Wednesday 27th March – Vila Real de Santo Antinio to Alvor

Vilas Real de Santo Antonio to Alvor - 79 miles

After a relaxing day yesterday with a walk into the lovely little town and longish chats with a France-based English couple who originally came from County Durham, our intention today was to find a campsite so we could get the washing done and get cleaned up, ready for the run home, which we must get started on. A check of the books showed a couple of ACSI sites along the coast so after the usual chores and goodbyes to new friends we rejoined the N125 for a pleasant run along the Algarve coast.

This road has now been significantly improved over the glorified dirt track it used to be when we first came to Portugal and although reasonably busy it is now a fast and easy route. We stopped off at an Aldi in Olhoa for some basics, which as usual turned into a trolleyfull, before finding our first selection at Armacao de Pera, near Albufeira. First glance looked okay so we checked in, but then spent half an hour trying to find a pitch that wasn't on a hillside, wasn't in the howling gale blowing off the sea and was reasonably close to the facilities. On the basis if we don't like what we see we move on we did just that.

The next was a little further on, past Portimao, at Alvor. Again it looked okay so we checked in but again spent time wandering around. Eventually we settled on a smallish pitch next to some Brits which satisfied our criteria so dropped anchor. This site seems to cater mainly for long-term stayers and is a bit higgledy piggledy, but we're only staying for a couple of nights so it'll do – and it's relatively cheap too despite having otherwise excellent amenities including a cafe/bar, restaurant and swimming pool. The mini-market had closed down but we quickly discovered a “Pingo” supermarket a short distance away, not that we needed anything.