Author - Dan

Born and raised in Nottingham, I've lived in Brighton for the past 11 years with Lorraine. I studied Architecture @ Brighton Uni, worked in an Architects Practice for 5 years before moving into Development for a Housing Association.

In 2017 we got our dog, Marley, and its been one of the best decisions we have ever made.

I'm into Bikes, Running, Music, Design, Architecture, Nature and of course Food.

Moho Life’s Not Always a Bed of Roses in Guimarães

July 30, 2018Dan4 min read

29/07/18 – 30/07/18 – Guimarães, Norte Region This was a strange one, having been on a high form Porto, we arrived in Guimarães late on Sunday afternoon at around 18:00. There were 2 overnight parking places on our apps so we headed to the first one only to find that the road at the bottom leading to it was closed. We circled around a few times to see if we could find another way in but sadly not. The second camping spot directed us the middle of a roundabout so I had the bright idea of trying the first stop again but by avoiding the closed road on the sat nav. It was a 5 km detour, but we thought what they heck, lets do it. It took us up some narrow steep hills and tried to direct us through some ridiculous streets – I was learning to trust my gut by now, and if I had a bad feeling about a turn-off, we avoided it. We eventually got to a wide road leading back down the hill. The streets quickly became narrow and VERY steep. It was a good job we were heading downwards as...

Porto – It Lives up to the Hype

July 29, 2018Dan6 min read2 comments

28/07/18 – 29/07/18 – Porto Of all the places we had heard about both prior to, and whilst travelling around, Porto figured highly in conversations and in recommendations of places to visit. we left Aveiro with high expectations….we wondered if it would live up to the hype. Both the journey to and arriving in Porto didn’t get off to a great start. We needed to find a place to empty the toilet and visited 2 campsites. We offered to pay to use their facilities, both declined and said we could only use it if we stayed the night…as they were way outside of the city and €25 each, we decided we would make do. On leaving the second campsite, they didn’t fully open the barrier and it caught the top of the Moho on the way out….D’oh – Hopefully it will polish out! Our spot for the night was a piece of abandoned land on Vila Nova de Gaia side of the river Douro. It was scruffy and smelt like piss, but it was free and there was space for us (A...

Colourful Costa Nova

July 27, 2018Dan3 min read

26/07/18 – 27/07/18 – Costa Nova We very nearly missed visiting Colourful Costa Nova, down to me getting our loosely planned itinerary the wrong way around. We were half way to Porto when Lorraine said, Aveiro, aren’t we supposed to be going there as we approached the exit on the main road. D’oh. Nothing that a quick fingering of the sat-nav wouldn’t solve! Before we knew it we were rerouted and beach bound for Costa Nova. Costa Nova was originally a small fishing village that has expanded into a local hotspot for visiting the beautiful white sandy beaches behind the windswept sand-dunes. Its perhaps most famous now for its colourful stripy buildings that originally took their inspiration from the fisherman’s shacks dotted around the town. We arrived late afternoon in time to get a nice space about 100m or so from the entrance to the beach in one direction and 200m to the town centre in the other. We had a stroll with Marley along the wooden boardwalk on the edge of the...

24 hours in Coimbra

July 27, 2018Dan3 min read

25/07/19 – 26/07/18 – Coimbra, Centro Region Once the medieval capital of Portugal, Coimbra is a well preserved historic town built on a steep hillside overlooking the Mondego river. However, with its bustling student population it’s not stuck in the past, and is supposedly one of Portugal’s most liberal and progressive cities.   Our camperstop for the night was on the west side of the river (GPS 40.2002041,-8.4292415,17.78), close to the boat club buildings and offered a safe and quiet spot to park the Moho. It was a busy little place and campervans of all shapes and sizes were tightly squeezed into spaces, allowing just about enough room to open your door. Having said that, once out of the Moho we were about 50 metres from the grassy riverside where there were a couple of cafe’s, cycle racks, children’s playgrounds and enough space for Marley to stretch his legs off the lead. There was also a pedestrian bridge wide enough to cycle across to...

The Worlds Largest Surfed Wave, Nazaré

July 20, 2018Dan5 min read

19/07/18 – 20/07/18 Nazaré We both remember watching the video on BBC Breakfast earlier in the year of some crazy surfer being towed on a jet-ski titled ‘The Worlds Largest Surfed Wave, Nazaré’ at over 30 Metres. See below (Obviously not our video..) Well, that amazing achievement was surfed in January 2018 and it’s now sunny July. I’m saddened to say that there were no giant waves to see…otherwise I would have hailed me a jet-ski and been out there like a shot! Seriously though, the sea was relatively calm compared to other places a just a few miles away. I guess it’s just not the giant waves season. As we arrived into the town (Coming from the South) we were greeted by a very busy carpark on the edge of the town that had no spaces big enough for us. We were both surprised by how scruffy the place looked, given what we had read. Lets stay in the Moho and drive through I said. It was very busy, we followed the line of traffic along the...

3 for the price of 1 – Sintra, Mafra & Praia Santa Rita in a day.

July 14, 2018Dan5 min read

14/07/18 – Sintra, Greater Lisbon We had been putting off going to Sintra for no real reason other than we were having a nice relaxing time at Guincho and perhaps the thought of a very touristy town didn’t really sit too well with us after relaxing for a few days. Still, after 3 days of not doing much, it was time to move on and brave the hoards. As we arrived it was nice to start to see some greenery again. It’s surprising how you get used to dry, sparse landscapes or coastal environments, but when you finally see grass and trees again, it reminds us of how much we miss it. It must remind us of England I guess. Sintra is a narrow, hilly town and I was getting that feeling again that perhaps being in the Moho wasn’t the best choice of vehicle to visit this place.  That said, we arrived Saturday morning and manged to arrive before 10:00 and bag a free parking space about 5 minutes outside the town. The big draw of Sintra are the many coloured villas and palaces...

Tarts and Tiles, Lisbon

July 11, 2018Dan9 min read

09/07/18 – 11/07/11 – Lisbon I was apprehensive about driving into Lisbon in the Moho given its size and the possibility that it could quickly go wrong as it’s a hilly city (still feeling scarred from Nerja) so when we arrived I was slightly tense. We had the address of the service centre (Dometic) for the fridge typed into the navigation and it took us to what looked like a small shop on the corner of a residential street. Surely this can’t be it we said to each other. Anyway, I pulled up on a narrow street taking up 3 parking spaces and went in to investigate. It was the right place but the old guy that worked there said no motorhomes. Thanks a lot Dometic I thought. I started to explain our problem in my best Spanish – he understood enough to make me a makeshift tool to clean out the flue. I then asked if the fumes were bad – I was able to understand that the day time is fine, but he then proceeded to do an impression of someone dying at night. Half of...

Walls, Bones and Water – Evora

July 9, 2018Dan3 min read

07/07/18 – 08/07/18 Evora, Alentejo Evora, this tiny city about an hour inland from Libson is definitely worth a detour for a day, if you are in that part of the country.  The entire historic centre is very well preserved behind the fortified wall, built by the Romans. We arrived in the stifling mid afternoon sun around 4pm and got parked up in a grotty carpark right under the aqueduct that stretches 9 km to the northwest. Enough time then for me to use the aluminium tape we bought at the DIY store and try and seal around the back of the fridge to stop any potentially deadly fumes coming in. About an half an hour later and I had taped all I could but still the smell of fumes in the Moho, so we headed out into town making sure the rooflights were fully open. There are only a few access points in and out of the historic centre for obvious reasons, but luckily for us, there was an entrance not too far away from where we had parked. Once through, apart from the cars and the modern...

The Castle on the Hill – Aljezur

July 6, 2018Dan3 min read

05/07/18 – 06/07/18 Aljezur, Alentejo Aljezur is one of those places that can be easily overlooked when planning an itinerary……read most published travel write-ups and they tend to cover the place in a couple of paragraphs. Like many places along Portugal’s West Coast in the Alentejo region, Aljezur has so far escaped the onset of big tourism and remains a place frequented by surfers and those wanting to get off the tourist trail of the Algarve less than an hours drive to the South. Our stay here was only brief but none-the-less memorable for it. Upon arrival we made a bee-line for Praia da Amoreira, approximately 7 kilometers from the town (the last 5 km along a Moho-shaking dirt track enough to give us both a headache by the time we arrived.) That said, being greeted by a wide stretch of sand with only a single restaurant and a lifeguard/surf shack on the beach the headaches soon shifted as we took it in turns to sunbathe whilst the other stayed with Marley...

Pretty, But Very Touristy – Lagos

July 4, 2018Dan3 min read

03/7/18 – 04/07/18 – Lagos, Algarve We had heard good things in chatting to various people about Lagos, so we arrived with relatively high expectations. Always looking for somewhere free or cheap to park up for the night, we found the football stadium via searchforsites for our overnight stop for €3 for the night plus €2 for water refill and €2 for use of the laundry facilities. The stadium is approximately a 10 minute bike ride from the old part of the town, so after the heat of the afternoon had subsided, we set off to check out the town at around 17:00. There are a few beaches in Lagos, small town beaches on the south side of the river, with a much larger beach on the marina side. We visited Praia Batata (Or at least looked down on it from the mirador above) and then after dinner when it was quiet enough to take Marley on the sand,  Praia São Roque. By this time however, the wind had really started to pick up, so we spent just enough time for Marley to tire himself out...

Instagram has returned empty data. Please authorize your Instagram account in the plugin settings .