Saba sa balod sa Portugal: Nazaré

From "Porto" we continued to "Praia de Mira", with a short stop at a campsite, which was only open on weekends due to Corona restrictions (which we did not know beforehand), so we could only use it for one night. Only about 16 km away, after being regretfully turned away from a second place that was only open on weekends, we found a municipal campsite where we could stay until 31.10.2020, until it also closed early due to Corona, although it is actually a year-round open campsite, like the ones mentioned above.

Too bad, because we really liked the campsite with a view of a large dune, close to the beach and the town (with good Wi-Fi)! Due to the reduced selection of campsites, we have to get used to staying in one place for longer, and we felt so comfortable there that we would have liked to do so.

In addition, we are concerned that after Germany, Italy, France and others, Spain will also go into lockdown, which would mean that we probably won't be able to find a campsite there (due to a ban on accommodation, as in Germany) or there will be curfews, so we would be stuck in or around the motorhome. One more reason to stay in Portugal for as long as possible and even sadder that we had to move on, because we still have a few months ahead of us.

Based on campsites open on weekdays, we are currently on the outskirts of "Nazaré". We don't really like this campsite, but we are glad to have found one at all (another one in "Nazaré" is also only open on weekends).

As we found out a few days ago in the press/TV, the waves and surfing are the city's main attraction thanks to the "Canhão da Nazaré" (Cannon), a geomorphological underwater phenomenon that can create giant and perfect waves. It is the largest underwater canyon in Europe, stretching 170 kilometers along the coast and reaching a depth of 5000 meters. Surfer Garrett McNamara from Hawaii made the phenomenon known worldwide when he made the largest wave in the world, about 30 meters high, on sandy ground at the northern beach in 2011. He won the Billabong XXL Global BigWave Awards and set a record in the Guinness Book. The current record may have been broken a few days ago, as seen or read in the media.

The day before yesterday we explored the northern region/coast of "Nazaré" with the Smart car, but unfortunately we could not admire any big waves.

However, we can generally see and hear great waves, even in "Praia de Mira". Especially at the last campsite, which was very close to the beach, but even here, where we are still quite far from the beach, we can hear the sound of waves or the noise of a strong surf when we fall asleep.

The city of "Nazaré" itself has a long promenade with a large beach, shops, bars and restaurants, but it is otherwise not particularly interesting (as far as we could see). The architecture is naturally beautiful, as the north city is located on a hill, which is connected by a train that goes up and down the hill.

Yesterday it was very rainy and hazy, so we had to cancel our excursion to explore the southern region/coast of "Nazaré", but we made up for it today. Since yesterday evening we have had extremely strong winds, which have remained today, although the sun is shining, so we had a much better view today. However, at some places we were literally blown away by the wind, which is quite chilly. I could hardly hold my cellphone at times to take photos. But in order to share our journey with you, I have diligently taken photos anyway.

Unfortunately, you cannot insert videos at Vakantio, and the great waves do not come across as well in the photos. Therefore, I will attach a few series of wave photos for you, which you can look at like a flipbook, if you feel like it.

Since we don't like the location of the current campsite and it is very noisy due to nearby main roads and continuous barking of dogs, we will move on tomorrow. Destination: "Peniche", because according to our email inquiry (thanks to Google Translate into Portuguese) there should be a campsite that is open. The only restriction is that the number of pitches has been drastically reduced, so let's keep our fingers crossed.

If you have already been following our journey on Polarstepps (which we feed with information + pictures every day), you will not learn much new from this blog post, as it is a summary of the last few days and you will already be familiar with the photos. However, I cannot assess how many of you use one or the other or both, so I will continue to occasionally post update summaries on Vakantio.

As always, we thank you for your interest and send you all warm greetings 🤗