107. About turn

Portimao, The Algarve, Portugal

Three weeks in one spot, plus Christmas, made for a massive job packing up today with the result that we didn't get on the road till about two. A two hundred and eight kilometre drive ahead with a maximum speed of eighty kilometres per hour, plus lunch, means arriving in the dark, which is always tedious.

Trip went very well till, four minutes to go, the GPS put us up a goat track what no car could manage. Managed to turn in an off road goat grazing area. My Mum took it all in her stride, that's fifty years of farming for you.

Loving our wifi booster system and really glad to have it as both the phone and and Vodafone Hotpoint exhausted thanks to two new laptops syncing photos etc. We are at the end of the camp ground and the signal is too weak for our laptops and phones to see it. Down here Kiwi Wifi is the strongest signal around now.

Nearly half a kilometre and quite a climb to my Mum's apartment.

A bit of a schmozzle on arriving in the dark as the super helpful camp guy was none too sure of his bearings and pointed to the north and said thats south. We set up right next to earthworks and realised that our awning would be in the lowest spot in the vicinity. On helping Brian park his Glamper I checked the compass app on my phone and discovered that we had orientated the Giantavan due south, ideal in NZ but not here. With the sun low in the sky as it is currently it would have meant that the awning would miss the sun completely and stay wet all day. Bit the bullet and did a two point turn, backed the caravan out, did a three point turn and backed the caravan to high ground and did a fifteen point placement.  Trees are a feature of European campsites and they do make things tricky manoeuvring the Giantavan with its large swing radius.