Peniche

Mileage: 161507

We said goodbye to Nazaré very early today. Our next destination was an area where we had spent a very nice vacation in 2023 and where we had first come into contact with surfing. It was also there that we had discussed the idea for the current tour for the first time.

We headed towards Peniche/Baleal/Ferrel. On the way, Ines found a supermarket that had a disposal station for RVs and also offered the service of refilling water after a purchase of at least forty euros. We didn't let this opportunity pass us by.

At a nearby wash station, Gary needed to be cleaned once again; we hadn't done that since our departure, and the dirt was beginning to set into the paint. Of course, there was no car wash, so the car had to be very carefully cleaned by hand in a self-wash box with a brush and high-pressure lance. Since only one of the available boxes was designed for a height of 2.8 meters and was naturally occupied, we lined up. The driver of the van in front of us was cleaning his car with great diligence, and when he parked again inside the box to get better access to the side of the vehicle, he apologized with a hand gesture. We gestured back that he shouldn't stress, and when we discovered a 'Hakuna Matata' sticker on the back of the vehicle, we promptly sang the song from Disney's 'The Lion King' to pass the time. Apparently, the guy in the wash box had heard us, because when he finished and drove his car out of the box so we could wash Gary, he came back, gifted us a shell, and wished us all the best with the shell and always 'good vibes'. We were once again nearly speechless and incredibly happy about the wonderful people in this world. Then Gary was cleaned.

We reached our chosen spot in the early afternoon. Unfortunately, there was a sign at the parking lot on top of the cliffs that we would read more often today.

[No Parking for Campers and Similar Vehicles]

Were fully equipped campers really the problem? The ones with toilets and showers, with trash cans and waste tanks? Wasn't it much more the vans, the converted transporters, that were the issue, as they often came without any disposal options, leaving travelers no choice but to relieve themselves in the bushes?

We were quite disappointed.

Thus, the situation along the coastal strip had been severely restricted for campers. Ferrel and Baleal had no reasonable parking spots, and only in Peniche did the municipality install an official parking spot for campers. However, that was free of charge.

So we parked significantly farther away from the sea than we had hoped. On the bright side, we were on the safe side and would not be woken up at night by the authorities and asked to leave.

After a short break, we took a walk around the area. We had identified a restaurant where we reserved a table for tomorrow evening. On our last visit, the 'Peniche Can Store' had just been about to open, and today we finally got the chance to buy as many different canned fish as we wanted. We stocked up generously, taking a selection of each of the promising varieties. They were producing for the international market all over Europe.

In the evening, we returned to Gary, made our dinner, and relaxed until it was time for bed.