As I mentioned a couple of posts ago the early part of our trip was beset by glitches great and small. We have moved on from Seville to Camping Giralda in Isla Cristina so we can sort things out.
The site does a deal where if you stay for a week you get one night free. Usually we don't stay anywhere for more than two or three days, but Gill needs to find a dentist and the van needs a garage. So, Isla Cristina it is for the next week.
The town is not spectacular or famous, simply a medium sized fishing port a few kilometres from the Portuguese border. It has a big estuary surrounded by 'salinas' and a long littoral with a sandy beach backed by umbrella pines stretching as far as the eye can see.
It proves that places, just like people, don't have to be extraordinary to be beautiful.
Camping Giralda makes a similar point. It is pleasantly situated in the pine woods, the beach with wooden walkways through the dunes is across the road, and nearby a footpath through a nature reserve runs for miles eastwards along the coast. The site is extensive, a little basic, but lovely. It attracts a good mix of northern European over-winterers, mostly German speaking, but no one nationality predominates, and the site's lack of 'entertainment' means it doesn't acquire the' holiday camp' vibe that besets so many of the coastal sites in southern Spain and the Algarve.
As soon as we arrived our quest to de-glitch the trip got off to a shaky start as yet another befell us. The ground is quite sandy on the site, but covered in fallen pine needles which conceal the soft spots. I reversed into an attractive looking pitch and immediately got stuck, all attempts to extricate ourselves simply resulted in the front wheels sinking ever deeper into the soft sand.
It must happen a lot, the guy in reception expressed no surprise whatsoever, and simply picked up his walkie-talkie to summon the maintenance man and his small, ancient Toyota 4x4. He towed us back onto the road in no time at all and we re-positioned ourselves on more solid ground in a pitch across the way. In the event the new pitch was bigger and had a more pleasant woodland ambience.
Over the next few days we managed to find a dentist who was able to sort Gill's problem immediately. The X-ray and filling cost €55, inexpensive by UK standards. Hopefully the fix will last until we get home, sadly the X-ray revealed serious issues with Gill's upper bridge which will probably need to be replaced. We knew this would occur at some point, it's just one of those things.
Getting the van's oil changed proved a little trickier. There were lots of places nearby able to do it, mostly positively reviewed, including a number of them with good feedback from English speaking visitors. Our problem was our immediate locality specialised in small 'backstreet garages' tricky to access with workshop doors which could not accommodate a 2.7m high vehicle.
In the end we opted drive to Ayemonte, about 9kms away, literally just across the river from Portugal.
The place has a branch of the Euromaster chain (ATS in the UK) located on an industrial estate which made access much easier. Coincidentally it was only about 500 metres from the GPL depot that we use to refill our gas bottles when we are hereabouts. We figured we could get both things sorted on the same day, though in the end that didn't work out as Euromaster could not fit us in until the following day.
Back next day... the manager estimated it would take two hours to change the oil and replace a couple of filters. We took the opportunity to wander down to a supermarket on the edge of town. It involved a bit of orienteering, through the little frequented backstreets of the industrial estate, down a goat track shortcut to the main road, then half a kilometre along its hard shoulder before we reached a street with a footpath leading Mercadona.
Phew! It was more of an adventure than we bargained for, and further, a round trip of 5.67kms my trusty new fitness app advised me.
Within 10 minutes of getting back to the garage the van was good to go. I will be much happier not to have the oil warning light winking at me and messages of doom flashing up every couple of minutes on the dashboard, but not so happy about the €150 bill.
In between sorting things out we have got out and about - bike rides down to town, walks through the pine forest and along the beach.
The weather has been clear, a tad breezy making the highs of 17° or 18° feel a couple of degrees colder. Doing things rather than lazing about weather.
We took the opportunity to wash the outside of the van and to make sure our laundry was up to date. If we do decide to go off-grid for a bit while we are in Portugal then we will have enough clothes and linen to see us through a couple of weeks.
Our initial idea was to simply to follow the plan from last year that covid stymied. Already this gone awry. I emailed the municipal campsite in Sesimbres to check if it was necessary to book over the carnival weekend. They replied that the site was closed for refurbishment with no reopening date set. There is nowhere else to stay really, the advantage of the municipal site is that it's walkable from the town centre, so ideal for watching the carnival hijinks without having to worry about public transport or grabbing a taxi back to wherever the van is parked.
We've decided to head up Portugal's south western coast via Sagres and Vila Nova da Milfontes as planned, then visit Lisbon using the Orbitur site in Costa Caparica. The real joy of having a plan comes when you decide to ditch it!
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