Day 20 - Benagil Caves & MEGA Sand Incident!

Hey everyone

Man oh man, what a eventful day!!!

Yesterday, Diana and Dani came by around 10:30pm and we chatted for a while. It was a great evening, but this morning we could definitely feel that we stayed up late yesterday :)

We met again at Mom's hotel for breakfast and then went straight to the boat tour to the 'Benagil Caves'. The boat ride was really nice, we slowly cruised along the coast, passed by all the cliffs, and entered various caves. The formations and colors inside the caves were really impressive and it was great to see the rocks from the sea. The main cave was nice, but not as amazing as it was advertised. There were so many boats and tourists there that the 'wow factor' was quite limited :). After a good two hours, none of us was sad that the tour was over, it was getting colder with the wind and our bladders were slowly signaling... :)

Back on land, we sat in the camper, took a short break, and decided to continue driving to 'Vila Nova de Santo Andre'. The town was about two hours away towards Lisbon, and there was a zoo nearby that we considered as an option for tomorrow. Once we arrived there, we were absolutely famished and looking for a restaurant. It turned out to be more difficult than expected, as it's also Easter in Portugal... Finally, we found one - completely in the countryside and definitely not our first choice if there were others. The food couldn't be chosen, we had what was available: T-Bone steak, fries, and salad. But we were fine with anything and it tasted surprisingly delicious! We looked for a hotel for Mom and found one nearby. This hotel was the best so far! Very nicely decorated and the staff was really friendly. Mom was actually the only guest, as it's still not high season and there's really nothing around. At the reception, we found a flyer for a dolphin-watching tour, which we booked with great excitement. We sat on her balcony with a bottle of white wine from the region and watched the day come to an end.

Later, Kevin and I continued to a really dreamy spot for the night. On the way there, we drove through a forest and saw a little wild boar :) I wanted to take a photo and got out of the car, but when the wild boar ran into the bushes, I lost my courage and turned back.

Once we arrived at the spot, we had an incredible view of the sea! I asked Kevin to park the camper sideways so that we could enjoy the view from our table.

You won't believe what happened!!!!!

We wanted to correct our position a bit backwards, but the wheels were spinning in the sand. We moved a bit forward, tried again to go backwards, and got stuck again. We tried a few more times, but the camper didn't budge! On the contrary, it was digging itself deeper into the sand! When we took a closer look, we saw that it was already hanging on the frame..... We tried to dig out the wheel and drive out: wrong thought.... and again, it sank a bit deeper into the sand...!

After several attempts, we gave up, took a break, and called the insurance company. They didn't know if they could really help us and said they would call back - but they didn't.... We realized that we somehow had to get out of this situation ourselves... So, here we go: We lifted the vehicle with the jack as well as we could (we had to put stones underneath it so that it wouldn't sink too much into the sand) and dug a huge hole around the wheel. Kevin started digging while I watched out for the wild boar - guys, you wouldn't believe what darkness does to you when you know that such an animal is roaming around not far away....!

But it was too slow, and at some point, we didn't care anymore... It was cold, the sea breeze was very humid, and we were really, really tired. Later, we dug together and when the hole was deep enough, we lifted the stone together into the hole. But the hole wasn't deep enough yet.... We dug further and further until we could slide the big stone under the wheel. Then we built a path out of collected stones to the solid ground and secured everything by packing the sand tightly around it. Then came the moment of moments! We dismantled the jack, Kevin got into the vehicle, and I watched what the wheels were doing: Actually!!!! It moved!!!

We were sooooo happy that we hugged each other and started laughing heartily (by now it was 4 o'clock in the morning!). Now it was time to close the holes and wash off the sand from the camper (you don't want to know how our cuffs and brakes looked like!). After that, we parked in front of Mom's hotel and made ourselves a portion of pasta before we fell half-dead into bed.

Tomorrow, there were some more highlights and mishaps - stay tuned :D

See you then!