Beduido, Portugal

 Friday 15/07/22

Crossing into Portugal

It's been a tough day's driving but we are in Portugal, quite a way in.  

We've heard the Irish house sitter is really struggling with the extreme temperatures and is leaving a couple of days early so we are heading straight to the sit, as we do not want to leave the horses unattended in the heat.  We usually have a day or so built into our travel plans for any problems so we can simply adjust our timetable at times like this.

Loads of tunnels and loads of viaducts and bridges today

We left fairly early this morning to start the long day's drive - all the Spanish campers around us were still fast asleep. We stopped off to buy some perishables (obviously our fridge had to be empty for the long ferry crossing), and were surprised to find it drizzling when we came out of the store.  Even more unexpected was the mist we encountered when we climbed into the mountains.  We had complete white-out conditions which made driving very challenging, in some patches we couldn't even see the road in front of us.

Unfortunately there is a lot of smoke-haze from the fires so photography is a bit challenging

As we headed inland things heated up and we started to pick up a problem with Bokkie.  We've been plagued with an intermittent fault for some time, and it got so bad we had to pull over at one stage.  Some poking around under the bonnet and underneath her got us going again but it still doesn't seem to be completely resolved.  One of the hazards of a 20+ year old motorhome.

When we stopped for lunch we found that her step has also jammed, so Toni is going to have to take skydiving lessons to disembark until I can get it sorted!  We've got quite a few jobs lined up for this sit - these will just get added to the list. (This is also just a good reminder that not every trip goes smoothly, but we believe in: " 'n boer maak 'n plan". )

One minute you are driving along a narrow road and then suddenly you find yourself on
a few kilometres of pristine highway, which then gives way to a narrow road again.
All in the middle of nowhere - very strange, EU funding, I guess...

We also had a bit of drama when we took a wrong turn 2km from our lunch stop which resulted in a 25km circuit before we could get back.  To add insult to injury, it turned out to be a toll road so we even had to pay for the privilege!  

Luckily our rest stop for the night seems to be in a cooler area, we've had a lovely Bokkie-shower and are looking forward to a good night's rest before the final push tomorrow.