Portugal

We've decided Las Dunas campsite at El Puerto de Santa Maria is probably our favourite place in Spain; it's got everything we need, a nice town within easy walking distance and a huge sandy beach for Jamie. We'd stay here longer but time is starting to press so we must move on but which way? The weather forecast showed most of Spain threatened with snow and very cold temperatures whereas Portugal looked dry and a bit warmer.

So we departed Las Dunas on Tuesday (6^th Feb) and headed north towards Seville – no matter which way we would have to go via Seville. Almost there we could see clouds thickening to the north and east whereas west was clear so a quick decision was made to head to Portugal and we were soon driving around a very busy Seville ring road and heading for Huelva and the border.

Pausing to get a “toll road ticket”, for use should we stray onto a toll road, we immediately headed for the coast and quickly realised that so had a lot of other motorhomes! First aire was full so we headed to the big one at Villa Real de San Antonio for a quick look see, really preferring to move further west but knowing everything within range was also very popular. That too was pretty full but looked to have a few spaces so we pulled in and got one of the last – glad we did too because after us was a steady stream of hopefuls who were turned away.

Wednesday our decision was to either head further west and go north along the coast or just go from here. With limited time we chose to leave the Algarve for now and instead go up through the Alentejo region, an attractive wooded and hilly country which bordered Spain. So we set off into another beautiful, if cool, sunny day and basically just drove, enjoying the journey with no destination in mind. Portugal away from the coast is definitely worth exploring. However we were practical enough to make sure our route had a selection of stopovers and once we'd had enough we dropped into a traditional village just off the main road. We found a dedicated parking area with basic facilities and almost empty so picked a spot and settled for the night, expecting it to be a cold one.

Which it was, the downside of course of clear skies at this time of year. We were okay although we had to watch gas consumption because we were into the second bottle. On arrival we had spoken to a Scottish couple who had just come from Salamanca on their way to the Algarve and they had suffered poor weather with freezing conditions. So it was a fairly easy decision to stay in Portugal as long as we practically could and so we planned our day accordingly, always bearing in mind our time constraints and the fact we'd have to cross Spain somewhere!

But despite Portugal being the poor neighbour, it does have a good network of roads and we had no difficulty keeping in the right direction. Generally we kept to the main roads, which are of a good standard, although occasionally there were stretches of quite ordinary road and occasionally we encountered quite a lot of lorry traffic. At one point we also managed to slip onto a toll motorway – now Portugal would much rather you used these roads so they often do not bother to signpost alternative routes and unless you're paying full attention it's quite easy. However once committed we decided to carry on, it not being expensive and we had the advantage of speed and perhaps a small fuel saving too. It's just the principal of the thing!

Perusal of our “aires” book showed a selection of places, ending in an attractive looking stopover at Braganca, right in the top right hand corner of Portugal – you can't go any further without crossing into Spain. Although it looked to be a long drive, it was definitely achievable within our normal day so we set the TomTom and were led to a lovely little parking area just below the castle with good views over the town and surrounding area. Plus we had it to ourselves although there was plenty of room.

Certainly it had been a long day, the longest drive we've done since leaving the UK, but now we're slightly ahead of our planned schedule so tomorrow (Friday) we can cross into Spain and hopefully keep clear of any poor weather still hanging around.