Our 1st campsite in Portugal was Camping Ria Formosa. The pitches were small so we booked two. We didn’t have EHU so this still worked out cheaper than a lot of the sites in the south of Spain. There were a couple on the next pitch, Fred and Ingrid, who were very chatty. Fred was a musician who let me have a play on his guitar.
In the evening we wandered into the town to explore. It was quite a small town, called Conceição, with quite a lot of road works going on. The coastline is an estuary with the beaches over the other side on the Islands. We found a nice restaurant to have dinner in and our first taste of Portuguese wine.
The following day we took a train ride with Fred and Ingrid into Tavira. This was quite an experience as you didn’t get your ticket before boarding the train, instead when you got on the train a ticket man came round to collect your fare.
It was only 2 stops to Tavira and when we arrived we headed to the Castello and the Church of Santa Maria.
The Castello had a beautiful garden on the inside. There were steps up to the top of the wall with great views over Tavira.
We spent a lovely afternoon looking round the town, along the river and popping in a few quirky shops before heading back the the campsite for dinner.
We set off the next day to Olhão but on route we stopped at Faro to buy a guitar, I think I have caught the bug and as we have decided to extend this trip, I should have plenty of time to practice.
The campsite at Olhão was very pretty and next to a National Park. We found a pitch at the end of a row that had the sun on it during the day. Although it was beneath a large pine tree that dropped many needles and it was a bit short so we had to take the bikes off the rack to fit Wike in the pitch.
The town also had a lot of building work going on and was still on the estuary. There was a walkway along to the marina where we stopped for a coffee.
The campsite was huge but felt very small. It had a really large pool that was open, although the water was freezing so we didn’t go in.
We spent 4 days here exploring the town and the park. In the park there was an old Tide Mill that was used until 1970. There is also a salt water reservoir and a fresh water one that is home to many different species of birds. There are even the remains of Roman salting tanks.
Playa de Mata Negra to Tavira
Mileage 48
Route A-49
Camping Ria Formosa at €18 pn, this was for 2 pitches as they were small, with no EHU
Tavira to Olhão
Mileage 16
Route N125
Camping Olhão at €13.45 pn, with no EHU
