We loved our chosen spot, Portugal on our one side, Spain on the other and us somewhere in-between. The motor home expression "Home is where you park it" definitely applied here!

Mornings were unbelievably quiet allowing us to see and hear the various sounds of birds (kingfishers, storks, herons, cockerel, egrets) as well as cicadas (large insects will a unique and very loud sound) and the river lapping against the hull. Very few yachts passed us by until the weekend when the river boats were out cruising up and down with the tourists snapping merrily away at the scenery, including us as we became part of the background!

Afternoons were pretty windy with wind over tide conditions which made it a bit uncomfortable at times with us riding around and over our anchor but thankfully by early evening the wind settled and tranquility returned.

Nights were just amazing with absolutely no light pollution and only the moon and stars above providing any kind of light. Fantastic and very romantic... Nudge, nudge. Wink wink!

We were amazed by the amount of floating bamboo and vegetation that passed us by, especially for this time of year. As it floated along the hull it made some very strange noises and from inside it was amplified like a drum. Just to keep us out of mischief our morning 'chore' involved us leaning over the bow to remove debris from the chain and wonder what would be next to drift downstream... this happened to be a huge branch that drifted alongside eventually wrapping itself around 'Oui' anchored behind us.


'Oui', with Hanse and Dagmar

We enjoyed it so much that we stayed five nights in total and waved goodbye to Hanse and Dagmar as they moved onto Alcoutim for a few nights before passing us by once again on their return. It was lovely to meet them both and hopefully we'll catch up with them somewhere in the Med.



For us, the best part of the day was definitely first thing in the morning and last thing at night when it was calm and truly peaceful. This is what we came for!