The ´sunny´Algarve

It seemed our prayers had been answered as the sun shone brilliantly as we pulled in to Olhao on Portugals south coast and the ´sunny´ALgarve. We were only a few kilometres away from where Madeleine went missing a few short weeks earlier and her picture was plastered everywhere we ventured.

As we arrived relatively late in the day we set up in a Cabin in the Camping Ground and drove into ´town´. Town didn´t meet our expectations although the shops were open but we were still not near a beach. According to the guide books this Camp Ground has great facilities and close to a beach. We soon discovered to get to the beach one had to walk or take a bus 3kms and get a ferry!! Hello.. we are NZérs and didnt quite comprehend this concept. There was however a waterfront but it was dirty and dingy and nothing like the postcard pictures we had seen.

Talking to the locals and by this I mean Brits who I might add actually live in the campground for months on end, who have forsaken the climate of Britain for a ´better lifestyle´ we soon realised NZ most certainly had its merits. One couple; well we only spoke to HIM had left the UK in November and had been living in this huge American Style mobile home ever since. They had just got back from 4 months in Morocco and were thinking of making NZ their home. As you can well imagine with Coraleen´s mortgage and finance background he spent hours with us promising to come back for a drink later in the evening. Somehow I suspect his partner wasnt that impressed as we didn´t see him again even though he had taken Coraleen´s contact details back in NZ !!

The good thing about the camp ground was the facilities. The pool area was huge and very well looked after compared to the dust and dirt which made up most of the tent and caravan sites. It also had a Supermarket which sold freshly baked bread every morning, a Restaurant, Pub AND an internet cafe all which were open 12 hours every day!!

Not to be put off we decided to wait till morning and drive to Faro where there is an International Airport and ´6kms of white sandy beach´. And wouldn´t you just believe it.. we awoke to heavy rain. The locals did assure us it hadnt rained for ages and would likely only be around for a few hours. The photo was taken at Faro beach where we did site on the wall for a while to catch some sun when it appeared later in the day.

We stumbled on the Faro Mercardo which is a fresh food market and were gobsmacked at their wares. Fresh fruit and vegetables but no Avocados and the fresh meat and fish!! Fresh king prawns which, incidentally were delicious at NZ$16 a kilo. The fish, on the other hand, were ... well weird is the only word for it. They were huge .. about 3ft long and had huge mouths.. certainly not fish we were familiar with. And as you would imagine.. it stunk!! But was definitely an interesting experience.

And not only did they have meat, fish, prawns.. they were also selling snails!! And like the prawns they were alive.

These snails were actually crawling around. I don´t think you can actually see it very clearly but I picked one up and it crawled around on my hand!

They are small and not like the common garden snail. I am sorry but I cant tell you what they tasted like as aside from being a bit of a sook I had no idea how to cook them and noone spoke a word of English to ask. And yes the bags in the background are also snails.. believe me there were bags and bags of them.. at about half a dozen stalls.

I opted for a Capuccino Icecream which was delicious .. still not sure about those snails though.