|
|
|
|---|
Penacova, my stay, part 1
Click 🖱️ to open
I must admit I immediately felt very safe here. My 🌡️ temperature was measured yesterday at arrival and next to my campspot was a safety-exit to the riverside. However, temperature was checked only at new arrivals. No matter how often people left and returned, after there first arrival temperature was never checked again.
Luckily the safety-exit was open from 08h00 to 21h00, however during the nights that gate was locked. That brings one the safe feeling that there will 🆗 not be any emergency situation during nighttimes.
The camping in Penacova is a member of the Federacao de Campismo e Montanhismo de Portugal. So of a sportive group of camping and mountainclimbing enthousiasts. However, this camping turned out to be the favorite of a whole bunch of pensionados ... In other words, nothing moved here haha (except at 1300 and 1900 for the takeaway lunches and diners).
It was completely full with longterm staying campingguests but there was one spot that was to unhandy for regular people to manouvre there house on wheels on to. So that was the right spot for me !
But this man and his wife, both at the age of 84, have the right spirit ! They had changed there minds and were (still) pushing there limits 🥇. For the next campingseason they would have their caravan transported to another camping, directly at the Atlantic Coast. Yeah, you have to start early to make good memories !
When I arrived here summer was in full swing. And so was the wind then the camping is situated directly along the Rio Mondego, down in it's valley. That wind changes direction every 15 minutes, and so did I (have to).
Flowers 💐 at the camping.
While cleaning my handlebarbag I found the selfiestick. Yeah, let's use it one more 😉 time. But as the germans say "Ich ubernehme keine haftung" if you decide to watch this series 😁.
And I noticed the
While the OnTheRoad 4.0 🖱️ was really doing extremely well. The last time I maintained it was somewhere this early spring when I changed the gearbox oil. Which is actually only mandatory to keep the guarantee alive, not because it needs new oil. And the last time I cleaned it was one year ago (!) when I stayed at the Bombeiros in Mourao 🖱️, Portugal.
It has been waiting to cycle again for a long time because of corona and all that time it was inside. And then it was outside 24/7, in the hot sun and in the pouring rain. Some washers are rusting a bit, and the bolt of the saddlestrap, the bolt of the actioncamholder and the usb-connector of the Black Box 2 🖱️ (the homemade electrical box offering a lot of electrical solutions). Those parts that I could not get in a stainless steel version (in time). For the rest there is only some dust on it !
One day Daniel arrived. A young man from Colombia who had lived in Germany but after his divorce had left in an old campervan plus a german secondhand electrical bicycle (stored inside). Now he was also doing the N2, per bicycle, so he had only little time. How come that if people do something they actually have to little time to do so ? Anyway, he arrived early, had very little luggage, took his e-bicycle batterie to the canteen to charge it, went for a sleep in his microtent and woke up two hours later.
fspeaking english Then we chatted about bicycling and bicycles. He had been in Portugal before and had now planned to make a new life over here somewhere somehow. May the Force be with you ! However, my tip would be to buy waterproof panniers and a bicycle(chain)lock.
The Praia Fluvial 👍 do Reconquinho along the Rio Mondego
I was enjoying a sunny afternoon and reading an ebook at my mobile.
The
Then my neighbour Jorge came along and he brought with him two nice (and cold !) beers and some delicious tremoços 🖱️. He is a really nice guy, and actually the only one here speaking a little bit of english. But quite some time we had a critical talk since we misunderstood each other. Too bad, communication was minimal anyway, and I don't speak portugese at all.
The only (!) other persons around here speaking english are the (German) lady running a pastelaria in the centre of town, some members of a family at the camping, some members of a family in town that invited me to come over to there house for a chat and a contrabande drink and two bombeiros (firefighters) I met.
In the meantime it was clear that autumn was taking over.
Very clear ... First there was a 6-day period of rain and lateron a 9-day period. And it's intensity was sometimes enormous, the soil splashed up to some 60cms high.
Then some mushrooms showed up at the camping. I took 💯 nice pictures, I had not seen them for years now. The next day they were 😡 destroyed ... Why ??? Mentality maybe ???
The owner and his handyman don't like "strange things", which is no surprise anyway. Then the couple running this camping is on duty from januari 1 to november 30 for 7 days per week from 0800 to 2300. And maybe even more worse : there days are all (exactly !) the same from hour to hour every day all year.
But the owner doesn't understand that he should have a look at the reason why so many trees have died and are dying here. There is something very wrong here, and within few years this camping will no longer offer decent shade on many campspots anymore. Then guests will move elsewhere since you can not do without shade.
There are about 5250 species (yes !!!) of mushrooms in the Netherlands. It is a Great Joy if you manage to let yourself "out into the wild" to watch them. I did so very often and this is a compilation I made in 2012. They Are So Beautiful !
And this is an animation I made in Saint Jean en Royans, France, in 2014. It contains 43 pictures taken at a 1 minute interval and played at 100 milliseconds. So The Mushroom needed 43 minutes to wake up and start the day and you only need 4.3 seconds 😉. Creating things like this one is very nice and actually quite easy. It is explained in my special article HowTo create timelapses 🖱️.
This is the regular, foggy situation in the mornings. Sun rose above the eastern hill late (at maybe 09h30 to 10h00) and went to sleep behind the western hill early (at about 18h00).
But Chilly Wind was always awake ... It was Cold untill late in the mornings and Cold again early in the evenings ...
A group of british friends arrived, travelling in three campervans. They invited me to have diner together which I gladly accepted. The third day one of them was brought to Coimbra by the others were he took the train to Porto to have a plain to Denmark. There he had hired an airbnb since he had an appointment with his ex-wife to see his children again. The world has changed (has it ?). In the meantime I managed to get the brakes of one of there mountainbikes functioning again.
Click 🖱️ to open
Then the Penacova trailrun started. Two days of full and half marathons 🏆 up and down the hills.
Some impressions of the campsite. Somehow my energyconsumption lowered and lowered, I ate less and less. Usually I took a portion of ravioli in the mornings and ie a hamburger with pees, champions or a nice (cold) salade de batatas for lunch. When it got dark and cold in the evenings I went to the restaurant to do photography- and blogworks.
While working there I always ordered an very good sopa do dia (soup of the day). And sometimes (seldom) I ate a nice plate. Prices were low as usual, the sopa was € 1.20, a plate from € 5 to € 7 and a quarter liter of vino was € 1.10.
When in Figueira da Foz the barbershops were suddenly closed because of corona but I wanted to stay somewhat 🙃 goodlooking. As the dutch saying is : "Baadt het niet dan schaadt het ook niet" translate 🖱️ haha. So I bought a tondeuse but it stopped working the third time already. I returned it to the Worten-shop for guarantee but it was returned there by there workshop "just" too late for me to pick it up.
So I started looking for an alternative and found one in a chinese shop here in Penacova for only €9. It works very well, is very leightweight, functions on mainsupply and then also charges the (removable) battery. Which I also can charge per usb-charger running at a solarpanel or at a powerbank. Or even when cycling by using the Black Box 2 at the OnTheRoad 4.0 🖱️.
Some impressions of the Rio Mondego.
In the meantime I had decided to see whether I maybe could rent a room or appartment here. After five days of waiting the real estate agent finally showed up, took me to the house he had in mind for me and that turned out to be a ruin. It was completely stripped, but he guaranteed me they would fix all problems as soon as I would have signed there contract.
Then I walked over to the bombeiros (firefighters) and they arranged an appointment for me with someone within minutes. I walked over there and made an appointment for the next day to visit the house they rent. That house was really oké but I found it too expensive, too remote, too far down the hill and it was in the shadow all day every day.
My attempts to find something to rent online also were rather unsuccesfull. Portugal is really a country were people maybe use the internet, but for sure not with real interest. They also seem quite afraid to communicate with someone who speaks english. By far most of those who advertise don't respond to my request at all. And my campingneighbour made several phonecalls to help me to try to get those people to respond. That was also a bad experience. Many had there voicemail on and never responded. Others even had a wrong phonenumber in there add. And some were not able to send ie a picture of the livingroom.
What to do now ? My plan was actually to cycle further up the mountanious area, but I would be more and more remote of any potential offer to rent anything. And I also would be in the more and more higher, so colder climate, where camping soon would no longer be of any pleasure.
😕