Europe In Our Motorhome

Day 28 Tues 08.03.2011

Location: Sagres free overnight parking

Long / Lat N 37º00.364’ W 008º56.740’ taken at entrance to large parking area

We both woke up very early today due to falling asleep before 8.00pm last night (it had been a very hard day).

It had rained all night and was still chucking it down when we woke. We had bacon sandwiches before it was light and set off as the sun was rising.

We headed for Sagres which is the most western point of Europe (a bit like lands end but without the theme park and the ‘do not climb on the cliffs’ notices, oh and the sun was shining).

By the time we arrived in Sagres the rain had stopped and the sky was blue. We parked in the huge car park behind the fort, we think it would be busy in the summer but in early March there were about 30 motorhomes and no cars in the main car park. There is no charge for parking here, there is a loo dump point behind the toilet block (the toilets were closed when we stayed here) there is no water point.

We went into the fort (only cost 3€) and walked all the way around the headland. There were crazy Portuguese fishermen standing on the cliff edge.

We knew there was another free parking area in this town and we could see other motorhomes parked just around the coast so after lunch we set off on the bikes to find it. I still push my bike sometimes, there are blue lines here to mark cycle paths next to the road but they were only about 18 inches wide with a 2 foot deep drainage ditch on the other side.

The sat nav co-ordinates are N 37º 00.805 W 008º56.528 the parking area is just past the restaurant on a sandy bit of ground with an amazing view over the bay. The approach road is rather steep and there is a sharp left hand turn into it so we decided not to risk it as we have a long overhang and have bottomed out a couple of times already. It would have been a wonderful place to stop if our van was a bit shorter.

We then popped to the supermarket for water and bread, 5ltrs of water 29 cents .Someone had told us that there are a parade in the town today (I think today is a Portuguese public holiday) and that it started at 2pm so we decided to walk back into the town and see what was going on.

We sat on a wall and watched as more and more locals arrived in all sorts of fancy dress, it was a bit like Halloween in the UK. The parade didn’t start until almost 4pm it was a bit crazy, small tractors pulling little floats but it looked like the whole town had turned out and all of the children were dressed up.

We walked back to the motorhome and sat outside in the sunshine drinking cold beer, the temperature in the shade was 22º can’t quite believe it’s early March, we have both caught the sun today.
Sagres