Beach hopping up the Atlantic coast

We are now slowly traveling up the Atlantic coast and constantly find great places to stay near the sea - it feels easier further north because there are fewer prohibition signs.

We take great coastal hikes in pleasant temperatures because it is possible to hike the entire coastline here.

We received a tip for a mega pitch in the dunes and drive there - there are 3 campers on a small parking lot in front, which we first join and walk the 600m sandy path to the dream beach - also to check the accessibility for us.

The track is often soft sandy and sometimes really steep with a few deep potholes .... but - you can imagine it - according to Basti's assessment, it's doable for us 🤩.

Of course, at first, I'm worried that we shouldn't be standing here and the GNR is coming to us 🙈, but then we hear tires spinning and can see a van that has gotten stuck in the sand.

Mia and I 'hike' up the mountain to a young Dutch couple who got stuck in the sand with their rented Ducato van without all-wheel drive in semi-darkness and are now stuck up to the wheel hub.

They don't have sand plates or a shovel with them and are currently digging out a wheel with the small plastic shovel of a hand brush 🙈.

We offer our help with sand plates and a shovel and they are very relieved and feel pretty stupid for driving so far ... especially since this mistake will have severe consequences ...

It's almost dark around 9:00 p.m. when we all start digging with a shovel, sand plates, and headlamps for about an hour trying to free the car, but the car is sitting on the axle hub and it's not moving.

Since it's really late and pitch black by now and Mia also needs to sleep, we decide to try to pull them out with our recovery strap the next morning (it hasn't been used yet 🤣).

We start early the next morning because the couple has their return flight from Lisbon in the evening.

Since the van sits on very hard sand in the back, we can't attach the rope anywhere and we're worried that the bumper won't hold up, so Basti will try to pull forward. (The fact that the Amarok masters the sandy path uphill gives us confidence).

First, Ruben tries to drive the car forward minimally, but the engine is dead ... shit!

They seem to have had several problems with the rental motorhome; they are the first renters and many things have not been thought through, and it is not the first time that the car doesn't start ...

So first give a jump start so that Basti has to get very close to them in the muddy sand ... but unfortunately nothing happens, the car remains dead, which makes it impossible to pull it out.

In the meantime, Ruben keeps calling the rental company, but they insist that the battery is new and there is no electrical problem ... not very helpful. At some point, however, he realizes that there is nothing more we can do and organizes the fire department, which will cost €200.

Since we want to continue and can no longer help, we only exchange numbers because we want to know if everything really works out for them and if they catch their flight. Ruben tries to start the car one last time, but unfortunately, nothing happens.

We take off, skip Lisbon, and drive to the small neighboring town/suburb of Cascais - a beautiful upscale place where we can eat deliciously and stay overnight.

Basti goes kiting there in the famous Quincho, and Mia and I find wind-protected spots among the rocks, but going into the water is really too challenging with the waves.

At the beach, we then find out that Ruben's car suddenly started and the fire department also came afterwards ... a young and inexperienced driver also got stuck and another car had to come 🙈.

The driver was able to free both cars fairly quickly, and then they went on the highway towards Lisbon ... where the Ducato's engine stuttered on the uphill and died again 😱.

The passing police didn't help them, but after a lot of discussion, they waived a fine because Ruben couldn't find the warning triangle ... they missed their flight and had to rent an Airbnb and fly the next day.... total shit and in terms of helpfulness, we are probably the only ones who earned karma points with this action (we dare to claim that the two of them would have caught their flight in Morocco).

On the 2nd day in Quincho, Basti crashes while jumping, the kite lands hard on the water, has a crack in it, and he can no longer start it in the water and has to swim ashore through the rocks - Mia and I only notice by chance that he lands in our bay 🙈.

Basti probably has a bruised rib, but the most important thing - he has a repair kit for the kite and repairs it a few days later 😜.

We stay overnight with some campers right on the beach and continue the next day to Santa Cruz, stay there at a great beach, and watch the squid anglers who go hunting here in large numbers during low tide.

After that, we head towards Nazaré, which is said to be very touristy but we still want to see it.

There is really a lot of hustle and bustle, but Basti eats delicious squid and Mia and I try unsuccessfully to spontaneously find a hairdresser because we all three (actually) need a haircut 😘.

In Nazaré, we also drive to the famous cliffs and visit the lighthouse, where there is an interesting exhibition on big wave surfing that Mia is really excited about.

Then we drive to a nearby great overnight spot on the beach to collect more karma points ...

We stand in the dunes overlooking the sea and are having dinner when a Spanish T5 drives into a sandy spot next to us ... because of its tires, we briefly assume that it has all-wheel drive, but ... far from it.

The young driver digs in with his front-wheel drive and digs deeper and then - as a crowning achievement - takes out a pink mini hand brush shovel.

Several campers come and stand around clueless before Basti goes over and offers to pull him out tomorrow because a) the bus is currently parked for sleeping and b) it's getting late and we want to put Mia to bed.

His English skills are pretty poor, but he understands that and everyone leaves with this good plan.

Then - in my evil interpretation - male pride comes into play and he spends hours trying to free his car with the pink hand brush, digging in on the wrong side and then having to give up and go to sleep with a really bad imbalance 🙈🤪 ... speechless.

The next morning he starts wild experiments with letting out air etc., which we watch over coffee before I can't stand it anymore and ask him if he's in such a hurry because we're going to pull him out ... he's not and even wants to spend the day there, but his off-road ego seems very dented 😜.

We get everything ready to pull him out and finally the recovery strap is put to use 🥳.

Basti explains to him how to proceed now and although he sometimes does exactly the wrong things (braking and turning the wheels sideways 🙈), the Amarok plows him out of the sand .... now we have used everything except for our lifting cushion and fulfilled the stereotype of German thoroughness and material obsession 😎.

After a day at the beach, we continue to the north - the next day we want to visit Porto and therefore stay 40 minutes away at another beautiful beach spot.

The weather is perfect for a city tour because it's cloudy and we find a fairly central and safe parking lot (which is not easy here because many are very small and cars are often broken into), which can be easily extended via an app ... really well done.

We really like the city, we eat delicious food, do a little shopping, try again unsuccessfully to get a haircut, and drive on in the evening to a spot below Viana do Castelo where Basti was already at a young age (actually recently) 😘.

In the meantime, here in Portugal, we have replaced our worn-down front tires with 3 of Basti's desired tires (because of the semi-intact spare wheel) and experienced a cheaper price and a super professional service - we had tried to arrange that in Spain, but the Spaniards seem to be less business-minded and often didn't respond to our inquiries ... we definitely drive more relaxed at high speeds on the highways because we had some concerns about that.

Now we are leaving Portugal again and heading to northern Spain ... but we will definitely come back because we liked it very much.