Sauropods, Setubal and a dose of Delhi belly

Weather – pure blue sky all day. Cold now that the sun’s gone down but top star action. Copied and pasted from yesterday’s post.

145 million year old dinosaur footprints, out-of-this-world sunsets, the home town of Jose Marinho, Portuguese battleships, and a Dave – roadside umbrella incident. None of that means much when you’ve got a dose of Delhi belly.

Granted, it’s only mild, but I’m fortunate never to be more than 5m from our own toilet. I found myself afflicted yesterday morning, no idea what caused it. Ju’s been to the tearooms today next to where we’re parked and bought two doses (portions) of batadas (chips). I’ve eaten half of them with no ill effects so I must be cured. Back to today’s events:

We went in hunt of the Dino footprints. No joy. Not helped by the supposed trails being directly up the cliffs we were stood atop, or up those in the distance. We were awestruck anyway, even Dave’s not 145 million years old.

Heading off, we drove to Sesimbra, passing pine forests, vines and olive groves. Upon arriving, Sesimbra taught me a valuable lesson: the Portuguese don’t pay for parking unless they have to. Driving past a small patch of dirt which passes for pay and display here, looking for free parking, I instead found motorhome hell. Narrow cobbled streets, locals seemingly unaware of their own mortality, and umbrellas scraping down the side of Dave.

Shaken, but not stirred, we reprogrammed the sat nav and headed for Setubal. Another 40 mins of twisty hill roads later and we’re parked at a beach looking out over the Atlantic. It’s calm for the first time in about 2000 miles.

We can’t actually see Setubal from here (Mr Jose Marinho was born and started his career there) but we can see the high rise blocks on the peninsula opposite the town. Wikipedia claims these are hotels built and then abandoned when it became clear the ground was moving (really, on a huge sandbank?). We can see some lights on, so are not convinced.

The sunset was stunning. So Ju tells me, I was asleep. I did wake to see this battleship pootle past though. Has anyone done anything to upset Portugal?

Tomorrow: not yet planned but Evora’s in our sights.

Cheers, Jay