We are still on the river Guadiana spending time between Ayamonte and Alcoutim as Mike managed to get hold of a sheet of plywood to do his jobs.

The weather has been changeable with quite heavy rain at times and strong winds, interspersed with some pleasant, quite warm days.

We were firstly in Ayamonte for the annual Carnival and had a great time watching the fancy dress and marching bands and floats. The carnival goes on for days and consists of street parades for costumed adults and children and competitions in the local theatre for local folk bands, again all dressed up in costume. The final days and nights were noisy and hectic and no one  got much sleep! The Carnival in nearby Cadiz is famous as THE one to see but we thought our little town put on a really good show.

In Vila Real again we met up with Carol from Sunderland who was on holiday in Tavira staying with her friend Liz and Portuguese husband Jorge. We partook of a couple of beers outside a bar in the square and enjoyed the sunshine. Shame she had to go back home to the cold North East!

Trevor and Carolyn from Balchis left after the Carnival, heading for Cadiz and Gibraltar. We may catch up with them before they turn into the Mediterranean. Hope so. They are great fun and it was a pleasure to meet them. We also said goodbye to ‘bestest’ mates Phil and Paul from Sea Spirit but hope to meet up just once more before they turn into the Med too.

Back in Alcoutim for the second half of the month and Mike has been busy with his various construction jobs which he reports on his page.

We did take a couple of days off and sailed 6 miles upriver to the mouth of the Rio Vascao, where we anchored for a couple of nights. This little river is absolutely beautiful, especially at this time of the year when the wild flowers are just coming into bloom. There are terrapins living there and we were lucky enough to creep up on quite a few and got a good photo of one in particular, who stayed still on his log until we were really quite close.

Mike also took the opportunity to loose off some arrows with his American flatbow (type of longbow), and Pat even tried as well - not too badly as it turned out - not too many going miles astray!

While Mike has been doing some of the construction Pat has taken the opportunity to have a couple of walks in the area with some Brits who are long term residents on the river. Peter has his car here so it was nice to get away from the water and see some of the surrounding area. There are several sign posted walks in the area, all just about 12 kilometres long, although, strangely, you can only get the leaflets from the library in Alcoutim, not the tourist office!

Well, yesterday (28th) was Pat’s birthday, 61 years young. Mike treated her to a steak lunch with some new friends Titch and Stella from MV Karina, and life is good. We will be leaving the Guadiana in the next couple of weeks, weather permitting, and follow Balchis along the coast. Our plan for this year (very loosely) is to get to Gibraltar then to cross the straits to Tetuan in Morocco, follow the Moroccan coast almost to Casablanca, then cross to Madeira, down to the Canaries, back to Africa to Senegal and the Gambia, then across to the Cape Verde Islands for Christmas. We will then cross the Atlantic to Brazil in the new year.

We still have to get the masts out to repaint them, also the boat out of the water for antifouling, but may leave that until Morocco. In the meanwhile, look at our photos below, the carnival was especially colourful.

See you next month.

Pat & Mike.