It was quite the hard decision to leave this place today. In the end, the lure of our “destination” and the distinct lack of connectivity made the call for us. We took our time. Enough to share breakfast drinks with Lu and Eike, whom we had a great wine filled chat with last night.

We took aim for the very first thing on the Portuguese side recommended in our guidebook: The seaside town of Tavira. The scale has to change now, almost by an order of magnitude. If we do travel by the 100 kilometers, we will rush past most there is to see. Portugal is, ultimately, a small country.

We knew in advance the Algarve coast will be touristy. After the huge pre-season crowds in Andalucia, we did not mind much. Tavira was touristy, but right now still retained this elusive air of authenticity. There are still locals mingling about, out on the streets and the whole affair, though freshly painted and dressed up for the guests, stayed well this side of the Rüdesheim point. We felt good sampling our first custard-hbased bit of pastry and Portuguese coffee. Just enough of a stop gap to bridge the one hour time difference and help us to hold out to lunch.

Another thing was inconveniencing us more as we strolled along the sides of the river: The Lonely Planet for Portugal is from early 2017 vs the 2019 edition Spain guide we carry. In hot spots like this, the “cool places” change at quite the pace, it seems. None of the three food recommendation we steered for were even still in business. After about half an hour of wandering and not wanting to risk it with one of the riverside touts, we headed back for the Pastelaria Tavirense. There we loaded up on savoury pastries and headed off to find a picnic spot on our way to the campground.

Right away, the short distances tripped us up. We skipped the first beach sign only to realise that the next stop will already be the designated campground. Then, Baby dutifully fell asleep in the car, unaware that his nap would have to be cut woefully short. We checked in and had lunch with a sleepy and cranky Linus on our towel sized emplacement.

The mood started to turn. Why did we leave the amazing camp yesterday instead of enjoying it for a while? What are we doing on this 250 emplacement supercamp hell filled with permanent campers? At least the emplacements around us were unoccupied – oh never mind. Noisy ones, with beer, music and impolite kids walking right through our camp to get to the bathrooms. A fence and a rail line separate us from the beach, almost 20 minutes to walk. This is not at all what we were looking for. Shade and the cheapest price of our trip was all that this camp had going for it.

To add to all of this, sleep deprived Number 3 went into a bit of a downward spiral as well. Mozzie bites, two molars breaking through and lack of sleep made him insufferable. He would not sleep, would not eat. We tried to make plans but could all but manage to hold on from resignation.

Dinner was a quick affair, chomping through the worst spaghetti carbonara I ever served. Something needs to change tomorrow.    

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