New Year Wash Out

Bob and I decided that we would spend the New Year in a nice little resort town called Mila Nova de Milfontes. This town is in the middle of the beautiful Alentejo region at the mouth of the Mira River which was once a busy port but now it is a very popular holiday destination with the Portuguese.

I think it popularity might be down to the number of white sandy beach coves along this part of the Atlantic coastline. The walk from the town was very pretty to where the river flowed out to the sea and it had an interesting coastal path walk along the cliff tops giving way to fabulous views of these breath-taking beaches.

We stayed in one of the two campsites right in the town, both of them were busy with motorhomes from Germany, France and Netherlands but also a lot of Portuguese. In fact I would say that this is the first place we have stopped that was bustling with tourists. I wonder if that is because we are now heading into south Portugal and the weather is getting warmer.

We had been warned on NYE there would be a lot of noise with fireworks so in the end we partied in our van and didn’t venture out with George despite really wanting to get a taste of  a Portuguese New Year. At  midnight there were some very loud fireworks, fire engine sirens, car horns and a lot of cheering for a good 30 minutes. George remained calm as I pretended that nothing was abnormal!

The campsites in Portugal are interesting, at this time of year they are not busy so you can choose where you park-up but they all seem to have limited electric points so you need to make sure your cable is long enough to reach one, plus the often trip if you have more than 3 appliances switched on, for example the water heater, the kettle and the electric cooker ring will pop the breaker! When you arrive it is a legal requirement in Portugal to show your ID and in our case, passport, give your address (we don’t actually have one) and you usually pay when you leave. They give you a tag to stick on the outside of your van and you each have a card with a reference number so that you can get back into the site late at night past the security.

The pitches are varied, some are on soft ground which can be very sandy along the coast, this brings its own issues of forever sweeping sand out of the van. There are usually very few hard standing (concrete) and these are often near the road and entrance. Some sites are very sloped which makes it difficult to level the van for the fridge to operate. There are no rules about how near or far you should be from your neighbour, unlike in the UK which is very strict about keeping your 6m distance from your neighbour. On arrival you often need to drive around to get an idea of the layout and then round again to pick your spot – this is often at the amusement of your fellow campers as you park and repark!

The shower and toilet blocks are huge concrete buildings with nonslip tiles. They are dark and cold but in the summer that is probably a blessing. They are cleaned daily but most are pretty old so the shower flow often shoots at all directions and you get a cold soaking before you start! You must take minimal clothes with you into the cubicle as everything gets wet, especially your footwear!

Having said that the water is usually pretty hot and there is good pressure so you can have a nice long hot shower but you must get dressed pretty quickly afterwards! I think I am now an expert at the minimal amount of things to take into the shower and how not to get anything wet in a shower. WE do have a very good shower in the moho but it’s a faff to always empty and refill the water and you are limited to a short shower.  

The toilets don’t have a toilet seat and they don’t have loo roll so don’t forget your own! I have come across the ‘squat version’ but not sure if anyone uses those but good for toning the glutes and quad muscles! When we get back and have our own bathroom again, I must never take it for granted.

After two nights at Milfontes it was time to go collect my sister and her husband from the train station in Grandola for a week together in an apartment – this meant travelling back up the coast for about 45 mins. But before we left I spotted a brand new ‘lavandaria’ with smart new Miele washing machines and got two loads of washing done. My ‘own’ washing machine is the one thing I have missed the most since we have been travelling as I never feel that the campsite machines wash well and as we pay nearly 10-12 Euros for each wash & dry we try to limit how much we wash our clothes! To get to use two new ones was a treat and I didn’t have to pay for a dryer as we were about to spend a week in an apartment where I could dry the washing! (Unfortunately they did not have a washer)

We left Milfontes and took a drive along the coast, with a bit of time to kill we made a lunch stop at Porto Cove which turned out to be a gem of a find. I’ll let the photos below do the talking……

Wishing you a very Happy and Healthy 2023 and thank you for following our journey so far!