We have been fortunate in that there has not been too much in the way of bad weather, or rather the weather has rarely stopped us doing what we are planning.

However this week has been very wet and rather windy. Its not likely to change any time soon either.

Fortunately the local cinema shows English speaking films with Portuguese subtitles. We have been able to see all the latest films over the last few months and practise our Portuguese language knowledge too (actually that can be a bit distracting and you can be so busy reading the words that you can  miss what is going on). This week we went to see Gangster Force  - or Forca Anti Crime as it was called here and which was very violent and not much good unless you are partial to violent gangster movies.

Yesterday we decided to get out when we could when there was a break in the weather.

First stop was early morning bird watching. We have discovered where the greater spotted cuckoo hangs out so we determined to spot them again. Fortunately they make a heck of a noise (they don't go cuckoo either)  so it is easy to establish if they are about. Se did manage to see a few, I think that they were harassing magpies which is no bad thing. 

Unfortunately we didn't manage to get a shot of them but we did see plenty of hoopoe and they are quite a chilled sort of bird and hang around on footpaths so we did manage to snap one.

Later afternoon saw another break in the weather so we decided to leave the binoculars behind and take the cameras and play with the various settings and lens - with varied success but afternoon snaps are below.

One of the nice things about the Algarve is that the tourist areas do not extend far inland a short drive inland means that you are soon in the countryside where nothing much seems to have changed for years.

The River Guadiana forms part of the border between Spain and Portugal and there is a nice country road from the A27 that taking you through the hills, beyond the dam and which runs along the river up to Alcoutim. An easy way to find the river road is to take the turning off the A27 signposted Foz de Odeleite.

The River does not appear to be used for any commercial purpose anymore but  there is  an assortment of private vessels which appear to overwinter on the river. You can also take a river cruise from Vila Real de San Antonio. From Alcoutim you can take a private charter for a few days too.

There is a small boat museum at  Guerreiros do Rio where there is a fine display of model boats as well as a video presentation. The museum indicates that the river was once a busy place not only for fishermen but also for Customs on the look out for smugglers. The old Customs House is in Alcoutim near the river crossing, it now houses the tax office.

As well as the museum there is a nice little cafe alongside the river where you can get a drink and a snack and where there's a wifi hotspot.

Alcoutim itself is a pretty little town with a castle a church and a monastery. At the river side and in the tiny town square there are a number of little cafes and restaurants. There is also a ferry service if you are tempted to slip over to  the mirror village of Sanlucar de Guadiana  for a bite of something Spanish to eat.

There has been a fortification at Alcoutim for a couple of thousand years with the Romans having an impact in developing the area as a military base. in the former gunpowder of the castle there is a display  (Timeless Games) of stone games boards (a bit like 9 Men Morris) from this period.

Alcoutim is only 79ft above sea level but the town suffered badly during the great flood of  1876 and in the town square there is a plaque showing just how high the water got. The town square particularly suffered during this flood and today with the rebuilding is not much of a square at all  but it does have a nice water feature.

We have been to Alcoutim a couple of times and of course from here you can go on to Mertola and Castro Verde for starters but that's for another entry another time.

While here in Portugal we tend to eat out quite a bit so we are trying to get in some decent walking in order to keep our waistlines in check.
We had bought a book of walks that was going cheap in Cotswold Outdoors and decided to give one of those a try. This was  a 5 mile walk starting at Mata de Conceicao just outside Tavira.

We went slightly wrong now and again, not sure whether we needed to create our own bridge across the river, or even if we needed to cross the river at all.

Lots of birds and flowers and  orange lemon and tangerine trees, which made it a very pleasant walk.  We never saw anybody until we got back to the car when we met an English couple who had completed this walk too, the only other birders we have seen on this trip  - and they had the same book of walks as us.

We have had the almond blossom for some time and now the jasmine and the mimosa are out too. As well as the daisies and the other wild flowers there is the Cistus rose which perfumes the warm afternoon air.

...why do retired folk in UK stay there over the winter?
Sheila & Gilroy

Those people who don't motorhome or who aren't retired sometimes ask us what we do all day. Well, read this and find out.

First of all there are the chores,  not many when you are in a motorhome but pretty essential all the same

Then there is a bit of light shopping at the nearby shopping mall and maybe coffee and a pastel de nata afterwards

There is always the washing too.

Chores all done the rest of the day is ours for birdwatching, walking, going to the cinema, eating out, expanding our photography skills and  of course our language lessons. Of course if we are feeling lazy we can always laze in the sun and read books or the paper on the iPad or catch up with BBC podcasts.

And after a hard day it's usually necessary to relax with friends and a pint at a local bar.

By now you will have realised that it's a hard life but as they say, someone has to do it.

As we are in Portugal for several months we decided to have a change of scenery and went to Cordoba for a couple of days in our hire car.

We last visited some five years ago and decided to book revisit the hotel we used last time. This is the Hotel Conquistador which is just across the road from the Cathedral or Mesquita which is the main reason to visit this city.

There is a campsite just outside the city and when we visited we noticed a couple of motorhomes parked on the road (Avenida Fray Albino) beside the river not far from the Roman bridge, although I am not sure if you could park overnight but it might be possible out of season.

It was a four hour journey from Cabanas and most of it was motorway so not too stressful a trip,save that our satnav had managed to lose all its maps on the last update, fortunately the iPhone came to the rescue. We shall have to revisit the Garmin website and try to reload maps again otherwise the nice man inside the iPhone may become our new travel friend. Cordoba is a lovely place for a short city visit, plenty of nice places to visit, good eating and if shopping is your thing then El Cortes Ingles is in town too.

As we had made good time we were able to visit the Alcazar de Los Reyes Cristianos which translates as the castle
of the Christian kings. There is not much castle left now but the gardens are beautiful with orange trees, water features within avenues of trees ..

On our second day we went to Cordoba Cathedral, more often referred to as the mesquita or mosque. This was built by the Moors on the site of a Visigoth temple and extended over the couple of hundred years when this part of Spain was under Muslim rule so that eventually it was almost 23,000 square metres and one do the largest mosques in the world. It was started by Abd ar-Rahman to rival the great mosque of Damascus, unfortunately it looks as though we shall never get to Damascus to compare mosques.

After the Moors were ousted the incoming Christian rulers decided to build a cathedral at the heart of the mosque which  means that today you enters beautiful and atmospheric mosque with nearly 900 columns and beautiful coloured arches that seem at time to stretch into infinity.

However once you get to the centre you meet a magnificent  cathedral which has been restored since we last visited. When we came here five years ago the cathedral was boarded off as the renovations were ongoing. The restoration is magnificent.

We revisited the mesquita in the evening for a son et lumiere show which despite the OTT flowery narration was well worth the €9 each it cost us jubilados (sounds more fun than retired doesn't it).

Palacio de Viana is well worth a visit too,this  was once a grand house with many patios, the patios can be visited unescorted for a small fee but for the palace its   escorted tours only and only in Spanish. Not only were the patios beautiful to visit but the free guide identified the plants in each patio which was a nice touch but not sure how well an Andalucian inspired patio would survive in Norfolk in the winter.

When we left Cordoba we visited medina Al-Zahara which is about 10miles from Cordoba. This was a development started in 936AD as a show of wealth and power of the caliph.It did not last long and soon was abandoned and much of its building was taken away for other uses. It was rediscovered in 1961 when excavation began and remains ongoing. 

Since we last visited a new visitor centre has been created which contains a museum and auditorium and there is now a shuttle bus taking you to the site. The museum is free but the shuttle bus costs 3euro return for two jubilados. If you are in a motorhome you can park comfortably in the car park.

Lots of New Years Eve events here in Portugal, firework displays feature heavily as do certain traditional foods such as bacalao and verde sopa after midnight.


Earlier this year we had found a new aire on the eastern side of the country near the Guadiana River so we spent last night there where, for a modest sum you could join in a New Years feast.

There was so much food and drink we failed to stay the course and left fellow motorhomes from Germany France and Austria as well as locals to see the New Year in and get that traditional New Years soup. The moral of this tale is to prepare better (ie don't eat that day) and to pace yourself through the many courses- including the soup at the end there were six bumper courses.

As with all the latest technology whether a DVD player  or just a cooker you find that the equipment can usually do far more than the rather basic uses you would expect. The key to successful use of your new stuff is to read the manual, or as it is known in our house RTFM ( read the f***ing manual).
So, with this in mind we have been experimenting with our newish camera. To make use of what the professional photographers call the golden hour, this  meant leaving home at 7am when the only other people on the street were the street sweeper and the bin men. We were out even before the first of the shellfish collectors.

Had a bird watching day today and travelled to Castro Verde, some 100 Kms from our campsite.
We had a great day, red kites, black shouldered kites, littke owls,more shrikes than we've seen in ages and lots of storks. To top off a good day we spotted a Great Bustard - only the one but that was good enough for us.

Along the Algarve is a great motorway called the Via do Infante de Sagres or in brief the A22, a splendid way to quickly get from west to east. The Portuguese government decided to make it a toll road which is no bad thing for us tourists (not so good for the poor locals of course who lose a valuable road and have to use the over-stretched N125). Instead of installing toll booths there is a complex and confusing set of ways to pay. There are more details elsewhere on this web site (see Portugal page) but yesterday we used the A22 as we drove to Spain in our hire car.
I had bought my toll card from the main post office on Tavira, this is a scratch card and you send a text message with the car number and the scratch card number (details in English on the back of the card). You get a text message back (again in English ) to confirm that the card has been activated and when you have spent all the money on the scratch card (I bought €10) you get another text message.