The plan is to find a site in striking distance of Faro Airport whilst JC flies back to the UK for 4 days and Dins flies out for 3 days. These site directories don't give a flavour of the location of the places, or villages nearby and we have been disappointed on many occasions. So despite the fact that my husband's patience will wear thin I am determined to find a nice place for this long stay. And this is the day!
We set off to look at the site and free parking which was mentioned in the bar the previous evening. This is at Monte Gordo. The site is within one of the Natural Park areas with lots of pine trees and across the road from a large car park which is right on the beach and full of camper vans 'wild camping'.ie camping illegally but no one seems to mind. The car park has 2 busy restaurants and loos and had we not been wanting the security and ease of a site whilst JC is away this would have been great fun.
The camp site looked ok too, so a possibility although quite a way from the airport.
Next up was Fuzeta. This had been my favourite choice ( from what I had read) until our Scottish friends said it was a real 'tinkers site', which put me off but actually not sure what it means. Fuzeta is a small fishing town that sits inside a large, long sand spit which is inhabited and called Armona. The actual town is a bit high rise but the seaward aspect is gorgeous.
The next stop was at Olhao which I thought would be fine before I got there. But there is no actual beach in this town and the site was very clinical with not much atmosphere. The last site was past Faro in Quarteira and we were all getting weary. The directory had mentioned caterpillars here but I called the site and was told they dealt with them. So all sounded good. When we got there a man was having a row with the receptionist about his ACCI card saying he was waiting for the new 2012 card to arrive, but they weren't having it and wanted to charge him the full rate. I persuaded them to give us the discount by showing them the invoice for the 2012 card as we haven't got the card either. Jc and I had agreed that whatever happened we would stay the night here anyway. The site is built on the side of a hill. It is ghastly. When you drive around there are 'no entry' signs on most lanes and many areas you are not allowed into. Most of the empty pitches are on such a slope we would need to jack up one end of the van and rest it on a couple of orange boxes to be able to make a cup of tea on our hob.
In desperation we found a flat sunny spot on the perimeter. There was no electric point and we had to run our cable across the road and across another pitch to plug in. And then I noticed that John was staring at something. On the other side of the perimeter fence there was an enormous half built block of flats. Well rubble really. Rubble has been a major focus on this trip. It was a) very ugly and b) if the builder wasn't going through an austerity phase then presumably would be resuming work on it the next morning.
That's it, I thought and flounced off to reception. It really wasn't her day. Within 15 minutes JC was driving like the wind back to Fuzeta and the Tinkers.
Outside the campsite there is a large car park with a big sign saying no Camping Cars. But there is a rally of them! Amazing that no one moves them on but apparently, like Whitstable, there are no police in the town.
We decide to go for the official campsite and moor up in virtually the only spot available. It is too small and our nose is sticking out but with Kevin and Anne from Lancashire behind us and a french family next door it feels right for tonight.
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Location:Fuzeta
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