I’d slept through it all but Kez informed me that it had rained very hard during the night. This was born out by the half filled mug that we’d left empty outside, and the sandy dirt that had been bounced halfway up the tent by the angry rain. Passing showers and the lumpy sky made us dawdle around, wondering whether to risk a shortish run or just to stay put today. Lunch time came with no real break in the weather so we paid another ten euros and settled in for another night. We felt a bit gloomy about it, partly because it felt like a wasted day, and partly because our sleeping mats were both failing. Kez’s with a slow leak and mine was delaminating in the center, making it extremely uncomfortable. I’d cycled through town to a big superstore and a sports shop to try and buy new ones but hadn’t found any and now, having paid for another night, the rain stopped and the sun finally emerged. We walked into the town, and out of boredom bought a couple of cheap beers, some disgusting chocolate covered waffle things and some fizzy pop and sat grumpily on a bench by the river. After a while it occured to me that we were homeless, sitting under the bridge of a boring town and drinking nasty cheap lager in our dirty sandals. Oh lordy, what have we become?
The day got worse when we got caught by a heavy shower and were completely drenched by the time we made it back to the tent. We threw our wet clothes in the porch and zipped in for a siesta. Apparently I slept through some more heavy rain while entertaining Kez with my ensemble of snores and awoke to the sound of an English couple pitching a tent next to ours. Real traveller types it turned out as I chatted to him. They had a small Daihatsu van with a moped wedged in the back between the rest of their belongings, a wonky looking tent and a table and deck chairs they’d won from a skip in Portugal. He’d spent a lot of his years doing seasonal work on the vineyards and certainy seemed to know a lot about the vines, and claimed that if you worked hard it could keep you in beer through the winter. They kindly gave us a campsite guide to Portugal when I mentioned our Southward plans, which will be helpful if we get that far.
Nice chipolatas from Confolens, where we had stayed some weeks ago, with onions and salad for dinner cheered us up a little. Hopefully tomorrow will be better.