Blog for October et al.

We were back in the UK for a quick visit earlier this year mainly to purchase

a larger Campervan as well as visit family and friends. Needless to say the

weather was dismal, wet and cold a bit different from the Algarve.

Our trip back down through France saw us stopping off in Pons an area once ruled by by the English and a place we like stopping off at as we are friends with Caroline and Piet who run a Campsite there. Unfortunately we had our second puncture which confirmed my suspicions that the tyres which had plenty of tread and passed the MOT, were probably originals from Spain, needed to be replaced. A local Tyre company sorted us out with a new set of Continentals at a good price but we had a 5 day stop over instead of two days. Unfortunately we missed visting two friends who moved from Oakworth to France not far from Pons as they were off trying out their new Motorhome.

The rest of the journey back to Espiche was uneventful other than for out GPS directing

 us down a street in Evora which had a sharp right turn followed by a sharp left turn and

 the road was a tight fit for the Campervan and took me at least 15 miutes to extract us

 and get back on the road. Fortunately Kit was out of the vehicle helping to guide me,

otherwise I might have got in hot water for my use  of the english language.

Back in Espiche we settled down again and then a few weeks later headed up north to Guimaraes and Penha the area where Portugal was born. We were unlucky with our first night stop when on arrival we discovered the open all year campsite was closed so we ended up 'free camping' that night outside it's gates.

                                 Next day saw us on the campsite in Penha and it was well  

                                 worth the effort, English spoken by the staff who were  

                                 very friendly and helpfull. We had a bit of a nasty surprise  

                                 when a forest fire broke out about 1 km from where we  

                                 were but fortunately therewas no wind and the Fire Service                                  got it under control with the aid of water carrying Helicopters.

                                We left Penha and headed over to Peniche on the west coast to

                                visit two friends who are moving back to the UK and we wanted

                                to see them before they set off. Our friends took us on a visit

                                to Buddha Eden about 30 minutes from the campsite have never

                                seen so many Buddha's before and the whole place is well laid

                                out and worth a visit if you are in the north of Portugal, it is

                                also not far from Obidos another must see for tourists.

 Our two week holiday just flew by and a week after we got back to Peniche we had a very close friend and  his grandson come and stay with us for the Portuguese Superbike chamionship races at the nearby  Autodromo and of course 'sod's law' came in to play when after weeks of sunshine and no rain on the main  race day it poured down in the morning but fortunately dried up just before noon so the races went on.

 As with every other vehicle we have had there were bits n pieces to be added or

 altered to our satisfaction  in our new Campervan so we have been busy doing just

 that,  in fact one of our friends named the vehicle  'Inbits' which we find amusing.

 The past week has seen me refurbishing the Web page and finding out how much I

  had forgotten about  building one so if you spot something that does not work or is

  out of place, please drop me an email as  sometimes I cannot see the wood for the

  trees.

 Cheers for now.... Jack n Kit.