Kevnjan's new adventure.

Tues. 19th. Mar. All the days are pretty much the same at the moment. Cloudy, the occasional shower and the odd sunny spell. Not really what we'd hoped for, the only consolation is that at home it's cold and miserable. We moved up to Quarteira on Friday morning, another overcast day and looked for somewhere to wild camp near the beach. Found a spot just east of town and stayed for lunch, didn't fancy spending the night there although there was another Autostratus, a couple of years older than ours parked nearby but unattended. We don't see many of those and although we hung around for a while no-one came back to it and we left. The last one we saw was at Calais last May and I vaguely wondered if it was the same one. We settled on an aire, about 2 ks. east of town, hard standings, toilets and electricity, €2 + €2 for electricity. We spent 2 nights there and moved on to Albufeira on Sunday. Quarteira was OK, nice beach front walk, market, shops and cafes but no wow factor, unless you count the long walk into town and back! We've been looking forward to revisiting Albufeira, the last time we were here was in 1983. My has it changed!! We are camped on an aire, about 1.5ks from the old town and it's costing €7 per night with all conveniences and internet, which is good enough to Skype, we had almost an hour with the Smigiels on Sunday, uninterrupted, which is unusual, nowmally a bad connection or Frenchman spoils it. The rain on the way here was torrential and it stopped during the afternoon. We walked around Albufeira and recognized nothing, except for the beach and the big rock thereon. I think the town must have quadrupled in size since we first visited, the charming, 'Fishermans Beach' has been replaced by a concrete slabs and sculpted figures of fishermen. Not a boat in sight. a Shame! Still, that's progress I suppose. Monday dawned bright and sunny, time for the beach. We set off to walk to the beach and after blundering down several dead ends found ourselves on a beach about 1 k east of the old town. We staked out a spot and laid out soaking up some rays. It's amazing how beautiful the day was, not a cloud in a deep blue sky all day, a slight breeze kept it just on the cool side but it was the best day for a while. We treated ourselves to lunch at a Tex/Mex place on the seafront and had a stroll around the old town looking for familiar landmarks. Then it was back to the beach for a snooze. That's more like it!! By the time we got back to the van, around 6.30 we'd walked miles and were shattered. Went for a shower, only cold water - I suppose that's what you get for €7. It rained all night and this morning we had a thunderstorm. The rain has now stopped, it looks like the sun is coming out and the Janet is emerging from her bed. It's 11am If anyone wants to Skype us the next day or so would be a good time. Brian Dinnage where are you??