The difference couldn’t be bigger: yesterday morning I woke up on a camping and yesterday evening looked like this:
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I must admit that at the start of the day I had to get used to being around so many people again π± but in the end it was such fun to be able to chat with everybody, eat fine food, drink amazing wine and… sleep in a real bed!!!
The last few days in Sagres were all about Michael finally finding a board that fits his uhm… grandiose body π
So Thursday we went to a lot of surf shops and they ALL had a different view on what kind of board a man of his ‘stature’ should have π We did a little tour and went as far as Luz, where I filmed the special weather conditions that day π±
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The most positive thing that day was that we Ran into Alex and Anastasia (the hairdresser) AGAIN π
We were so beat that we decided to stay in Luz for the night on a nice parking, together with a Swedish couple in a camper. The view was amazing: my dream house!!
What do you think?? Pretty nice huh, with sea view and all π
The day after we headed back to Sagres and visited one last surf shop and…
Yes!!!! Found the perfect board!! So today we drove up to Sines where the waves are perfect for beginners and yes ladies and gentleman: the board and the man fit perfectly together
We have a happy man in the house π
We reached the most southern point of our west coast trip from Belgium through France, Spain and Portugal! I am writing this from Sagres, and although this is not the end of our trip, it IS the most southern point we will reach before heading back to Belgium for the Christmas holiday.
But let me tell you about the last 3 days first π
We decided to go to a camping for a good shower and for some of this of course:
You can’t believe how happy clean clothes and sheets can make me nowadays!! We had a really good spot and the weather was amazing.
I was sure we would have a great night there, but that was not the case… it started with AmΓ©lie, who started talking in her sleep at 1.30 am π³ Then, at 5 am a heavy wind started blowing, and our canopy started flapping (if that’s a word). So Michael got up in the dark to close it. He got out of the camper and wanted to put on his slippers of course, but he came back in immediately:
“I only have one slipper!”
Now, there was almost nobody else on the camping, and slippers don’t walk off by themselves, so… wtf? I got out of bed myself to see if he was not mistaken, and only then we discovered that one of MY flip flops was missing too!!! My brand new flip flops!!!! Only AmΓ©lie still had a pair waiting for her… what a drama!
When you are all alone in your camper surrounded by trees and stars, weird things like disappearing flip flops can really get under your skin. You see images of scruffy men crawling around your camper and sniffing your stuff, so after a while Michael got out of bed again and jumped on his bike to look for the missing flip flops.
He came back empty handed.
Then he talked to the receptionist who confirmed that stray dogs can freely walk in and out of the camping and probably it had been one of them who took our beloved foot protection. So he jumped on his bike again and headed out of the camping to look on the road. He was gone for 1 hour… came back empty handed.
After lunch AmΓ©lie and Michael started looking again, on foot this time.
Nothing.
In the meantime I had washed the sheets and they were drying on the line, and because of the wind one of them had fallen of. So M and A picked it up and hung it back on the line… and there, right where we had been walking past like a million times, was MY flip flop!!! The joy!!! The happiness!!!!
But also: the “huh???” And the “now we’ll find the other too for sure!”
HΓ©las we didn’t.
After the camping we drove to Praia da Bordeira at Carrapateira, honestly one of the most beautiful beaches we saw so far.
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Look whose van we saw there:
Yep, my hairdresser’s π
Some more views:
See the rainbow?
Michael was so impressed by its height that he mysteriously shrunk to the size of a toddler.
Suits him, don’t you think?
π
We spent 2 nights at a surf spot in Sao Torpes where Michael could rent a board. We had great views and great weather, 
but the smell of the oil refinery was a bit too much so we left.
But not before father and daughter surfed together!
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Going further south there are fewer places where you are allowed to spend the night, but we found a beautiful place next to a river. The only problem is that you have to cross the river to go to the beach, but hey no problem π
There are maybe 8 other campers and vans here, so it almost looks and feels like a camping. Our neighbors were a young couple, Alex and Anastasia, and on their van was written Pro haircut Free price…
Well… I was already complaining for weeks about my hair, and I am going to Lisbon in 1 week for a big meeting, so I knew I had to go to a city and get my hair fixed but I sooooo did NOT want to go through all that hassle. And there she was: a professional hairdresser next to my camper! So 10 minutes later:
And today also this happened
And then Alex went fishing and they shared the octopus he caught with us
So sweet!!! They left this evening but apparently we are traveling to the same place so we’ll probably meet again π
Anyway, in the meantime AmΓ©lie made this incredible welcome sign β€οΈ
She put it right next to the door herself π
Oh I see it’s been a while again, sorry! Here’s what happened the last few days:
First of all, I met a fellow Herbalifer right on the camping!
This is of course a happy coincidence, and RogΓ©rio turned out to be an incredible nice guy too π he got A and me some roasted chestnuts on November the 11th, which is a holiday.
That night, M got back from Belgium and we took of on Sunday, direction south.
Our first stop at the lagoa de Albufeira was already amazing, with our feet in the dunes!
On our beach walk, we saw a strange movement in the sea, unfortunately it turned out to be a dead dolphin π₯
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We had a wonderful night at this place and moved on the next day along the coastline to another lovely beach where we spent the night.
And then yesterday we found this beautiful place:
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We were more than happy to spend the night on the parking, here you can see the view from my window while I was making dinner (sunset)
We always park close to street lanterns, for safety reasons and for the energy it releases to our solar panel. We did that now too, but after the sun had set, the lantern stayed dark and so did the parking lot. Really really dark. We were a little bit uncomfortable with that, but told ourselves it was no problem.
Then, just when we wanted to go to sleep, a car drove up, RIGHT NEXT TO US. You have to realize that we were in a really BIG parking with NO other cars around. Would you park right next to a camper?
Then, we heard 4 guys get out and start talking really loud. As it was so dark, we could only see their cigarettes light up. You hear crazy scary stories about people getting robbed on dark remote parkings all the time, so we felt really vulnerable and wanted to leave. But to keep your camper leveled, you put in on blocks and when you leave you first need to drive off your blocks and then put them in the trunk… Michael was the driver, so I would have to get out in the dark with the car and the guys… aaaah!!!
We also had the wetsuits still hanging outside on the rearview mirrors π
So, we came up with this plan: Michael would start the engine (we would be able to see more then, thanks to the headlights), we would open the windows and quickly pull the wetsuits inside. If this went well, we would drive off the blocks and manΕuvre so that our headlights would shine on the car and then quickly take the blocks and go.
That was the plan.
It was a good plan.
So we started the engine, opened the windows and pulled the wetsuits in.
And then the guys jumped in their car and took off π¬
I guess we spooked them even more than they did us π
I’m not saying I’m an expert of course, I’ve only been on the road for 50 days so far, but as this is our very first time EVER to travel in a camper, almost everything was new to us. I would have loved to read this post before we took off on our adventure π¬
So here we go: 10 ‘must-knows’
Polarsteps
Enjoy your travels! π
So far so good here, the weather is around 20 degrees C with sunshine from dusk till dawn. We are catching up on schoolwork a lot and do little trips to the beach in between.
This is what our trip looks like on Polarsteps
Michael will be back tomorrow and I want to head for the Algarve then.
We are trying to eat as healthy as possible here, our Herbalife smoothie in the morning, some fruits and soy yoghurt for lunch,
But last night I really had to throw these away:
Omg, why would anybody want to eat this crap?? Luckily I had some spinach burgers left in the freezer…
We had 2 more great days at our free spot at the beach ππ
But it was time to get a proper shower and do some laundry, and as Michael is leaving for Belgium again (for ‘De Improfeten’), we decided to go to a camping.
And that’s where we are now! I’ll be staying here with AmΓ©lie till M gets back, the camping is really nice (south of Lisbon) and the weather report looks great so we don’t complain (yet) π
Thursday we finally got our much needed delivery of Herbalife products, it’s a blessing to have them around when you are traveling! We had to wait on a parking lot for 20 minutes (we had given the address of the Rip Curl store in Peniche) and then…
The weather was changing and the waves were too strong for AmΓ©lie, so did what normal people do when they are at the beach
Friday it started pouring unfortunately
So we took off, after almost 2 weeks π±
We are just south of Lisbon now where the weather is better, amazing spot right on the beach (yes, for free)
But unfortunately it’s the weekend now and last night we ran off at 10.30 pm because of the loud music.
We’ll see what today brings…
Yes, we are still in Peniche π there are so many beaches here that it hasn’t been boring yet, so…
Yesterday was a bit cloudy so we decided to do a little trip to Γbidos, a beautiful medieval town.
We had lunch there but unfortunately had to wait very long for our food and were molested by flies, this was Michael’s brilliant solution to that
We heard singing and went inside this small church, where the village people had come together for the mass (of all saints I suppose…?) and they sang together so beautifully that I couldn’t help shedding a tear π
Also worth your while is this amazing bookstore, my kind of shop!!!
When we returned to Peniche we did some shopping in the surf shops (yes, I have new flip flops!) and got offered some Halloween candy in one of them.
30 seconds later AmΓ©lie shocked all of us with a mouth full of blood and a tooth stuck in a caramel, now that’s what I call Halloween worthy πππ
So she lost 2 teeth already on this trip, hopefully she’ll have some left when we return…
Oh yeah, by the way, this was last night’s sunset π
Flip Flop Your Life 