The wild Atlantic

The wild Atlantic sea on the west coast of Portugal is nothing if not dramatic. Ivan and Jane have taken their time travelling along the coast in their motorhome Daphne. We have slept in places many high end houses or hotels would have killed for views of and fallen asleep to the crashing of waves on the rocks. The beaches have been out of season and empty.

 The spit of land and beach leading to Troia.

Most mornings we have taken our morning tea out to the beach to watch the waves, listen to the sounds and take in the fresh sea air. The places and photos remind us of home, the Cornish coastline and New Zealand all at once. 

With our thermal cups on Comporta beach.

This week we decided to "wild camp" as much as possible. This means staying in areas away from it all and using all of Daphne's facilities to the full. So, we stocked up the fridge and the water supplies and headed to the coast. Its not hard to wild camp in Portugal, in fact we use an app called "Search for sites". It gives a detailed map and reviews of places to camp. In return we leave photos and reviews of our own.

A rare treat, coffee at the beach cafe. Great to use the facilities. Wifi and toilets 👍.

We are now keeping a tighter than tight budget. Everything we buy is written down in an app called "Money mgr". If we want to lead this lifestyle we have to stay within our budget and we cannot go over as we are relying on rent from our house to pay for our travel. Savings are helping to pay for garage rent, storage and vehicle maintenance and upkeep. It's harder than we both thought, however we have risen to the challenge and are recognising the luxury of the small things in life. The coffee out, the cold beer becomes even more enjoyable and somehow seems hard earnt.

Luckily the best things in life are free. To run on an empty beach, to watch the sunset and to wonder at nature is somedays all we need. At times we deliberately have "no spend days" and we are vitally aware of how lucky we are to have the time, opportunity and means to travel.

The lighthouse, cliff tops and beaches at Porto Covo.

Storks are on virtually every rooftop at Comporta village.

Sunset at Comporta beach.

Thank you for reading. We hope you have enjoyed our photos and updates. By the way, it's still too cold to go buck naked on the beach 😉. 

 The sign for the nudist beach on the cliff tops at Odeceixe beach next to our wild camping stop.