Camping Sera de Bica has turned out to be a great choice. Rural, big pitches, good facilities and an endless variety of walks in the surrounding hills. The fact that the weather has been fantastic (23ºC today) hasn’t harmed its appeal.

The prettiest walk is down to the nearby river, with its crystal clear water which must be great for swimming in the summer. Sarah has been lucky enough to see an otter in the river together with some kind of water snake, which made swim for it when Mabel disturbed it.

The bird life here is supposed to be good, according to the owner, but as usual the appearance of my birding lens has sent them all into hiding.

There are only 20 or so vans on site and, because the site is owned by a Dutch couple, most of them are from the Netherlands. I think many of them have been here for some weeks or even months and I can’t blame them. One couple we spoke to today, turned out to be South African who now live in Germany. They have been here several weeks and have just booked for two more months. They say they love the area because the sparsely populated rolling green hills, dotted with widely spaced cork oaks, reminds them of the South Africa Veldt, minus the lions and the black mambas!

Our walk this afternoon took us to the nearest village, about 1.5 miles away. It is tiny, with maybe 15 houses and it looks several decades behind the times. A few goats and sheep; chickens wandering loose; and a small building that was for manually washing clothes that was only built in 1966. How things have changed in Southern Europe.

We’ve booked for two more days and then we will decide whether we can tear ourselves away.

Note: An update on Melek. After kidding us all he was ill so he could get extra tit bits, he’s now back to his normal greedy self!