerably since the weekend and we don't need to be in our sit until Saturday; then the circus came to life again, with a vengeance.  It started up at around 20:00 and carried on at full volume until after 23:30.  It also rained heavily during the night and this, coupled with one too many 'Whoopah' from the ringmaster across the road made up our minds - we had to move on.

As the interior is a bit more off the beaten track from a tourist point of view, our apps don't really cover it very well for finding good places to stay but after a bit of research we found a campsite in the mountains, surely this must be more peaceful.

Definitely not built with Bokkie in mind (Photo from Google Maps)

We had a minor navigation issue that saw us facing the bridge above (photo lifted from Google Maps) and we either had to cross or return along the very narrow road that had led us to it.  We were preparing to try to turn around when a small truck came across from the other side, giving us hope. We decided to see if Bokkie would fit and it was easily the craziest thing we have ever done in Bokkie.  The metal framework seemed to twist and buckle the whole way across drawing the barriers in towards us, rubbing against the wheel arches at one point but there was no way I was going to try and reverse back off it so onward we went!  We got across safely but I don't think we'll be trying that ever again!

What followed was almost two hours of bum-clenching, winding narrow roads along the river Vouga up a mountain gorge.  The scenery made it worth it, it became more and more stunning, unfortunately rain made most photography out of the question but it really is lovely here.  

Although the campsite looks full, it looks like they are mostly permanent caravans and tents with no one here at the moment. It is so difficult to get here I think most people can't face taking their caravans back home once they get them up the mountain.

Bokkie recovering from her ordeal

The views from the campsite are amazing

We're booked in for three days but it looks like the weather will be a bit rainy.  Hopefully we can get some walking and cycling in while we are here.

Torreira

 Monday 06/09/21

Torreira beach

After the festival finished last night the campsite and the town drained as if someone had pulled the plug; it was fascinating to see the difference this morning.  That said, the circus and funfair across the road continued late into the night...

As planned we headed off on our bicycles to the southern end of the 'island' which turned out to be 34km of the most boring riding we have had for a long time.  The road is thankfully very flat but the scenery was quite monotonous, interrupted only occasionally by fishermen trying their luck in the lagoon.  

Aveira on the opposite bank at the mouth of the lagoon

Eel fishermen

This sandy beach continues for kilometres to the north

We were amazed at the precision of these rocks, some bigger than cars, all neatly packed
along the breakwater like a dry-stone wall.

The lagoon mouth was quite impressive and there were loads of fishermen along the breakwater and in boats, we think fishing for eel, which are caught locally.  The beach was spectacular, covered by young gulls and the sand stretches for miles.

In the afternoon the wind dropped and we had a lovely walk to our local Torreira beach.

We had to chuckle at this set-up: desperately keeping the sun and wind out, nowhere near the water.
He might as well have stayed home!

We are impressed with some of the permanent camps in the campsites, mostly based around caravans but with their own, solidly built tents around them.

A 'tent town'

Even this motor-homer is in on the act, wonder if we could get one for Bokkie?

Torreira

 Sunday 05/09/21

Barking dogs and racing motorcycles seemed to be the order of day (or night, I should say) which is often the down side of staying in cities over a weekend.  Luckily, being Sunday we could sleep in a bit and left Coimbra after breakfast.

Bokkie baking in the sun

We're camped on the coast, nestled between a large lagoon and the Atlantic, a real holiday town.  The campsite is a bit bleak with very little shade but there is luckily a cool ocean breeze to keep temperatures under control.  We use spare towels to cover Bokkie's windows and skylight to keep the sun out and this really helps to keep the interior temperature manageable.

One of the local 'bateiras' offering lagoon cruises

Lagoon-side

Lagoon port packed with more colourful bateiras

We were both feeling a little groggy so just relaxed in the campsite until the afternoon before venturing out.  We were stunned to see how many people are still on holiday, the beach was packed.  There is apparently a festival (Covid restricting things somewhat) on at the moment and this is also the last week of Portuguese school holidays so everyone is making the most of the weather.

The promenade, equally packed with people.

Sea-side

It might rain a bit tonight and we hope we can explore the area by bike tomorrow morning.

Bonus video:-

This band was warming the crowd up, they were fantastic!