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Oporto, Portugal
Tuesday, Jul 14, 1998

The coast of Portugal

David Murray
2007-02-02 02:51:10

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We went south, and all of a sudden, we were in Portugal. There was no border crossing, just a sign. Welcome to Portugal. This stamp situation was looking grim. Three countries but only one stamp. We followed the road as we were heading for Oporto. Home of port. One moment we were driving on a motorway, and then it ended and this road was crap. It was more like a C or a D rod than a B road. Still, it pushed us in the direction of Oporto. We followed the signs until we were in Oporto, and kept on driving. The whole city was made of cobblestones and as we were driving over them, it felt like the van was going to fall apart. Lucy was in the back holding the roof as the catches kept unlatching themselves. Once out, we were much happier. We went looking for a campsite and found one on the cast at a place called Fig da Foz. There were waves here and a couple of years before, they had held the World wave jumping for sailboards here. So this was the place to stay. To go to the beach, you needed a tag and you were only allowed to stay on the bit of beach that your campground owned. Very strange. So, we went, but there were flags out stopping people from swimming. Being an Aussie, I gave it a go. The rip was huge so I came back in after about thirty seconds. There was a Vauxhall version of a Holden Camira which a couple of Aussies, John and Janelle, were driving, they were from Sydney, so we invited them back to the Chookster for beers. It was a good night. The only problem were the mosquitoes. They were huge and kept attacking us, so the roof was shut whilst we had our drinking session. The next morning, I tried for a swim again, but the rip was still there, so we left and moved on south.