See-hopping and breakdown

We spent the longest time of the past weeks at two different lakes in southeast Portugal. We had super nice weather, up to 20°, and got well tanned! Since the whole driving from place to place can be really exhausting, this time we equipped ourselves with food and drinking water as much as possible, so we could stay in one place as long as possible. So we mostly stayed three nights in a beautiful secluded spot by the lake. After that, we had to go shopping and find another spot by the lake. Since we made a fire every day, after a few days all the dry wood in the surrounding area was used up, so another spot was needed anyway. It's something to prepare the morning coffee on the embers of the previous evening's fire and wash oneself in the lake :-) The dogs also enjoyed the deserted waters.

When we made a detour for one night northwards to Mértola, our first "breakdown" happened the next morning. When reversing out of an exit that turned out to be a dead end, Sebastian overlooked a step and the two rear tires were hanging in the air and we couldn't move forward or backward. I started to panic slowly and already saw us living the rest of our lives in the driveway, when after several unsuccessful attempts to free ourselves, a car drove by and the driver offered to call the fire brigade. After a while, instead of the fire brigade, a police car with two policemen arrived, who also seemed a bit puzzled at first, but then, like us, started searching for some stones and odds and ends and stuffed them under the tires. With additional manpower, we finally managed to free our Buddha Bus unharmed and a weight was lifted off our shoulders. In shock, we fled back to a beautiful secluded spot by the lake to recover from the excitement. A few days ago, it unfortunately was said that it would rain all next week in Portugal and Spain. So we started looking for a Workaway job again to have a proper roof over our heads. After a long and unsuccessful search (most seem to be a little deterred by two dogs in tow), we finally found our new hosts near Barcelona, which finally forces us in a new direction. After all, we have already explored southern Portugal and southern Spain and want to move on again. So we hit the road right away and have been driving northeast for a few days now. We even made a stopover in Madrid, but it's not really fun to visit a big city in constant rain. So we limited our stay to a few errands and will arrive at our new home for about two weeks tomorrow. We are excited and will of course report back :)