Jane & Rog Plod to Portugal

[Jane And Rog]

Well, it wouldn’t be a Denby trip if something like this didn’t happen.

 

[Wanders from Glos]

Good idea No doubt ACS sell the signs.!

Well, it wouldn’t be a Denby trip if something like this didn’t happen.

oh no, you do seem to have adventures. I hope you manage to sort it.

 

[Jane And Rog]

Today was a wash out on two counts.

• It’s pretty much rained all day
• As above, Denby developed a new leak

The first saw us more or less confined to quarters for most of the day. Jane has practiced drawing using the iPad. I have tried to fix Denby’s leak and read the whole of the internet cover to virtual cover.

Long term readers will remember the fun we’ve had with leaks. Following the water heater and complex plumbing that plagued us in Morocco, Denby’s plumbing is pretty much in ship of Theseus territory. Or so we thought. This is a new leak and - I think - more impactful. We are losing water from the fresh water tank so we can’t wash, flush the toilet or… make tea.

Whilst I was pretending to be able to do the plumbing, we did find a proper man who has offered to drive two hours to come and fix the leak. We’ll hopefully meet him tomorrow - in the meantime I’ve put silicone grease on the two dump valves which I think are to blame. Unfortunately, that seems to have worked so the Real Man® might not be able to diagnose the problem.

Clearly no longer leaking​

Whatever. I also took Flynn for a few walks in the rain. One was a repeat of yesterdays walk because I remembered passing a walnut tree and I wanted to return with a bag. I managed to get a good haul of walnuts and spent 30 minutes before dinner shelling them.

Nuts!​

Dinner itself was great. Once again we have a good restaurant on site. This maybe isn’t quite as good as the pork at Camping el Astral but it scored high on local. As Jane told you (pay attention at the back) there are wild boar in the hills above the campsite. Those hills are also heavily wooded with chestnut trees. After the salt cod fritters, Jane ate wild boar with chestnuts. I finished the meal with chestnut pudding. My main was “beef in the traditional style”. The local style appears to be “just grilled” but the beef in question was a massive filet steak. I don’t normally eat fillet but this was very good indeed.

Fillet front, pork rear. ​

Portions were massive so Flynn’s breakfast is particularly luxurious tomorrow.

 

[jockaneezer]

I had to look up "Ship of Thesus" could you just use the phrase "Trigger's Broom" in future, for those of us who didn't get a Classical education !

 

[CAB96]

Time for a quick map catch-up - this are all the stops except our first.

View attachment 960821

You're either going to have to change the name of the thread, or slow down a bit

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[Jane And Rog]

You're either going to have to change the name of the thread, or slow down a bit

Would you believe, when we were in Northern Spain, Rog told me we needed to speed up a bit or we’d not get to see much before we had to turn back for home!

But now we’ve put off the kitchen reflooring that was booked in for early Nov, so we can slow down. Once we stop having to escape the rain!

 

[Jane And Rog]

In my slightly dampened state I forgot to mention the main reason we came to this site. It’s not the walking or the weather, it’s the world’s biggest pocket knife. As displayed in the restaurant:

Is that a knife in your pocket or… etc.​

I think they’re somewhat pushing the definition of “pocket” knife. I’d more likely say it’s the worlds biggest folding knife.

 

[CAB96]

In my slightly dampened state I forgot to mention the main reason we came to this site. It’s not the walking or the weather, it’s the world’s biggest pocket knife. As displayed in the restaurant:

View attachment 961218

Is that a knife in your pocket or… etc.​

I think they’re somewhat pushing the definition of “pocket” knife. I’d more likely say it’s the worlds biggest folding knife.

They need to polish it up a bit, it looks well scratched.

 

[Neilh]

Okay for a Yorkshireman, you'd need deep pockets

 

[Jane And Rog]

A tale of three countries.

When we woke there was plenty of water outside the van (yes, it was still raining) but none inside the fresh water tank. Worse, Rog had had an email at midnight last night saying our Spanish mobile repair man couldn’t work in Portugal. They probably eat dinner too unfashionably early or something. He could help us if we drove 150km northwest to Ourense, in Spain. We didn’t have any other options except an Adria dealer in Portugal who certainly wouldn’t help us on a Sunday.

We arrived in Ourense to a disturbing lack of comms from the repair man, so sat down to lunch-time tapas to wait a while. The largest tapas I’ve ever seen - Flynn dined out on us again.

Then there was an email. We were to meet in the car park of the thermal baths. Only problem being there are several such car parks, one currently blocked off, so we looped the river once before finding another south of the river & arranging the rendezvous there.

Route 66, our repairman was brilliant. The larger of our two bungs was perished and loose, so he wrapped it in PTFE tape so it fitted tightly, and then added sealant to both. Should hold until we get back to the UK. He also very trustingly told us to go off to the petrol station and fill up with water to test it. Of course we returned to pay him - a bargain €65 for a next day Sunday call out. Highly recommend.

The terrible weather is still around and our plan is to leave the north for sunnier climes. But today we stopped just over the Portuguese border at the aire in Chaves, which the weather app Ventusky told us was just short of the massive rain storm which we’ll plough through tomorrow, but in fact turned out to be well within it. Yes, it’s raining again.

It continued raining hard, so we didn’t explore the town until dinner time. When we opened Denby’s slider to leave, a huge lake had appeared beneath and for several metres around our step, so we had to find a drier spot or plan on building an ark.

After a little wander across the river, swerving the wet stepping stones for the footbridge, and a drink in a friendly bar, we crossed the Roman bridge…

…and ate at the appropriately named Biclaque Trajano where we had a delicious and quite posh nosh at British pub prices. The oxtail sausage to start:

Followed by octopus rice for Rog and lobster & prawn risotto for me.

And a shared dessert called irasshaimase, which is a bit of a weird name for a dessert, as it’s usually shouted in welcome at a Japanese restaurant. Anyway, delicious, eggy custard frozen and deep-fried.

When we left the restaurant, IT HAD STOPPED RAINING.

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[Mikey RV]

Glad you got your leak sorted, hope the repair holds until you get back to U.K.

 

[Wanders from Glos]

Good news the leak is resolved although what a faff for you. The repairer sounds very good.

 

[jumartoo]

Good news for your vans leak. I've saved the mechanics details jic we ever have a problem during our summer trips. Thanks.