Tuesday 23 June - Back in Portugal

Well - here we are back in Lisbon again after our week of personal admin at our respective homes. The early morning BMI Baby flight from Manchester didn't seem quite as painful as the hour suggested and it was certainly less irritating than the trip home seven days earlier. Landing on time, we were through the formalities painlessly and after a coffee and a short wait for a taxi we were on our way to reacquaint ourselves with the van by 10.10. The taxi driver, a cheery chap called Fernando, had as much trouble finding Campinanda as we did but we were there quite soon and delighted that Mykola, the Ukrainian mechanic, was there happily nodding that all had been done. This included a new awning (old one in a poor state on purchase, subsequently damaged and removed), strengthening of the local repairs to the bike rack and fixing the hot water bolier and the heater. EMU was now in as good a state as she had ever been in our ownership. Paying for the work was a problem as our Nationwide VISA card was not accepted neither were our personal debit cards suitable. So off we went in search of cash eventaually achieved after chasing around various multibank outlets.

By now, it was mid afternoon and we were not inclined to travel far. Last week, we had seen what appeared to be a good camp at Ericeira on the coast to the north so we headed that way, both feeling fairly tired. The campsite was quite excellent although very large but didn't have any of the shanty town appearance of the one at Santa Cruz. In fact, the facilities were quite excellent and couldn't have been more than a couple of years old and beautifully clean. We were a bit lack lustre after our early start in UK so it was an easy decision to eat out rather than shop, prepare then cook. Bikes out and just a few hundred yards up the road we found Dom Carlos, a splendid fish restaurant with no other customers on a Tuesday night (although a local family turned up later). We were welcomed by the all male staff (three for each of us) who proudly showed us their impressive array of seafood various (groupa, oysters, crabs, lobsters, crayfish, dorada, rouget etc etc) the we chose a window table looking out at a smooth, blue and benign Atlantic below a lovely setting sun. Shrimps, garlic bread, cheese and sausage was produced without it needing to be ordered then we chose a local Bacalhau (salt cod) cooked in garlic with potatoes which was marvellous and far more than we could eat. Followed by a couple of glasses of Dona Antonia Ferreira port, we were pleased that the journey back to the van was a short safe one.