Just outside Sines

Comporta is on the Sado Estuary. This morning, we took a twenty minute walk down to Comporta beach, where we were greeted by perfect dazzling white sand and an azure blue sea.

It was a proper holiday beach, with only a few sunseekers on it, including the usual 'too old to be in a bikini' women! John inspired by the anything goes look, removed his T-shirt. Very daring.

Then we walked along the perfect beach, collected some larger shells for the shell jar, we keep on the shelf above our fireplace, and then sat a while soaking up the rays, until we realised we still had a twenty minute walk back to Marge, which obviously took longer, as we stopped to view the birds on the mud flats In the estuary.

Walking through the small town of Comporta, the storks stood proud on their nests, then five flew over, slow and graceful. We both commented that we had not heard any of the storks make a sound, unlike the herons we see regularly, that emit a harsh sound as they fly over.

We left Comporta around three o'clock, destination one, a fuel station, that on the internet showed some of the cheapest fuel in Portugal, which it was compared to most we'd seen. Our second destination was to also be our chosen overnight stop, Port Covo. But when we arrived there, the aire appeared to be no more, and parking for campervans was banned in the town and along the coast road towards Sines, as it is a National park. We saw many vans parked up in car parks along the coast, and stopped to asked if overnight parking was permitted, nobody really knew, and on the internet it basically said no it wasn't, and you could incur a fine if you didn't take notice of this, so it looked like we'd have to head into the town of Sines, where there were twenty spaces for campervans at the rear of the Intermarche supermarket. Portugal so far has been very relaxed about overnight parking of campervans, so it was annoying that we couldn't stop in this area.

On route, as we neared Sines power station we saw some vans parked at the rear of a parking area. The sign read, parking for autocaravans. Result. Next to us, are a couple from Denmark who were on the aire last night. We have noticed, we are coming across vans we have seen in the last few days regularly.

It now being late, we walked over to the beach opposite, the sun was on its final descent setting the sky on fire.

About a dozen surfers bobbed in and out of the waves, desperate to stay in the water until the light faded. Sines is the first and largest port in Portugal. In the distance we could see many large ships lying at anchor, as they waited for their turn to berth. By eight o' clock darkness had fallen, and in the sky the sharp bright light of a new crescent moon pieced the darkness. To the rear of us, the red lighting on the towers of the coal fired power station dance in the night sky. But we're happy, a power station and a beach, beats a supermarket car park any night!