Adeus Portugal, Hola Espagne

I had a great day yesterday exploring Cacela Velha and its neighbour Fontana, they have an inland beach connecting them and it was a peaceful pleasure to saunter along and watch the fishermen at work. I then went to Manta Rota and this is what I found, picture 1 looking west and picture 2 looking east.

I spoke to both other people on the beach and they did say hello, but you could tell that they resented me crowding their beach.

As I have said before, I got very confused with the Portuguese road system, they have toll roads 1. Viagem where you collect a ticket and pay when you come off 2. Electronica where the camera reads your number plate and you have to find a retailer who will sell you a toll card then register the card with the authorities by text, they come back with a text to say thank you, everything is hunky dorey but it isn't because 30 seconds later you get another text telling you that you have done it wrong and you waste hours and ££££s trying to sort it out. I gave up and stayed away from electronicas, unfortunately you only find out if they are toll roads and what kind as you turn onto the slip road. My skills reversing the wrong way down motorways have improved by leaps and bounds. The third kind of road is a toll-free road. looking at the condition of a road gives you no idea if it is toll or not, the following photos are of a toll-free road obviously European funded 'cos as you can see it was hardly used. Other toll roads can be as rough as crossing a ploughed field.

Last night I couldn't handle another grill so I settled for Chicken Dansak with Pillau rice.

This morning up bright and early, still confused with all the time-zone changes and the clocks going back by different amounts, even the locals don't know what time it is. I was round at the bakery to collect breakfast and lunch, ham rolls 60c each, madness. By 1 pm (I think) I was pulling into Sanlucar de la Barrameda, a lovely small city with the usual tiny streets, I gave my Tomtom its head and Edith and I went zooming through tiny one-way streets all over the place, the real highlight came at school run time, as you can imagine tiny narrow streets and Mum's who's only concern is collecting little Pedro or Maria, cars are abandoned half on the pavement, in the middle of the road and even across junctions it kept me amused for at least half an hour.

Tomorrow I am going on a boat trip into the national park then I will be heading for Jerez to visit some bodegas.