Hot wheels!

I awoke early and sat outside in the morning sun drinking my first coffee of the day whilst listening to the chirps of the birds and the local cockerel announcing his presence to the hens. Fatima ( the Portuguese host) appeared and presented me with an absolutely massive freshly baked loaf of bread, still hot from the oven and smelling perfectly divine. 🍞
We could only stay one night at Fatima’s welcoming little camping aire, as she only took cash and we didn’t have enough euros with us for another night. The nearest ATM was over 20 miles away. All this… wine, bread, swimming pool, showers, unlimited electric and water, plus other facilities we didn’t even use, all that for 17 euros ( about £14) I cringe to think what that would cost us in the UK?
I think we were ready to leave though tbh as the flies were already a real nuisance, and it was set to get even hotter today. As a Siberian, Bliss doesn’t like the heat much and where possible we like her to be able to cool herself off in water when she needs to, which she can’t do here. So after saying a sad goodbye to her gorgeous boyfriend Igor we set off.

The place we were heading for, high up in the mountains had a stream, sheltered picnic tables and hopefully would be cooler with no flies, fingers crossed.
It was a lovely drive, most of the way was through small tree lined roads with lots of shade and a few small villages which we always find fascinating due to their ancient appearance, and also worrisome that we’ll become wedged between buildings as the narrow streets are so ridiculously tight at times.
Then we started the ascent, the road became very rough, the vibrations making out teeth chatter. The climb was very long and steep so poor Ivy was getting quite a workout, and my vertigo was kicking in every time I looked down at the enormous views all around us. This is serious exposure therapy for my fear of heights!!
We climbed up and up through beautiful scenery towards the mountain pass with flowering Heather and Gorse covering the slopes. The vivid splashes of vibrant yellow and purple adding to the beauty. The sweet smell of the tiny flowers carried to us on the breeze was strong and heady in the heat of the day. We stopped at the peak to allow Ivy to cool down a bit and take in the view before descending on down to our planned wild stop for the night.
The road started to descend, we were not all that far from our stop but because of the state of the road I had to keep it slow so Ivy wasn’t shaken to bits by all the potholes. It was very steep so I couldn’t rely solely on the gears to keep us slow enough to protect Ivy from damage. I was having to brake more than I was happy with to maintain a safe speed. We started to smell a hot burning rubber smell so pulled over to have a look at Ivy’s wheels. They were red hot! A result no doubt of all the braking and vibrations. Darren threw a cup of water over them and a cloud of steam came off them. We really can’t afford the risk of letting them get this hot again! We waited a good while for her to cool down and then proceeded to our park up which wasn’t very far.
I was so happy to be there, my nerves again shattered from what was quite extreme driving.
We got out and Bliss jumped straight into the lovely cool water of the stream that was running down from the mountain. I love mountains... but damn they can be scary!! Just imagine what it must be like up here in winter? I really don’t ever want to find out 😜
There were nice slate covered picnic benches with pagodas over them set beside the stream, protruding slate rocks, heather and all sorts of wild flowers. I recognised a favourite of mine Thrift.
I was feeling quite anxious about the descent from here in the morning after how hot Ivy’s wheels got in such a short distance, but Darren did his best to reassure me that we would be fine. We’ll just keep monitoring her wheels on the way back down and stop if we need to, to allow her to cool off. Sounds like a plan, but I am still anxious about the brakes failing. Can’t help it!!
It was very late by the time we went to sleep so I slept like a log.En savoir plus