Sunshades and umbrellas that’s the week it’s been for us.
With friends Debs, Dave, Patsy and family arriving on hols from the UK on Saturday the weather on the Algarve was a bit mixed to begin. Their villa was only a 15 minute walk from our lovely Aire in Vale de Parra, yet somehow or another we managed to have a storm along with heavy rain that they never on the Sunday.
Come the Monday evening when we met up with them again after outings to two different places, ours obviously being on bikes and motorhome based while theirs was pure holiday enjoyment we again had managed to have a heavy downpour on our heads while eating a light lunch, with thankfully the Langton entourage doing holiday stuff a few miles down the road having none.
The Tuesday evening saw an absolute deluge for us and caused us a brief run with our paraguas to the local Indian abandoning our dinner to cook in as it just seemed more like home and curry weather to us -any excuse.
The weather on the Algarve improved over the next day or so and allowed us to have a lovely lunch out with David’s brother Vincent and his wife Moira on the beach in Almancil. The food in The Bold Octopus along with the outlook was stunning and we could understand why this location is a favourite of the theirs and it was great to catch up- for me a long overdue Covid catch-up.
We decided on the Thursday we would make the cycle along the boardwalk again in the Almancil direction. It’s a great walk/cycle path over the dunes along the beach for many miles and we were able to see many lovely birds, none of whom we could identify as ever.
However, disaster struck on the way back, not in the form of weather but another biking one. My trusty steed had been repaired in Faro, after it’s brutish encounter with thieves in Barbate, and was riding well on the way there. But upon mounting it to cycle back there was no electric power to be had. Both David and I failed to believe that anything could possibly be wrong with it given the service it recently had until David noticed an error message on the display unit- motor failure. After the usual switch on, switch off favoured by all IT technician’s retired ones as well, I had no option but to cycle the boardwalk back using my trusty leg power. Unfortunately, at that time the weather showed no signs of being inclement and so by the time we reached based I was indeed very sweaty.
After, a throw the bike on the back of Buster return to the bike repair place it would appear that this is an entirely different problem, nothing to do with the theft or the repair. Apparently, it is a known fault with Specialized that the speed sensor cable fails on occasion. Unable to stay any longer in Portugal we had to make the decision to get it fixed else where in Spain, as we were to leave the next day for our onward and upward trip back home.
Return to Spain and Merida
This could have been our mistake, as on the Friday we left Faro with temperatures at a scorchy 30+ and by the time we got to Merida some four hours later we arrived in an utter downpour, with our shop along the way heralded by heavy rain on the supermarket roof, with the Spanish looking at us in utter amazement as to why we had short shorts and vests on. That said the Spanish always look at us in that manner, we never seem to be appropriately dressed in their opinion and they make no bones about letting us know, one way or another.
Merida is an ugly duckling kind of town in the Extremadura region of Spain, an area we love a lot for the food, especially David. Big meat, migas, garlic soup to name but a few. Last time we were here we stayed only a day as there was no Aire’s and the campsite was expensive, plus hit and miss. Since then they have opened a wonderful new Aire, just by the town, on the river and nearby park. Plus, for the moment it’s free including electricity. So, with the sun not shining for our solar panels what could be better than free electricity.
Merida is home to the most impressive and extensive Roman ruins in Spain and you do wonder as you wander around them what more actually lies under the local houses and apartments, there just has to be more. All are a delight to explore and wonder at, but again on the Saturday the rain was against us the whole time and our paragua was out in force, plus our good old faithful rain macs.
In fact so much are we the bearers of bad weather, having now broken the recent drought in this region that we were only a little surprised in the early hours of Sunday morning as to why someone it would seem was spraying water directly onto the back of the van and our bikes. There was a few seconds break and then the thunderous isolated downpour continued and then broke again. A timely few seconds later and back it started. The site is secure, but we began to panic that someone was playing tricks on us and the van. Eventually, when there was no let up in this on off torrential showering David looked out of the window. I backed him up with my torch at the ready and then we both burst into laughter (rare for us!!) when we realised it was the sprinkler system for the newly planted trees going around in a circular spray formation. As this went on for about half an hour there was no hope of any more sleep for me, but it did confirm that to us that we certainly do attract the wet stuff.
The route on and up now has to be re-planned as this bout of bad weather is hanging and moving in the exact direction we were planning and will be for a good few days. So do enjoy your sunshine weather in the UK, because here in Spain we will once again be weather chasing and using our paraguas (for water) and not our parasols (for sun).
Most odd thing as I finish this, a van has just parked next to us and they have not one but three cats on board!