Olhão, Portugal

April 10th 2018. Captain’s log. From a wet, wet, wet Portugal :-)

It started raining this morning and it hasn’t stopped since. According to the weather forecast we can expect some ‘no rain’ late this afternoon and then it will repeat itself again the next couple of days. In Portugal as well as in Spain the month of March and so far April too, haven’t been this wet and cold for a long time. Good thing the caravan came with a small electric heater, which serves us very well now.

Poor Moos has an allergic reaction to something. Maybe a sting of some insect, I don’t know, but it’s swollen around his mouth and eyes. It started yesterday afternoon and got better a few hours later, but by the time we went to sleep I had a puffy Moos again. It doesn’t seem to bother him though, at least he shows no signs of pain and he eats and drinks ok. He just looks like an overweight Moos. Not knowing whether maybe he got stung by a wasp in his mouth, I kept a close look on him yesterday, to make sure he’d keep breathing normally. Just imagine that his tongue would all swell up. Fortunately that didn’t happen. Still...I’m worried. The swelling should get less within 24-48 and it does indeed ( am checking as I write this) seem a little less..... Otherwise I’ll take him to a vet later today.

We arrived here in Olhão last Saturday, a place close to Faro. We’re staying at a big camping, with pretty good facilities. It’s not that crowded. Most visitors here are pensioners, escaping the colder period back home for a couple of months. It’s amazingly cheap here to camp. We pay €14 per night for 2 persons, 1 dog, a caravan, a car and electricity. Apparently if you stay more then 30 days, it’s €10 per night. 

The camping park is situated just on the edge of Olhão and the centre, bigger supermarkets and promenade are within a 5-10 minutes drive. It’s not a big tourist place, on the contrary, it breaths a laid-back, gentle atmosphere.

Ahhhh, we had an emergency situation! Man, so much rain...it flooded half the tent! There are a few plots opposite ours which are a little bit higher and the rainwater of course runs to a lower point and our caravan with tent was excactly on that route. Corne managed to sort of barricade and redirect the stream of water. But when a second pretty bad rainfall passed over, a new stream from the other side entered the tent. It’s under control.....for now :-)

Tomorrow should be a dry day. That seems like the perfect moment to move the caravan to a higher plot. Or....we leave and look for a more sunnier place in Portugal for the last few days of this week. But that, unfortunately, is almost impossible. The whole of Portugal seems covered by a big rain cloud.  Not much choice than to sit this one out and hope for a warmer and sunnier period soon.