Sorry about the confusion with the catch up over the last few days – almost up to date. This post brings you from Seville, in southern Spain to the town of Sines on the west coast of Portugal. From Friday 24th to Friday 31st May…

We left the lovely man in La Puebla de Cazallla with the cafe and hot garlic chicken rolls early on Friday morning and drove a couple of hours to Seville. We needed groceries and there is a big supermarket in Seville. We also had some calls to make and needed to be sure the data was good. The last time we were in Seville it was so hot I vowed never to return… Yes this going to Seville would bring us deeper into the heat but we had a plan. If we left early enough and had everything done by lunchtime all would be well. And it nearly worked. The traffic around Seville on a Friday broke the plan but we eventually made it to our evening stop at a seafood restaurant where I had fresh anchovies, for the first time and Denis had swordfish. Next morning we left very early again and crossed the border to Portugal where the breeze was very welcome.

We stopped at the border town of Castro Marin to taste our first Portuguese nata of the trip but we didn’t factor in the time difference between Spain and Portugal – it was still only 8.15am – the cafe was closed. Sadly we had to move on. But only as far as a supermarket on the outskirts the town of Tavira. We got the nicest welcome we’d had for a while as we drank our coffee and ate our nata pastries for €4. Go to Portugal: For the people and the natas and the bargains. That night we stayed at a motorhome site beside the train tracks. Next morning we moved on to Albuferia. It was now Sunday and Denis needed to stay in one place for meetings this week. We booked in at a campsite outside the town for 5 nights. But despite the Portuguese breeze this was an unbelievably hot week.

On the morning of Friday 31st May at 8.30am, we left Albuferia. The temperature was already 24 degrees, our air conditioning was still not working so we did what people did before air conditioning was a thing – opened the windows. Yes it was noisy and yes everything not nailed down blew around in the back but it worked. The previous day had been the hottest, we survived with frozen peas, ice cream and finding out the little camping supermarket had air conditioning. We had been going in there every day for groceries or our morning coffee but it didn’t dawn on us to sit inside where it was cooler. We spend a lot of time in there, soaking up the delicious cold air.

In an attempt to take some control over our heat problem we had searched the weather forecasting app for places where the temperature would be more comfortable. Which led us to the northern Spanish coast. That’s a long way from the south of Portugal – eight hours of driving. It seemed a bit too much.

Then our luck changed and we spotted one place where the temperature didn’t go above 21 degrees. It was hard to believe at first because to its north, south and east the temperatures were soaring but in this town it was a constant 21 degrees. Could this be true? Was it a glitch in the app? It was only a two hour drive so if the app had got it wrong we would keep driving north but if the app was right then within 2 hours we would be blissfully cool. We had to try it.

And it was true! It was like a miracle, a mirage, the temperatures started to slowly decrease when we were within five minutes of the town of Sines on the Portuguese west coast. We needed to stop at the supermarket before finding some kind of parking near the water – for the breeze. But when we arrived at the supermarket there was a cool breeze blowing there. Heaven. It seemed no matter where you go in Sines the temperature is comfortable. I could feel myself coming back to normal.

In the supermarket I bought a couple of Portuguese craft magazines (impossible to even guess at a translation but great pictures). Denis bought a tape measure with only centimetre measurements – a dream of his for a while and not available in Ireland (ours are centimetre and inches) – who knew? I bought a plastic tablecloth for our folding table, unused since we arrived but now with the potential for cooler weather I was very hopeful for eating/crafting/reading experiences outside.

We stayed at the supermarket parking and opened all the windows to let in the breeze. Everything was going to be alright. Yes there were compressors running all night and yes the delivery truck arrived at 6am but it was cool. All is well.