Olhao to Tavira

We stayed in Loule until Saturday, longer than we expected, but Friday was very wet from lunchtime onwards right through the night so we decided to stay put. There wasn’t much to see in Loule but we were able to stock up on food and water and spend some time on the Internet in the library. There were quite a lot of shops in Loule, Mark bought some new walking boots and I bought a European adaptor so I’m now able to fully charge my laptop via the mains when I’m in a library (much quicker than charging it via the 12V in the motorhome). Saturday was a nice sunny day, we had a browse around the weekly market then walked up to a church up on a hill with views over part of the town and the sea in the far distance. We then had an early lunch and drove onto Sao Bras de Alportel, had a walk around for an hour or so and then drove onto Olhao and parked up in the port area with lots of other motorhomes.

During the night it was very wet and windy which kept us awake half of the night. At around 5.30am we heard a knock on the door, it was a French man alerting us to a street lamp above us which had become dislodged during the storms and was hanging by a cable. Mark moved us forward a few meters to get us out of any danger. Luckily the light hadn’t fallen off or caused any damage by the time we left Olhao by mid morning. Olhao hadn’t impressed us during a walk around the previous evening so we decided to move on to pastures new. We followed the coast road and stopped at Fuzeta which was an improvement on Olhao. We went for a couple of short walks between rain showers! Olhao and Fuzeta (and many other towns and villages both to the east and west) are on the Ria Formosa which is a protected lagoon area which came about after an earthquake in the 1700s! Although the lagoon areas are often quite nice, it makes it difficult to see the sea.

On Monday we moved on again, calling at Santa Luzia en route. Santa Luzia was a pretty little village on the Ria Formosa, it was very small though so it only took about half an hour to have a look around. We then moved on the short distance to Tavira and parked up near to the town centre with lots of other motorhomes. Luckily Monday was a nice sunny day, so we enjoyed plenty of time out and about the town. There are loads of motorhomes parked up in several different areas of Tavira, it’s a nice town with plenty to explore. Tuesday morning was overcast, we did a bit of cycling around but got rained off unfortunately, it looks like it could be rainy for quite a few days, but at least it’s still quite mild and we definitely don’t have any snow! It's now Thursday and we're still in Tavira, it's been a lovely sunny day today (at last!)