Day No. 56 - Of special birds - From Alcácer do Sal to Monte Branco

When we wake up at our campsite in Lisbon, the weather has deteriorated again. Somehow we have the feeling that every time we look at the weather report of our next destination, there is good weather. Then, as soon as we arrive, it has deteriorated nonetheless. Here, it seems completely irrelevant whether we are traveling a longer or a shorter distance. Somehow Peter does not seem to mean it particularly well with us.

We don't want to do Lisbon in the rain. So we set off in the direction of the Algarve. Our destination today is Camping Costa do Vizir, in Monte Branco. - But first we look for an optician to have my glasses repaired or to find appropriate contact lenses. The nearest opticians are located in a huge shopping center. But we fail already at the clearance height of the parking lot. - Then stop on the way, so we drive on the highway to the south. In the height of Alcácer do Sal we leave the highway. Quickly we find both a small supermarket and an optician.

In the end, however, I understand only Spanish, because the employee understands neither English, nor a Portuguese translation from Google Translator. However, since we park just at a beautiful bridge over the Sado, we decide spontaneously our noon breakfast. Then we google the next optician. This is in Grândola, about 20 km further away. Since the place lies on our route, we try our luck. Here, too, they can't help us with our glasses, but they can sell us some contact lenses. Thus, at least a partial goal is achieved.

In the last half hour, we drove through huge pine forests. At first we are surprised that the pine trees were partially peeled. A little further on, we see huge mountains of pine bark. At some point we realize that this is the basis for the good bark mulch that we used ourselves at home. The trees are even numbered. Pine bark seems to be a good business.

But we discover something else exciting along our route. Again and again we come across oversized nests, which have been erected in high-voltage pylons, on lanterns or on one or the other tree. Some of them are real works of art. Above all we ask ourselves the question, how it can be that these hang partly directly at the lines of high voltage pylons. But we have simply misinterpreted. I would have told a salesman at this point, interpretation is the death of the salesman. The nests are not only of large birds. True, there are plenty of stork nests as well. But they are not built only by large-volume plumage. - Some of the builders are also small birds. Thus, there is still enough space between the line and nest.

Shortly before 18:00 we arrive at our campsite in Monte Branco. The campground seems a bit conservative, but the washrooms are spacious and clean. Today we vary our menu - no, there is not spaghetti instead of macaroni, but herring dip and jacket potatoes. Almost like at the North Sea. - The camping site seems to be extremely quiet, so we sleep also blessed, until about 5:00 o'clock. There the cock wakes the dogs and together they tune their song.