Fatima to Bensafrim

We went to Fatima-Another Pilgrimage site of apparitions of Mary and Flashes of great light. It was raining and there were no signs explaining what happened there. There was a (1940’s) Basilica which had two of the graves of the shepherd children that went back to see Mary in a tree every month, it wasn't as big or as old as ones in Rome. The was a part of the Berlin wall because they believed Pope John had done something to help remove it. There was a huge concrete space for the huge audiences that are there at the times of the apparitions every year. At the other end of the sanctuary was a huge round modren Basilica that was more like a cinema that what you’d think a ‘normal’ church is. There were more ‘chapels’ underground that were more like conference rooms. We spent most of our time playing with melted candles before they melted into a fiery pit below and lit a candle for Oma.
We drove to a Dam and arrived in the dark. We spent the morning talking to friendly German campers that had set up a little ‘wild camping’ community. We went walking around the lake which was quite low but the level rose dramatically from all the rain. We discovered that we were surrounded by cork-oak trees which dad had been looking for in Italy. One of our ’neighbours’ brought round a Petanque set and we played it in the rain all afternoon. We also wrapped some of our presents. We stayed another night at the Altar de Pego Dam. We past lots of Storks with big nests on top power poles while leaving the dam. The scenery changed from cork oaks to sand and pine trees and green farmland like NZ but without the fencing. All the houses are white-wash with orange tile roofs and blue borders around the doors and windows. We had lunch by an estuary and there was an old couple in a blue rowboat fishing. There were palm trees and white, orange, blue houses. We wanted to stay there but moved on to some rocky cliffs out on a small point. There was a spring coming out of the cliff and it was some of the nicest water we’ve had in Portugal and we’ve had some bad tasting water. We had an older dutch couple now living in Portugal for fresher air and an English musician called Steve as our neighbours.
We played in the sand, it was too cold to swim. Mum and Dad talked to Steve who had an armoured camper with cameras on every side and it’s the same length as ours but only for one person.
Lots of locals came to get water. We drove past some orange trees and soggy paddocks. We stayed at another ‘wild camping’, ‘snowbird’ place full of English campers and homemade ‘Gypsie’ trucks. Everyone was very friendly and interesting people to talk to. The coastline in southern Portugal is small cliffs so the only beaches are where small rivers meet the sea but usually if you get on the wrong side of the river you can’t get onto the beach. We were on the wrong side of the river and it was swelled and brown because of the rain so we couldn’t cross even at low tide. We still managed to play in sand and look in some rock pools. We met a couple that had really travelled the world- Dot and Jim. They were a 70+ from England and rode motorcycles and did competitions and rallies all over the world. They had travelled to NZ a lot and it would have been nice to stay another night some we could talk all night.
We drove past Ajezur-the town nearest to where we are going to Christmas with Sharon. We had lunch under a huge wind turbine. We drove to the town of Bensafrim then turned down a smaller road then parked at the start of a dirt road that we were afraid of driving down.