Dave and Kath's Campervan Travels: January 2024

It’s a waiting game

Tuesday 30 January 2024

A few days ago we were sat on the cliffs at Nazaré, along with about a thousand other people, gazing out to sea from the headland above Praia do Norte (North Beach). From our viewpoint the waves seemed moderate in height - in reality they were probably about 6 meters high.

Zoom in to see the surfer

In the distance were two groups of surfers waiting patiently for the right wave. One group were being towed to the wave by a jet-ski, the surfer lets go of the rope, surfs the wave and is then collected by the jet-ski to have another go. The other group, for the 2 hours we were there, just bobbed around further out seeming not to like or attempt any of the waves.

The reason Nazaré is a mecca for surfers is the big waves generated by a huge underwater canyon just offshore. The effect this canyon creates in conjunction with Atlantic swells, wind, tides, currents and two waves patterns colliding at this point on the coast results in this being one of the best places in the world for surfing. For a more detailed explanation follow this link: Nazaré Canyon

There’s a small Surf Museum in the Lighthouse on the headland with lots of information about the science behind the huge waves here. On display are also many surfboards including those of the current Guinness World Record holders. The records are held by a German man (wave height 26m/86ft) and a Brazilian woman (wave height 22m/73ft) both of which were recorded at Nazaré.

A slightly different waiting game is that of cork production in Portugal. Crossing the country, from Nazaré on the west coast to Elvas on the eastern border with Spain, we drove through miles of cork oak tree forests. Portugal, in particular this region called Alentejo, is by far the world's leading producer of natural cork suppling about 60% to the industry and this mainly comes from the 1.8 million acres of managed land called ‘montado’.

Once planted it takes 25 years before the first bark can, by law, be removed from a cork oak tree. A further two harvests are then needed, again stipulated by law, (2 x 9 years so another 18 year wait) before the cork produced by the oak tree is deemed of a high enough quality for wine bottles.

Driving along the forests the stark bare trunks of the trees look like they’ve been vandalised but it’s a highly regulated and carefully managed industry. As the bark is only stripped every 9 years and the lifetime of a cork oak tree is about 270 years it’s definitely a sustainable industry. It requires skill and a lot of experience to avoid damaging the tree. Finding the deepest crack on the cork bark a vertical cut is made with an axe which is then twisted to separate the outer from the inner bark.

Screenshot from a website about harvesting cork

As Maya Angelou said … ”All great achievements require time”.

A Special Day

Sunday 28 January 2024

Today marks our 35th Wedding Anniversary. Dave has no idea what day of the week it is at the moment (having gone into full-on retirement mode), let alone the significance of this special date. Don’t worry he’s been reminded!

For our 30th Anniversary, 5 years ago, we were in Lisbon on a long weekend break in a city centre hotel. It felt rather posh to us from what I remember - and included luxurious bathrobes, slippers and a bottomless breakfast (including unlimited mini Pastel de Nata’s). We spent part of the day at the Maritime Museum, because he loves boats and museums so it was a no-brainer!

Strange that we’re back in Portugal for another milestone anniversary. Perhaps not so strange is that we have spent part of the day at another transport museum - this time the National Railway Museum in Entroncamento.

We love our little VW van and it’s already taken us to so many amazing places on this trip. It’s just as well that we have a strong marriage and get on so well together because it’s very ‘cosy’ in the van with limited living and storage space. How long do you reckon you could manage living with your partner in a useable space of about 9 cubic meters (approx 1.5m high, 1.75m wide & 3.5m long)?

Colourful Coastline

Friday 26 January 2024

Since leaving Porto we have pootled leisurely down the west coast. We’re in no rush as we don’t need to be in Lisbon, to meet with Beth, for another week. We’ve managed to avoid the toll roads and purposefully stuck to local roads to keep costs down and to see more of the scenery and coastline. Now the sun has come out it’s proved to be a very colourful trip.

Colourful cockle fishing boats in Torreira

The sunset at Cais do Bico was just stunning. Over the course of an hour the colours became more and more intense. I took way too many photographs.

Onto Aveiro where the canal bridges are adorned with colourful inscribed ribbons instead of rusty padlocks normally attached by couples ‘locked in love’. Padlocks are common place in many tourist spots these days causing headaches to many authorities due to structural damage from their sheer combined weight.

Another coastal town called Costa Nova has a whole seafront of houses brightly painted in stripy patterns.

What raised eyebrows and stifled giggles from us is the painted decorations on the bow and stern of some of the local boats. They are reminiscent of the saucy seaside postcards of the early 1900’s which came under the scrutiny of the Censorship Boards in the 1950’s with many postcards being seized and destroyed due to their vulgarity.

Anyway risqué or not, there are still many of these ‘colourful’ cartoons adorning boats in Portuguese seaside towns today!

Porto & River Douro

Wednesday 24 January 2024

Porto is a big sprawling city, the municipality has a population of 230,000, whereas the wider metropolitan area has in the region of 1.7 million. We’d parked the van on the eastern outskirts, at Fânzeres Park & Ride, to avoid the city traffic and toll roads and to use their cheap and efficient Metro system. We got off the tram at a station called Casa da Música so that Dave could see the Peninsula War Monument.

Old Porto tourist tram - not the modern one we took

The description on Wikipedia explains the history of the monument which is dedicated to the heroes of the 1808-1814 Peninsular War. It celebrates the Portuguese and British victory (represented by the lion) against the French forces of Napoleon (represented by the eagle). Around the base are sculptures of soldiers and civilians.

Wikipedia describes it as being in the middle of a busy roundabout set a ‘peaceful’ tree-lined garden. Umm ….. it’s not quite so peaceful at the moment as a completely new metro line (the Pink Line) is being built here and walking out of the underground we were surrounded by noisy pile drivers, diggers, cranes and concrete lorries.

Current Metro Map

After three weeks of hardly seeing any other tourists, walking around Porto came as a bit of a shock to us. Considering it’s off season there were visitors everywhere which is great for the bars, cafes, hotels, boat trip companies, port & wine tasting businesses etc. but felt really strange for us. We walked around and took in the sights - trying to avoid the tour groups & their guides, the selfie-stick brigade (oblivious to where they were walking), and the hawkers trying to tempt you onto various trips.

It’s a very colourful city and the River Douro and the Dom Luís I Bridge are the main draws for most visitors. The day before we had driven about 90 miles inland up the Douro Valley to the pretty town of Pinhão, in the centre of the wine growing region. The train station at Pinhão, like São Bento in Porto, has some beautiful blue and white tile panels depicting scenes of life in the Douro region.

There is an awful lot of work going on in and around Porto. Cranes dotted the skyline and construction sites are in full swing. There are road closures, hoardings and major construction underway around the beautiful São Bento station for an extension to the Yellow Metro Line which is expected to continue for at least another year.

The Peninsula War Monument was built very slowly between 1909 and 1951 having been delayed by two world wars. Let’s hope the metro lines in Porto are finished in a quicker timeframe!

Highlights of Northern Spain

Sunday 21 January 2024

Since leaving our friends in the French Pyrenees we have driven 1700 miles through 8 regions of Northern Spain, heard at least 3 different local languages and experienced many regional variations of cuisine, cultures and landscapes.

It’s difficult to pick out the best bits from the last 2.5 weeks but below are a few of our highlights. We’ll be back in central Spain in about 3 weeks after spending some time in Portugal.