Journeys (including Campismo, Part 3)

Well, I'm back in Estoril. In fact, I have been for a few days now. It's good to be home. Camping is good fun and all, but, it's nice to be able to sleep on a mattress that isn't full of air. And having woken up this morning in my lovely comfortable bed, I had an important journey to make in my car. To the Volvo garage.
Please forgive me. I'm jumping the gun somewhat. Lets go back a week to the morning I left the Alentejo.

The alarm on my mobile went off at 7. That gave me a couple of hours to get the last few things packed into the car and the tent dismantled before the sun became too hot. But first, put the kettle on! Tea made, I set to getting things done. By ten the sun was beating down and the going was slow. I remembered back at Guincho campsite there was two of us taking the tent down in the shade of the pine trees. Doing it single handed in the mid-morning sun was much more strenuous work! By eleven I had finished. One last brew and I would set off. I said my farewells, thanked my hosts and off I went.

I followed the twisty roads out of the Campo to the IC1 and headed towards Ourique at which point I joined the motorway northbound to Lisboa. I won't go into detail about the kilometres clicking away with each passing olive grove, barragem and pine woodland because you've read all that before, but suffice to say, by Aljustrel services the car was not behaving well. I decided to stop at the services and try and let the car cool down some before continuing, but again, a few minutes after leaving the rest stop I found myself getting the reflective warning triangle out of the car-boot once more. The call was made and I settled down under the shade of a convenient bridge, with an inflatable cushion from the camping gear to sit on and my book to read, to wait for the recovery vehicle. Fifty minutes later a white van with glorious orange flashing lights on top came into view and before I knew it the car was loaded on to the back and we were off. Unfortunately however, not to Lisboa. Apparently the driver was only authorised to take me to his garage, which meant travelling North up the motorway about 20 kilometres and then south on the parallel road back to the town of Aljustrel. Once at the garage we discussed the problem and quickly realised that (a) they couldn't fix it (whatever 'it' was) and (b) it would cost me for them to drive me home. Faced with the choice to stay on in Aljustrel and pay hotel, food and laundry bills or pay for them to get me home, the decision was an easy one. By this point I just wanted to get home! And so off we went, via the cash machine, on to the motorway, past Aljustrel services again, under the bridge where I'd sat and read my book, and eventually, back home to Estoril.

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A couple of days ago we decided to hire a car and use the other half of our Pena Palace / Moorish Castle tickets. The Moorish Castle is a medieval castle but has many facets to it's history including a period of Islamic occupation, restorations by at least two Portuguese Kings and according to one of the plaques just outside the castle, there are archeological remains on the hilltop dating back over 7000 years.

This last picture features, as promised, the view of Pena Palace from the dizzy heights of the Moorish Castle.

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Tomorrow I start a new journey in my life. Well, perhaps not a new journey, but the continuation of an old journey along a new road. Tomorrow I start my new job. Unfortunately, due to my continued car trouble, it seems I am destined to travel this new journey by train!