Camping on the Douro
We had seen a piece in a motorhome magazine about Porto which inspired this visit and we decided to stay at the camp site that was mentioned in the article.
What we had not appreciated was that the site was some way out of Porto and that it would be rather difficult to find. Although we had TomTom with us, it was no use in locating this site - this should have been a clue to how off the beaten track it was - so we had to use maps and the instructions we had. We obviously took a wrong turning at one stage and ended up driving through little villages with shiny cobbled streets. These were also rather slippery and steep and the wheels had a tendency to spin. These roads were also narrow and so it was rather shocking to negotiate with oncoming buses and double parked vans. We eventually stopped and asked a man if we were on the right road - rather difficult when you don't speak Portugese, the man does not speak English and hasl just come straight out of the pub. Despite all this though he did indicate that we were on the right road and sure enough within a few kilometres we met the road running alongside the river - probably the road we should have been on all the time and thereafter there was no problem.
When we eventually reached the site we found we had the entire touring section of the site to ourselves and we parked the van against the fence separating us from the River Douro.This was a beautiful spot and we could watch the Douro River cruisers, pleasure boats and wake boarders from our pitch. In the daytime the weather was warm but it was cool at night which provided some wonderful misty scenes over the river in the morning. Details of the campsite are given below.
The camp site was mostly statics owned by Portugese; it had lots of facilities but as it was out of season when we were there these were largely closed. The restaurant was however still open and we had dinner on Saturday night there. I got the feeling that everybody there knew each other as if they visited every weekend. The meal was nothing special, rather like a school dinner but it was very cheap, with wine we had a two course dinner and only paid around 8 euro - not each but for the two of us.
Fortunately for us the bus into Porto stopped outside the campsite gates and took us straight into Porto itself.
Below is a shot of early morning mist over the Douro river.
N 41°2'21" W 8°25'37"
Route: On the road along the Rio Douro south-east of Porto, exit N108 Medas. Follow signs 'Campismo' for about 16 km.
|
|
|
