This was the first oppouritnuty we had to use our ACSI card which we were both excited about (sad we know). It's a membership card which entitles you to preferential rates at 2739 campsites across Europe. You pay £13.50 for a years membership and in return you get two directories of fully inspected campsites, a mini atlas and a discount card. The rates are between 12-18€ per night in low season with a few at 10€ per night. The price includes a pitch, an overnight stay for 2 adults, an awning, electricity, hot showers and 1 dog (& most places we have visited had free wifi).
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| ACSI Books Vol 1 & 2 & Membership Cardwww.campingcard.com |
We paid 16€ per night at A'Vouga, compared with the rate for non ACSI members (28€) this made a huge saving so we are really pleased we joined and think this will probably save us a fortune in the time we are travelling.
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| The Beach at Muros |
Fortunately as soon as we arrived we found a really good pitch with a beautiful view out to sea. We quickly got chatting to some other Brits which was nice as we had only had ourselves for company whilst wild camping, if truth be told we were both so excited to see and speak with other people we didn't stop chatting for hours. A well travelled welsh man (we didn't catch his name) in the pitch opposite us told us there had been dolphins in the bay the day before so we spent the majority of the next 3 days staring out to sea hoping to catch a glimpse. Another couple saw a pod of about 20 dolphins on the last night but we missed that too (typicall).
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| The view from our pitch, Muros |
Oscar was up to his usual tricks attention seeking amongst all the other campers. He was getting ear tickles left, right and Chelsea. As soon as we were set up we took him down to the beach for a walk, a little swim in the sea with Jac and then for a bit of sunbathing, which wasn't overly successful as Oscar insisted on digging holes and covering both of us in sand. After almost being buried alive by Oscar we decided it would be as good a time as any to go for our long awaited showers, Jac and Oscar were both a little reluctant as they thought swimming in the sea was good enough. On the campsite they had a special area for dogs to have showers after they'd been to the beach and it turned out to be the hottest shower on the site, the others where a little disappointing after looking forward to them so much but at least we were all clean.
Once we were all showered we thought we should treat ourselves to a few drinks in the bar where we met a man called John, he is recently retired and is making his way south with his little Patterdale Terrier, Zed. He and Oscar got on great and ran around on the beach like lunatics whilst we sat on the terrace enjoying the views and getting to know more people. John and Jan, a couple from Lancashire joined us too and we spent the rest of the evening discussing and comparing travel plans whilst trying to remember all of the invaluable advice that they had to offer. When we could no longer see straight we decided it was time for bed.
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| Oscar & Zed playing at the beach |
The next day was overcast and there weren't many people around, using our time wisely we watched the last 2 episodes and finished the 3rd season of Game of Thrones, we have been hooked and have watched relentlessly every time we've had the chance. Although now it's left a gaping hole in our rainy days so we are hoping someone will be kind enough to bring season 4 out when they come to visit.
During the course of the morning a new couple had checked in and settled in the pitch next to us, we got chatting and like many others they were intrigued by our travel plans, we explained that we were intending to avoid campsites as much as possible in high season in order to both, gain varied experiences and make our trip last as long as possible by saving money, they kindly gave us a book called 'All The Aires - Spain & Portugal'. This will be a huge help to us as it details 303 inspected aires and GPS coordinates to find them. It also details campsites that are open all year round which will be helpful in the winter months. |
| All The Aires www.vicarious-shop.com |
That afternoon we decided to walk round to the lighthouse we could see from our pitch. The walk was about 4km in total and took us a couple of hours. We wound along a high coastal path, one side lined with tall skinny trees creaking in the wind and the other a steep incline of burnt orange and brown jagged rocks that looked as though they had just been plucked from the dessert. Through an opening in the trees we spotted two men snorkelling around the rocks, we watched for a minute before carrying on up the track toward the lighthouse. When we reached it we were slightly disappointed. We were expecting to see a tall, smooth, red and white striped building with large windows around the top, instead we were greeted with a cream and green, stumpy, newly built box with a large cylinder on top. Not at all what you would expect. The ruins of the previous lighthouse looked as though it would have been exactly as we imagined. When we got close enough to the edge we could see the white frothy water smashing against the huge rocks and from where we were stood there were amazing views out into the Atlantic, other hill tops and coastlines, sadly no sign of any dolphins though. On our way back down the men who we thought were just snoorkling amoungst the rocks were on there way back up to the road and they had actually been fishing with harpoons they had one large shiny harpoon each and a huge sack full of fish, pretty impressive really.
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| Muros Lighthouse (Faro) |
The next, and our final day of luxury for another week, we spent planning our next few wild camping spots and the route we were going to take. We set off around lunch time to head to supermarket to stock up on supplies before heading off south west along the coast towards Vigo.
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