Onwards to an Aire in Costa Nova

Sunday 14^th September

I had looked up an aire in Costa Nova, about an hour or so down the coast. We thought that we would give that a go. We were also thinking about how to leave Portugal using the motorway. We knew that we would have to pay the toll, but had no idea how. I rigged up my aerial and used the wifi to scan the internet for information. An hour and a half later, I had managed to pre-pay a twenty Euro toll which would allow us to traverse the country from Monday, for three days. Just for reference, this is the site where I finally managed it: http://www.ctt.pt/fectt/wcmservlet/ctt/particulares/servicos_financeiros/en/tolls/servicos_disponiveis/matriculas_estrangeiras/pre-pago_virtual.html

Once we had paid, got ourselves unplugged, and emptied the tanks, we set off for Costa Nova. The roads weren’t any better, and as I have said, we were avoiding the motorways. We arrived at a lovely little seaside town, and found serried ranks of motorhomes all next to the beach. The aire even had toilets and an outside shower. Luxury. And it was free. The spaces were limited when we arrived, so I squeezed in and waited for a space to become available. That soon happened, and I parked up and got the fridge going on gas. 

We walked the forty feet or so to the beach, and had an explore. It was a very large beach again or, rather, several large beaches with granite groins (!) separating them. The time was mid afternoon, and there were only a few people about. We walked, and sat, and walked some more. The clock next to the aire struck six o’clock, so we went back to the van.

Monday 15^th September

By about eleven the next morning we had taken down the bikes and made ready, so we found our way to the front, where there were many wonderfully painted or tiles in all manners of stripes ‘chocolate box’ houses. People were all over the place, taking pictures and posing in front of them. We rode up and down, admiring how pretty they were.

Costa Nova is on a kind of isthmus, with the sea down one side, and a lagoon, formed by the tide, on the other. We rode up to ‘Barra’, which is the town at the top of the isthmus. The weather started off fine, but became threatening as we rode. We went out to one of the lighthouses, took photos, and generally had a good explore.

It started raining on us and so we headed back to the main ‘strip’ to find somewhere for lunch. We chose the ‘Restaurante D. Fernando’ right on the front, with a view of the water. K chose to have some fish which were quite like sardines, lightly fried, and I had a fish selection – also fried. This came with a pot of rice and kidney beans cooked together. We ordered a bottle of ‘Atlantico’ white wine. The weather was now very sunny again, and we were cooking nicely ourselves whilst waiting.

The food was very good, as was the wine, and we were fairly stuffed once again. The waiter spoke English well, which was a bonus. As we waited for the bill the sky clouded over again and we knew it would rain. It held off pretty much long enough for us to get back to the van and put the bikes away in double quick time. We waited for a while for the rain to clear and then walked down to the beach again to collect some seashells.

 At about five o’clock we returned to the van – the weather was blowy and changeable.