1st Oct.

We moved outside the camp site gates, 'wild camping'. There is a sign saying 'no free camping', but with all the sites closed, what choice do we have? Like Torbay, dogs are allowed on the beaches from today, so they had a whale of a time, swimming in the lagoon and digging in the sand.

 We walked along the coast to the next village of Llastres. Met a group of vintage GB cars touring. Got chatting to them and one couple were from Stoke Gabriel,  (about four miles from where we live)! They knew Nick's old boss, Phil Bolt, and rented a home to Yan and Sue, small world!

Went for a final swim in the sea.

29th Sept. Colunga, Asturia

Took to the Spanish motorways and had a stunning drive over the Cordilla Canabria.

We'd had cool rain for the past two days and were hoping it was going to be warmer and sunnier on the coast. The mountain pass was at 1378m. We hadn't noticed the climb but is was a very rapid descent to the point that Cassie's brakes were burning!

Most of the sites on the North Coast shut in September but we found one at Colunga that stayed open until 1st October. And what a site! Right next to a beautiful beach - and summer is still here - so we went for a swim!

All the Spanish were packing up their caravans for the winter and were saying their goodbyes.
We had seen signs advertising Jurassic dinasaurs, and we thought it was just a tourism gimmick.
We let the dogs have a lovely cooling swim in the river next to the site and then followed an idyllic coastal path. After half a mile we found the dinasuars! not plastic replicas, but genuine footprints embedded in the rocks on the beach! Absolutely incredible!

We have decided to chill here for the last few days before heading to Santander. :-(

28th Sept. Rio de Oner

We were determined to visit Rio de Oner. It is in the Lonely Planet's guide book of 1000 places to visit before you die! It is described as a charming medieval village that straddles the Spanish / Portuguese border, where time has stood still. We decided to approach it from the Portuguese side as we wanted to explore more of Portugal. The roads were fine until we reached villages, when the road would degenerate in to a maze of very narrow cobbled streets, and no signs! A Casa-Coche nightmare! We drove over a mountain and through pine forests, and then as we descended to the village, the driver suddenly had a thought! Would Cassie fit over the medieval bridge described in the guide book?! And then, the wonderful navigator found said village on the map, and noticed it is shown as a dead end - not continuing into Spain! Duh!
So we decided to park up and walk through the village. The cobbled streets were so narrow with overhanging low eaves we were dubious as to whether we could squeeze Cassie through. The biggest shock however was the squalor. The buildings were literally falling down, but people were still living in them. And the Spanish side was worse than the Portuguese side.

 The guide book described various shops, bakers, butchers etc. However there were no shops, just a few bars. It was like a European shanty town, we felt very uncomfortable walking around, like we were voyeurs on people's misfortune. The only place that was absolutely immaculate was the graveyard - with fresh flowers on every grave, and the church played a beautiful bells recording every hour.
The other thing that really disturbed us was as we were passing one of the Spanish houses, we heard a right rucus from an upstairs room. It sounded like an old woman pleading and sobbing and either she or someone else was being beaten. Neighbours must have heard it, but they did nothing, and I am ashamed to say, neither did we.
There was a large camper van parked next to ours driven by a french couple - so we decided to ask them if they had driven through the village. They assured us it would be fine, then admitted that they had come the same way as us. So we decided to play safe and retrace our steps!

Eventually we crossed into Spain and found a campsite next to the delightful village of Puebla de Sanabria. The site advertised free wi-fi, but you had to stand in the shower block to get it! So I had a very strange skype date with Cam while washing the dishes!

27th Sept. Great Dams!

Apparently, all the motorways in Portugal are now privately operated, and so have tolls. The route that we want to take leaves us no option but to take them. We were expecting to be charged at toll points, but it turned out that they operated a plate number recognition system, and because we hadn't registered our debit card when we entered the country, as we hadn't intended using them, we haven't paid! We are half expecting to get a bill in the post! On the plus side, we started making good progress, but we encountered a strange phenomena - something we hadn't seen since we left England six weeks previously - heavy rain! Even thunder and lightening! The dogs loved the rain, they had a whole day without panting! I even turned the heating on, but I was still wearing shorts and T-shirt!
We had been using trusty Tomasina to find us a camp-site for the past couple of days, but today she let us down - or should I say Portugal let us down. The nearest site involved a 50 mile detour!
 Dams have been our saving grace today. We had lunch at a parking spot next to one, and then found an old road that must have pre-dated another dam several hours later. It was just a track, but we found the old road signs still on it.

We took the dogs for a walk, and on our way back to the van we came across a flock of sheep in the lane. We kept the dogs on leads, for their own protection rather than the sheep's. They all had massive horns, and they were sheep with serious attitude! The shepherd or shepherdess (not sure which) stared at us, and then stared at the van even more. We smiled and said hello but she didn't respond, I don't think she knew quite what to make of us! The feeling was mutual! We are in a beautiful spot, so much nicer than a camp site. We had fresh dorado (bream), Nick's favourite, bought from a Intermarche in the morning. Used our grill in the van for the first time. The fish was washed down with 2.45euro bottle of Portuguese wine that tasted even better than the Spanish wine we had been drinking - though the Spanish olives are definitely better than the Poruguese variety. This is the life!

26th Sept. The 'end of the world'

Drove to 'the end of the world'! The most south-westerly tip of Portugal - and Europe. A bit like our Lands End, with coaches of tourists and vans selling souvenirs, but once you walked away from that, it was very atmospheric. People were quiet and pensive. The cliffs were 200 feet high,  and locals had climbed half-way down, perched on ledges - fishing! Apparently, when storms come in, the waves come right over the cliffs!

The beaches here are amazing, and the place is full of hippy vans and surf dudes. :-) We met some retired Brits at a picnic spot at lunch time where we discussed feeling left out because we didn't have a surf board, a pony tail and several piercings!
Unfortunately, when we left the coast, the roads deteriorated, as we were avoiding the toll motorways. Though, on the plus side we saw extensive tracts of cork forests. It was fascinating seeing the bright orange trunks of the newly harvested trees. Portugal's equivilent of Andalucia's olive groves.

We ended up rolling up at Evora, nice town, shame about the camp site! Absolute rip-off at 22 euros! The good news was an internet room, but we were so late arriving, I didn't have much time to use it. :-(

25th Sept. Spain - Portugal

We drove to the coast, to the lovely town of Matalascanas, very low key, with a beautiful beach. We would have liked to spent the day here, but no dogs allowed, and no shade for them! Besides, the clock was now ticking, we had one week to get to Santander, and we still had the whole of Portugal to explore! #Retired travellers problems!

We were a bit unsure about the rules for wild camping in Portugal and couldn't find anywhere suitable so we ended up at a campsite in Canelas, only 7 euros! It had all the facilities of the Spanish sites but a quarter of the cost.

24th Sept. El Rocio

This is the first time we have been at a camp site with loads of Brits. They were the retired, wintering over in their motor homes contingent! They had a wealth of experience, most had just come down through Portugal, so we got loads of useful tips.
El Rocio is the strangest place, it looks like a scene from a wild west western, in fact a lot of the 'spagetti westerns' were filmed here. There is sand everywhere, blown in from the dunes and they have horse rails all down the main street.

In this picture, I was pretending to 'go for my gun'. But it doesn't have quite the right impact with the dogs in tow!

The horses everywhere completed the wild west image!

Most of the park was off limits except by special tours in 4x4s. However, we found a little trail we could walk and saw a wild boar! More than what most people saw in the interior of the park! It was very exciting, the only down side was that Ginny chased it off before we could photograph it!
The park is best visited in the Spring or Autumn when thousands of birds including flamingos migrate through.