# Tag 46 Der Rudi Schuricke - Day

Short summary of Vila Nova de Milfontes - the place is one of the bigger ones for this area. It has everything you need. The low-rise buildings are very pleasant. There are no hotel complexes or Bedouin camps. But there are two large camping sites. The coast is amazing, and the river mouth gives the place a special touch.

It makes a very tidy impression, and you can let your soul dangle here.

Only the Camping Milfontes is already getting old. Because Easter is coming up, we want to treat ourselves and drive just 25 km further to the town of Porto Covo - it sounds a bit like Porto Cervo in Sardinia, the place of the rich and beautiful with their yachts lined up in the harbor.

Porto Covo has nothing like that - not even a harbor for sailing yachts, only fishing boats.

It is a small fishing village that has opened up to tourism. However, there are also no concrete blocks or large residential areas here, but great value is placed on small villas and apartment complexes. The new housing developments were only recently built and suggest that mass tourism will not prevail here. The overall picture is right and promotes well-being.

We head for the Costa do Vizir campsite, which has received excellent reviews - excellent sanitary facilities, friendly staff, cleanliness, good and large pitches. A tour of the campsite confirms this impression. Parcel B 26 for 22.50 € per night will be ours for the next 3 days until Easter Saturday with the option of an extension. Weather Online promises fantastic weather for the next days. So we can just relax. And if the sun is still shining after 3 days, so what - we'll just stay longer. The idleness is slowly creeping in.

When we arrive, the campsite is quite empty and we can choose the supposedly best spot from the many free ones. A German group is also quickly found - as soon as we enter, we are greeted by an older couple because of our license plate from Cloppenburg....

The first action is to unload the bikes and we take a tour of the town to explore. Quickly we realize that this place is like our last stop Vila Nova de Milfontes, just smaller. Low-rise buildings, a small town center with a pedestrian zone, a very clean promenade with viewing platforms - but no beach bars. Our attempts on the 2nd day to have a beer in town were doomed to fail. The ice cream parlor only had ice cream, in the neighboring pub we could have gotten beer in paper cups, and the restaurants in the pedestrian zone were just closing (in the afternoon at 4 pm?) - don't they want to make money?

So we went to the supermarket (one of 3 in town, but one smaller than the other) and bought two cans of beer - there are picnic tables at the beach platform!

The coastal landscape is characterized by lots of small bays, framed by rugged cliffs. One bay follows another, so that everyone can have their own bay during the current tourist lull.

The hinterland is flat, with hilly landscapes further away. This coastal strip is best described as a dune landscape with a flat hinterland.

In sight is the port city of SINES, a major center of the region. Here is an important deep-water port, which is especially important for the handling of oil and gas. The Sines Refinery, which is the heart of fuel production and storage in southern Portugal, is located in the surrounding area. This can also be seen from the coastline near Porto Covo, the port facilities and the ships at anchor cannot be overlooked.

But we are not deterred by that, we explore the many bays on foot and are not disappointed. There are small bays, large bays, bays for nudists, bays with big waves, bays with daring stair descents, etc.

With a little patience, you can also walk from bay to bay across the exposed beach at low tide (at least according to the descriptions of our neighbors from Lüneburg).

And then comes the evening - sunset atmosphere.

This is an absolute highlight for everyone - the camping community rushes down to the sea around 8:00 pm, and we follow suit. In our luggage, a drink, two glasses, and the camera.

You can watch the sun sink into the sea. And somehow it reminds me of the old song about the sun sinking into the sea at Capri... Now at least the older ones among you understand why I chose this title.

For the younger ones: Capri Fischer Rudi Schuricke - YouTube

But instead of fishing boats, only container ships and tankers were anchored.

With the sun, it suddenly goes very quickly and it gets cold.

We don't currently feel a great desire for culture and sightseeing. The weather is so nice that we take it into account and surrender to the day. You can also feel on Thursday that Easter is just around the corner. The campsite is filling up, the Portuguese come with their children and everything. Nothing is left of the emptiness of the first few days. We get neighbors with children, dogs, and helpless parents. I see them later at the camping site's barbecue areas, which are available in several places. There are picnic tables and fixed barbecue areas for everyone, where young fathers struggle to get a fire going and blow their souls out of their throats.

We do all this at the campsite with our Lotus Grill, which has a built-in fan and saves our lungs.

Experience is a valuable asset.

I think we'll stay one more day...