Our arrival at this campsite in the mountains of Monchique was not entirely voluntary. We had a long day ahead of us before we arrived. We left pretty much on time in the morning. On the way to our originally planned pitch, there was a company that exchanged our German gas bottle for another gas bottle suitable for German connections at a reasonable price. We got this tip from a vacationer from Ravensburg, who was also with us at the last campsite. Everyone is sure that this is not entirely legal. Nevertheless, it was fine for us. We do have adapters for the Spanish gas bottles, but the ones in Portugal have different connections. So we hope that the gas will now last all the way to Spain.
We arrived at the pitch we had chosen for today at around 2 pm. Right by the sea, very nice view. Nevertheless, we didn’t have a good feeling about spending the night there. When we have a feeling like that, there’s nothing to discuss. Then we’ll definitely drive on. At the next pitch, in the middle of a pretty village, our great apps listed up to 10 pitches. We only saw 4. 3 of them were occupied by motorhomes. There were 2 cars on the other one.
There are so few legal pitches here in the region that it is very difficult to find a suitable one. We didn’t have many options left. Dusk had already fallen, we were hungry and a little exhausted. Our last option was now a paid pitch for motorhomes and caravans.
The last few meters were adventurous and we hoped fervently that the reception would still be open and have a space for us.
We were lucky. It would have been closed just 20 minutes later. The woman at reception was nice and we were given a very friendly welcome. As it was already late and we didn’t know where to go next, we decided to stay here for 2 nights for 20 euros/night. We parked WENNE on its pitch in the dark and rain. We took advantage of the campsite’s wonderful hot shower and cooked ourselves potatoes with currywurst 😉 After more than 300 km, we actually arrived in the Algarve today, albeit not entirely voluntarily 😉
When it finally stopped raining in the afternoon, we took a closer look at what a beautiful spot we had found.
We also had to take a short walk to explore the area.
It’s really beautiful here. It’s just a shame that the weather isn’t quite playing ball. Even on the drive here, Alex noticed that the area in the mountains here looks a bit like the Sierra Nevada in Spain and the interior of Morocco.
As we walked along here, it was completely silent in places. Only the chirping of birds and the distant hum of the engines of the Algarve Classic Festival on the Portimao racetrack could be heard.
Have you ever seen such fruits or trees? There are lots of them here. Strawberry trees. They belong to the heather family and are also related to blueberries. They have a somewhat floury consistency, taste sweet and sour and have small seeds inside. We found them delicious on their own and in yogurt. They are also delicious as jam, schnapps or liqueur 😉
Although it must have been a long time ago that there was a fire here in the mountains, you can still clearly smell it 🙁
