February began as January had ended. Sleepless nights due to rain and storms. During the day, we mainly stayed in the motorhome. The other motorhome owners cut their vacations short and drove home or hoped for better weather in Spain. We had a bit of variety in the first week, as we drove to Faro airport twice to pick up our friends, whom we had already taken to the airport in January. We were lucky on Tuesday, as it didn’t start raining until the afternoon, when we were almost back at the parking space. It was very convenient for us that our friend also needed a few groceries. This meant we could enjoy a relaxed shopping trip again.
Thursday turned out a little differently than expected. Our friend’s flight from Germany to Portugal was postponed twice before finally being canceled.
In the evening, we received news that he would be arriving in Portugal around noon the next day.
One day later and slightly delayed, he finally landed in Faro. We spent the rest of the day together, went shopping and had something to eat on the way back, and ended the evening in a cozy bar.
We are now planning our onward journey to Germany in March. We want to take it easy, ideally staying here and there for a few days, and arriving at Iris’ parents’ house in mid- to late April. We still have a few organizational things to take care of before mid-May, as we will then be fulfilling a long-awaited dream that we have been putting off for over 20 years. With three children, a house, and everything else that comes with normal everyday life, we haven’t had the time or the financial means to do this, and somehow we had already given up on this dream.
But now the time has come when everything fits together, we definitely want to seize this opportunity, and we are already looking forward to it all the more.
You’ll have to be patient a little longer before we tell you all about it.
We also went over the approximate route we plan to take together. We have no idea what to expect. Will the roads be passable again by then, as some of them were impassable due to flooding and storms in Spain? We’ve heard from friends that the good parking spaces that weren’t flooded are already overcrowded, even in March?
We have decided against the coast and would rather drive inland.
The sun has been shining again for a few weeks now, both in Portugal and Spain, so we hope to find a few nice places where we can stay for a longer period of time. Let’s just take it as it comes.
In mid-February, the weather finally improved. Although the sun was still very rare at first, at least it stayed dry and we were able to spend more time outside again.
The rest of February saw beautiful sunshine and everyone enjoyed it to the fullest.
There were only a few rain showers here and there.
In fact, some who recently fled to Spain for the nice weather are coming back.
And we are happy to welcome back an acquaintance whom we didn’t think we would ever see again. It is also time for some to move on. The thought that we will probably never see each other again makes saying goodbye a little harder for some.
Now that the sun is finally shining constantly, we can devote ourselves to the few jobs we actually had planned to do here on the site. Not only did Alex want to keep his promise to help a friend repair his vehicle, but he was also keen to repair the rust spots on the cab.
I, on the other hand, did some spring cleaning, so to speak. I completely emptied the cupboards, cleaned them, and put everything back in, as well as cleaning the windows. Which was also urgently needed.
We are slowly preparing to continue our journey on March 10. Somehow, we are already looking forward to being on the road again and discovering new things.
Of course, we are using the time to sit together with friends, drink something delicious, exchange ideas, or just talk about everything under the sun.
On the last Sunday of this month, we and our friends, who now live on the site, were invited to dinner by the groundskeeper and his wife.
They served a typical Portuguese dish, cod with mashed potatoes baked in the oven.
When Alex asked why, the answer was, “Because you are good people!” 🙂
We are still very unaccustomed to this hospitality and friendliness from people.
But we are always happy when we get to know the private lives of the locals and their culture so personally.
Here are a few impressions of the activities we did in February:
At the beginning of February, we needed to get some exercise despite the bad weather. Sitting around doing nothing for the last few weeks had not only gotten us down, but our bodies were also crying out for exercise.
Since we couldn’t get to our usual beach without getting our feet wet because the path was flooded, we decided to go to a beach that we could reach by car. But even the drive there wasn’t exactly pleasant, and we had to be careful not to slip on the muddy ground.
When we arrived at Praia Furnas, we were surprised to see a completely different picture of the beach. Where there is normally sand, there were lots of stones that day, and the water took up a lot of space on the normally beautiful beach. The sand had been washed out to sea by the water and waves.
Even in the cave, where campers often play music around a campfire in the evenings, all the sand had been washed away.
When the sun started to shine a little more often, we visited our favorite stretch of beach.
There, too, we were surprised by how much it had changed.
Nature is blossoming, spring is coming, and the animals are also enjoying the warm rays of sunshine. Only the Atlantic Ocean is not yet inviting for swimming.
This month, we took our little KTM for another full-day trip and headed northeast of our parking spot. Through the rocky Algarve to the green hinterland. We really liked the Loulè region. In contrast to the region around Lagos, where there are lots of eucalyptus and pine trees, here you can find beautiful cork oak forests. The view of the Serra do Caldeirão is magnificent. The ride took us through many small villages. In Loulè, we rode through the Moorish-influenced old town and, after a short lunch break in Lagos, back to Figueira, Budens.
And, of course, we also enjoyed the sun to the fullest at the campsite.
