Where does the time go?
Wow, time flies… back at the end of September I took on our first piece of work as InCahoots.Tech. This was to create a website for Hypnotherapist Mike Wilson, and was an opportunity for me to try out my Principles of design. It also gave me the chance to go for a jolly across the…
Keep readingIn Cahoots
Amazing things have been happening to me, in that doors have opened as my mind and soul have healed and rejuvenated, I didn’t realise how broken I was when I first left the UK after nearly 25 years working in Corporate IT. All my passion, motivation and enthusiasm had been slapped down so many times…
Keep readingFinding my way
The last month has been so busy. I have been finding my feet and working out what is possible in this new world of ours. Watching the events unfold in the UK is slightly surreal, from the Burgau bubble. Manhunha has moved onto to his new Swiss owners, Marlise and Anthony, a lovely Swiss couple.…
Keep readingThings I’ve learnt anew
Coming back to Burgau has given me the chance to assimilate further local knowledge. There is a lot of wildlife here – especially the small sort. Mosquitoes use me as a buffet bar and there is nothing worse than the sound of buzzzzzzz buzzzzzz in the middle of the night. I’ve now installed a mozzie…
Keep readingSettling in nicely
Here I am happily ensconced in Burgau, my home for the foreseeable future due to travel restrictions within Portugal. The GNR are hot on the case of Motorhome park-ups, having issed over 300 fines to campers parked near to beaches or within the National Park. This is the whole of the West coast from Sines…
Keep readingCareful what you wish for
I landed in Portugal as the sun was setting and I was greeted by the heat and my lovely taxi driver. We put the world to rights on the journey back to Burgau, both agreeing that the only way out of this mess is peaceful direct action revolution. Up the workers!!!!! It was dark when…
Keep readingHere I go again on my own
In my absence the world has turned upside down and inside out. My ferry was cancelled, Portugal / Spain borders closed and flights restricted. All my plans for the summer working at Festivals in the UK with MyCause and Oxfam cancelled. Being so far from family was challenging and so I caught the last flight…
Keep readingHouse-sitting in Burgau
Belated Happy New Year everyone! Well we have been busy – not. Winter descended upon us for one week before Christmas, with torrential rain and storms. Good job we were now established in our housesit. Using Workaway again we found a lovely lady named Jutta who was in need of someone to look after her…
Keep reading2020 new year or new vision
2020 what a wonderful year and number I thought, until my glasses gave up and the arm fell off – oops. No amount of gaffa tape would keep the broken arm on, so freestyling it is until I can sort a replacement. More 10:10 vision now than 20:20 New Year and new things to do,…
Keep readingOn a loop in Lagos
Stopping off a Lagos at our favourite stop – Bar Quim we pulled up for tea and cake. As we sat there there was a smell of petrol and testosterone as 12 Porches roared into the car park. The men (obviously) all got out, posed for pictures and kicked tyres (or willy waved at each…
Keep readingDown the side
Needing some fresh air we drove until we found a stop over near Zambujeira do Mer. We stayed in the area for over a week, breathing the smell of eucalyptus, pine and sea. There were hikers everywhere along the Pilgrim route which heads North towards Santiago de Compestela in Spain or down to Faro. Neither…
Keep readingMy mates on the hill
We stayed at Carvahal beach for 3 nights and saw the most unexpected of things and made new friends. Firstly on a walk we veered off the coast path to find Ostrichs, Llamas, Zebras, Bison and Deer all in the same enclosure, in what appeared to be a mini zoo. Every morning we were there,…
Keep readingJust call me Rachel!
On our last night at Carvahal beach, while Sharon was cooking up a storm in Gurty, a face poked round the corner. A guy asked if he could take a picture of my bike, because he loves Kona’s and knows the people in Canada who design them. What’s a girl to say, but of course.…
Keep readingOde de sexy – a town of two halves
Time for a few days on a campsite for our usual ablutions and top-ups. There was a site cat we affectionately named ‘Big Balls’ who worked the campsite looking for unsuspecting humans. He soon sussed out the only thing on offer from us was spicy veg and quickly moved onto the next bunch of suckers!…
Keep readingIn the Algarve darling.
The winds were picking up from the Atlantic, so we thought we’d go South side. On the way we thought it might be time for another Workaway experience. We connected with Andi who lived on Frog farm. He didn’t have any work for us, but said we were welcome to stay on his land -…
Keep readingLaid back in Lagos
This was the first time filling up LPG autogas, but with the help of a friendly Portuguese girl we managed to give Gurty with all she needed, we even worked out the correct regulator – bit scary but between the three of us we worked it out. Next stop Lidl and then beach! Looking for…
Keep readingA tale of three beaches
We first headed to Boco de Rio a windswept beach where we practised our hill climbing and bird watching skills. We had the most amazing views from Gurty of so many birds, most we didn’t have a clue what their official titles were so we made our own names up: Egrets – I have a…
Keep readingJust hanging around
Landing at Selema was wonderful. A beautiful town frequented by many expats, exercising their dogs on the beach and lunching by the harbour. We stopped for a fish and prawn lunch – mmm meat, and were soon surrounded by the town cats, who fled when the cafe owner produced a water pistol. The cats are…
Keep readingPortimaio pampering
After a 3 or 4 days we were perusing the local events calendar we found a ‘Happy Hour’ spa session for 10 euros at a 5* hotel in the upmarket seaside resort of Portimao. Giving each other a bit of a sniff over, we agreed a wash would be amazing, a thorough slough, even better,…
Keep readingBimbling around
In the last couple of weeks, we have become experts in doing nothing. Feeling at home around the Budens area we have been meandering back and forth between our favourite places: SalemaBoco de RioLagos Cabanas Velhas Our twitching abilities have reached new heights and Gurty is the perfect hide. We have amazing times watching all…
Keep readingThings I’ve learnt in Portugal (so far)
Be sure you understand how to use the Tumble driers at the local InterMarche or your slippers may come out smaller than when they went in. Accidentally programmed it for 80 mins – I think everything was a size smaller when it came out – apart from the queue of people waiting to use it…
Keep readingBack and forth
After the Christmas house-sit, it was time to return to the UK for catch up with family and friends and to get the latest on the ever expanding dinosaur situation. A whirlwind tour was undertaken whilst Gurty was left in capable hands at Faro Campervan Park. It was fab to catch up with everyone and…
Keep readingWelcome to Spain or is it Euskadi?
For the first time we took the Toll roads to get us passed the big cities of Biarritz (France) and San Sebastian (Spain). It was a challenge using the toll booths as I had to almost climb out of the window to reach the payment point whilst trying to work out where / how to…
Keep readingThe not so long but winding road.
All clean, tanks filled / emptied as appropriate and all electrical items charged to within an inch of their lives and we headed off down the coast. On paper it was a mere 11km drive to our next destination Lekeitio, it turned out it was a bum clenching hours drive, Gurty took all the hairpins…
Keep readingTo Guggenheim or not to Guggenheim
We headed off to Bilbao excited at the thought of some culture. Train arrived on time, was clean and new, a far cry from the cattle truck ride on First Worst from Bristle to Wessun. We splashed out and caught a taxi to the Guggenheim museum, excitedly chatting away to the taxi driver, who in…
Keep readingThe rain in Spain falls mainly on the plain
The weather was getting colder, and rain was setting in, it was time to follow the birds and head South. We checked all Gurty’s levels and gave her a good once over before heading over 800 kms across Spain. It took 3 days to cross the windy dusty plains feeling like we were on the…
Keep readingLet’s go to spain Spain
It was time to drag ourselves of of the Basque country to experience Spain as we know it. We left with a heavy heart, but so much richer for the experience. On the way out we stopped for our routine of clean and swill at Arteaga and found some amazing artwork and vegetables – and…
Keep readingBrittany delights
Straight off the ferry at 8am with no time for coffee and no plan we headed South. Heading away from the Port the only idea was to avoid anything that looked like a big city. I needed to get used to driving on the right (?!) side of the road. Gurty gurgled along, happy for…
Keep readingBimble to Savage Fun
Stopping at a local Boulangerie for the our daily pain au chocolat we picked up a leaflet, that had our name all over it… So we headed off in the direction of to Erdeven, obviously taking our time as we had just over 2 weeks to get there – no rush then. Following the coastline…
Keep readingTurn up the Gas
We drove into Portugal, checking the weather report and decided to start below Lisbon and bimble our way down. Being as we are now bimble experts, we picked up the map and picked Sines as our starting point. Imagine our horror when we turned a corner and saw the sight below – a full on…
Keep readingGreasy surfers and full moon stones magick
We stayed for a week at Erdoven which gave me a chance to try out the Velo Verde (cycleways) while waiting for the ‘fun’ to begin. One night we stayed at the Municipal Aire, which was on the sand dunes, the rest we parked up by the beach to watch the world go by Over…
Keep readingTime for a city break
After all our bimbling, we thought we should try for a mini city break and headed towards Pornic, via Billiers. Billiers was a lovely village on an estuary, where we parked up for one night due to no overnight parking allowed Arriving at Pornic, with the help of Park4night we stooped at a small plage…
Keep readingDreamy Dordogne
After an extended beach break, we decided to head off to the countryside and try our first Workaway experience. We contacted a few in the area and had a reply from the lovely Lucy, her daughter and their menagerie. Looking at the map I realised we were still over 350km away. so we took a…
Keep readingWhoop Whoop, this is the sound of the Police
After my self-induced chemical peel, I needed to visit the 10 euro Spa to sloth the last bit of my skin. I felt like a reptile shedding a complete skin. We decided to try a new park up on the edge of Portimao by Praia da Rocha and parked up the night before to be…
Keep readingAu revoir mon petit pois
Bidding a fond farewell to the Dordogne as stormy rainclouds were gathering, it was time to follow the sun back to the coast via a cute little village called Capiteaux for 2 nights RnR by the river. We pitched up at a free Aire by the river which was a local youth hangout – first…
Keep readingThings I learnt in France
We ended up staying nearly a month in France and I learnt the following: My school girl french is as bad a I thought it was, but people were patient and always had a smile when you tried to say something, even if it was nothing to do with what you meant to ask.Savage fun…
Keep readingFrom the beginning..
This adventure started in October 2018 when I bought a very special lady into my life. A beautiful 1989 Peugeot Hymermobil who told me her name is ‘Gurty’. This comes from a Bristolian expression ‘ Gurt Lush’ meaning brilliant / amazing! She is a Left Hand drive and was delivered to my door, leaving me…
Keep readingShip shape and Bristle fashion
The previous owners had taken great care of Gurty, having her front seats re-upholstered in Italian leather and new cream covers. For ‘pig-pen’ Clare this needed modifying to my colour schems and palette, that is colour – plenty of and clashing as much as possible. No square edges on me! Covers duly dyed to lime…
Keep readingSummer of Fun
Notice handed in at work, emptying of house and getting ready to head off to Glastonbury Fair. After 25 years in the Corporate world it was no wrench leaving, more fear and excitment at what lay ahead. One of the hardest parts was deciding what to pack in Gurty and what to leave behind. Which…
Keep readingHere we go.
After emotional farewells to friends and family and reassurances this WONT be the last time I see them, its time to head to Plymouth for overnight ferry to Roscoff. The sailing was smooth as the floor gently swayed in the night. A couple of GnT’s, to celebrate getting this far, ensured I fell asleep pretty…
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Wandering Wytch 