Capela dos Ossos em Igreja da São Francisco, Évora.
The next day we visited the 16th century Chapel of Bones, (Capela dos Ossos), in the Church of Saint Francis, (Igreja da São Francisco), in Évora, which is entirely decorated with human bones including whole skeletons. A rough translation of the side chapel's inscription reads, ¨We bones here lie, waiting for your bones¨. We spent the rest of the day walking around Évora looking at all the old buildings and the churches. We even did a bit of shopping, I bought some postcards and a bottle of vintage Port from 1986, which still remains unopened to this day.
Pizza place, Portuguese style.
The following day, after packing up the tents and checking out of the campsite, we again headed south, but 30 miles down the road the tyre went flat yet again! Stood at a petrol pump of all places, as I filled the tank with petrol, I watched the tyre go from OK to flat in the time it took to put the fuel in. Anyway it was decided that a new inner tube, (camara de ar), was in order, but as it was siesta time we went for a pizza in this cafe across the street. When we had finished eating it was still a couple of hours until things opened up after siesta, so I decided to strip the tyre once again and have another attempt at mending it. I found another hole which I patched, and once it was pumped up, we rode around the town until Paul found a motorcycle repair shop where I bought a new inner tube just in case.
The middle of the Algarve.
Seeing as we had eaten and had no flat tyres to contend with, we continued to head southward, stopping occasionally for fuel and an ice lolly. That evening we arrived at a place between Almodôvar and Faro which was just handy for having a rest and stretching our legs. It comprised of a stone floor, and four walls about a metre high, but no roof or any signs of ever having had a roof, so I can only surmise it was a viewing platform of some sort, although what you were intended to view was unclear, it was just scrubby bushes and rolling hills as far as the eye could see in every direction, but ideally placed for the obvious photo opportunity.
Later that same evening we arrived at Faro, stopping only for a quick beer before setting out to look for a campsite. Unfortunately the campsite at Faro was in the opposite direction to the way we were going and so we ended up in Tavira but the campsite there was not to our liking, it was far too crowded and there was nowhere to actually erect a tent. So being late in the evening, as well as being warm and dry, we decided to sleep on the beach for the night.
You know you're fairly well south when you can park under a palm tree.
The next day was an early start due to having no tents to pack away. Also we were parked in some access to the beach road where it was no parking between 8am and 8pm, Paul noticed two policemen eyeing up our bikes around 7:30 and so rather than risk a parking fine we decided to clear out before 8am and head back into Spain and go to Málaga.
We arrived in Málaga at 17:00 having had a quick tour of Seville on the way. The obligatory photo session followed by a cold beer over with, we proceeded to look for a campsite and booked into Camping El Pino which had started life as an avocado grove, and now doubled as a campsite with an advocado tree between each pitch.
We stayed there for two nights while we had a ride up and down the Costa del Sol looking for somewhere cheaper to stay, but as it was mid August, everywhere was really crowded, and equally as expensive as the place we were already at.