We Missed the Mardi Gras!

Friday 9th February 2018

As we Mentioned last time, we arrived at Manta Rota Camper Park and there was no room at the inn so we parked at the nearby parking area. There was one problem though, we needed to empty our Loo! So at about 4:30 we went into stealth mode and putting the cassette into a large bin liner and securely fastening it to our luggage wheels we trundled along the boardwalk a couple of hundred yards to the Camper Park facilities, phew, job done and we were not arrested to be shot at dawn. In fact the man who guards the barrier had gone off for his tea and none of the motor homers were the slightest bit interested. So we can now enjoy the weekend without having to drive off to find a dumping point.

We had a stroll into the village and found that an enterprising business had parked a tiny three wheel delivery motor bike with an A-board on top advertising a new Laundromat  that wasn’t here last year. We had actually hoped to catch the laundry lady who visits the site who did our sheets last year but now we could do all our washing at the Laundromat instead.

Saturday was walk along the beach time, we didn’t explore it last year but it is even longer than Alvor with some board walks across the dunes but not as many.
The sand near the water was hard though so very pleasant walking, we did about 3.5km to the west before being halted by a small river and lagoon that crossed the beach but that was a good place to turn round.

When we got back to the Camper Park we checked and it was still full to bursting and even more had arrived in our parking area. We got chatting to a young couple in an old Hymer Camper, Rob & Karen, they had taken a two year sabbatical from work to travel round Europe, good for them.

Sunday morning was weighing time again, what a disaster for Steve he had put two of the three kilos back on, how? It must be muscle from all the walking. But Judy had lost one kilo so that was good. After breakfast it was the Laundromat experience for a couple of hours.
As we passed by Rob & Karen on the way back they told us that it was the Mardi Gras parade in the next village and they would be going later, just along the beach.

It sounded a great idea so after a spot of lunch we set off along the boardwalk then on to the beach where we came across a small flock/heard of strange looking goats  drinking from a river which stopped just short of the sea. They had slightly twisted long pointed horns rather than curly ones. As the sand was very soft here and difficult to walk in we moved to the harder part nearer the sea and kept walking and chatting and completely missed the exit to the villages of Altura & Lagoa which is where the flagpoles are on the left of the skyline  in the picture on the right and where the Mardi Gras parade was supposed to be. So, that is how we managed to miss the Mardi Gras! We actually carried on walking until we reached Monte Gordo where we stopped for a beer and then walked back, 18km in total.

On Monday, about lunchtime we were about to leave and were saying goodbye to Rob & Karen when they mentioned that their fridge had stopped working. Well, in Morocco, Steve had become quite an expert with these fridges because the very dirty gas over there soot’s them up so he offered to have a look. The giant tool box came out and his “Magic Flue Brush” which is a teapot brush attached to a piece of curtain wire. The flue turned out to be very clean so the fault had to be the jet. This unfortunately was rusted in and all attempts to clean it with a tooth brush bristle so as not  to damage the jet, failed. Which left Steve very dejected as it was the first failure out of the many he had worked on. Rob & Karen were quite happy though because they now knew what the problem was and if they could buy a new jet, Rob understood how to fix it. They insisted we stop for a beer with them which became quite a few glasses of wine and nibbles and finished up being a great evening chatting.

Never mind we will head off tomorrow.

Till next time…..

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