Ferry, What Ferry?

PORTO COVO.

Locals were blasting out Queen songs at 11pm but other than that it was a quiet night. Decide to use the toilet before we leave. A coach tour arrives just as we step out of the van. Learning from our experience in Germany, we race up the hill to beat the queues. We're on the road by 10 but don't get very far as Rosie discovers an Aldi at the bottom of the hill. Rosie declares the woman in an alcoholic because all she buys are 4 large bottles of beer.

We need to find water so head for Grandola. The satnav proposes a ferry with an alternative of an extra 40 miles. We choose the ferry. Except that we don't because we arrive in Grandola with neither sight nor sound of a boat. An old guy is sat in the car park cooking fish on a BBQ. It appears that he lives across the road.

The tap is the widest that we have encountered. None of Dave's attachments get us near. Walk into town and find a euro shop. Celebrate our purchase with a coffee and cake. We bought a funnel giving us a couple of options. We can pour using our white butt or try to attach it to the tap. The latter works after a fashion. I get soaked a couple of times but all for the team, as they say. Then, just as we finish, a Frenchman turns up with the correct connection. Rosie enjoys a good chat as I pack away the fittings.

On to Porto Covo. The journey down takes us past a large ostrich farm which causes a double take and fields with storms and egrets. It's not a big place but we can't find the site so settle for joining a number of vans in a new car park overlooking the sea. At which point, we discover our second problem. The water heater doesn't work and a red light is flashing. I suspect that we have failed to switch it off before closing the gas valve. Try resetting in line with the space heater but to no avail.

Go for a walk around town in the hope that the time delay may reset it. Find a paying site but no electricity is available so we can't try that option. Back at the van, nothing has changed. I try the Whale helpline, leaving a message on their helpline as requested. Whilst waiting for a response, I tried the internet and found the exact problem and solution. There is a reset button on the heater under the sink. It's a good job I did because they still haven't phoned back 5 hour's later.

Went for a walk and found a fabulous beach with views over the Atlantic.

We decide that we're eating out tonight. Choose a busy bar/restaurant. Start with calimari then Rosie has a seafood broth with rice and I have fried fish and tomato rice. Towards the end of the meal the atmosphere amongst the staff changes, becoming more tense. Three men had arrived, an older man in a suit along with two much larger and younger ones. We speculated that they were the local mafia.

The sunset in the way back to the van was fabulous.