Friday 15th January to Monday 18th January

Friday 15th January

Back to the post office! This time a parcel, but only the one for Lorna, still no Tom. Due to Portugal’s postal service not working weekends, they said the other one wouldn’t be here till Monday or Tuesday. We would now have to wait a whole weekend, as it was still Friday morning. We didn’t want to stop any longer in Guarda, so decided to head back into the national parks and maybe the roads and the ski station would be open.

The roads were open and off we headed to Manteigas and into some lovely mountains. We were driving along a small road across a glacier valley, with huge boulders. Parked up the mountain at 1500m overlooking the glacier valley, the views were great apart from the rain!

Later on that night after some food and wine, we ran out of water. We had seen a spring on the edge of the road somewhere near. So decided to head off into the wet night with some water bottles, to find it. Walking down the road in the dark we realised we were pretty alone up here, as hardly any cars had passed by all night. After a while we hadn’t found the spring, so decided to head back. Near the motorhome, I took some steps and on the first couple I got a fright. In the dark some dogs started barking, right next to me. I couldn’t see the size of them, so quickly made my way back to the motorhome in another direction.

Saturday 16th January

In the light of the day we went in search of water. There were some taps in the picnic area, although non were working, but there were no dogs in sight. We decided to head further up towards the ski station. The further we went up though the foggier it became. As the weather was raining as well, we decided to head back down the hill and try again tomorrow. We found some parking outside of Mantiegas near the dry ski slope.

Sunday 17th January

The weather was a little better today so we headed back up towards the ski station. As we climbed higher, the views got better over the valleys and mountains. At 1900m up it started getting foggy again but we continued a little more to the ski station. The ski station was very small and although the fog kept lifting every so often it was not worth paying to ski. Besides not many runs were open, instead we watched the crowds sledging over any bit they could. Lorna decided we should build a snowman, a tall one called Bert! Just as we finished four Portuguese came over and asked to have their photo’s taken with him, we had created a star. So we decided to leave him be, our job done and head back to the motorhome.

We parked up for the night again just outside of Mantiegas but near their thermal spa.

Monday 18th January

In the morning we went straight to check the internet. Tom had now arrived in Guarda, so off we went. This was now my 5th day in the post office, as I walked in, the woman behind the counter gave me a smile and put her hand up declaring my parcel was here. She didn’t speak any English and I didn’t really speak Portuguese but she seemed happy for me that my parcel had finally arrived. Or was she just grateful I wouldn’t be coming back in? With Tom now back to guide us, cheers Paul, we headed off. As the weather was still raining we decided to cut our losses with the skiing and head away from the hills.

After a two and half-hour drive we arrived at dusk in San Pedro De Moel on the coast. We found a car park near the lighthouse, on cliffs overlooking the sea. The best thing was there was no rain and walking outside you could feel it was warmer, no jacket even required. Later that night though, it was fairly rocky from the wind. Also we seemed to have chosen a car park where they like to practise handbrake turns!