Today I took the ride southwards on the coast road down to the bay of Arousal, but it wasn’t as successful or enjoyable as yesterday’s ride.

To the Cape of Arousal at EveryTrail

The road is not as attractive and there were roadworks in a town about 5 or 6 miles down the road and a diversion which got me completely lost. I knew the name of the town I was aiming for, Ribeira. In my lostness I got swept onto a motorway that I could see on the map but wanted to avoid. In the end I made it to Ribeira, which is the kind of town that guidebooks describe as ‘a gritty port town’, hot busy, big trucks and tricky to navigate around, but a few stops to look at the map and u turns later I was leaving town. I managed to stay on the right road back, the only event being my arrival, along with others, at a recently occurred accident. A bright yellow delivery truck and a car were severely smashed and it was impossible to work out what had happened but everyone seemed safe and completely unhurt.
Today is more humid and a little overcast. The other Brits left this morning and I think I may do the same tomorrow. Its very pleasant here but short of spending tomorrow lying on the beach or swatting flies at the campsite, I think I have exhausted things here. But I still haven’t decided where to head for tomorrow. There is a medium-sized looking town Leon about half way toward the region I want to end up at on Sunday. I might see if I can find a hotel there. There are no Alan Rogers recommended campsites there, though apparently a great many.
This holiday has been so much more successful than previous camping trips and I put that down to two things so far: I have got the right guidebook to chose campsites, so for the most part I have avoided the nasty ones which can just feel uncomfortable. Here, as in the first site I stayed in, there is a thankful variety of travellers, young couples, even the odd single person, apparently gay couples, all in a variety of tents. There’s something about the barrage of families and the slightly affluent retired folk in motorhomes that feels alienating because there is no point of contact. With the unusual travellers there is, or at least the possibility. The other ingredient – again so far – has been the weather, warm, sometimes hot, dry. There’s nothing worse for the spirits than rain, particularly when you don’t know how long it will last. The other difference is that I’ve stayed in one place if I like it rather than move on every morning in a distance-covering operation. In fact, this trip is a few days too long, a result of the hugely different ferry prices.