Ofir, Portugal 9/13

October 7, 2013

We wanted to explore a little further north of Porto. The first interesting beach we came to that evening was a small resort town called Ofir. The sun was setting over the ocean and we stopped in an empty parking lot near the “praia” (beach). Everything was fine until about 2AM when the parties began. Young people with blaring car stereos began filling the parking lot, some cruising around and around and around taking pictures of our truck. We later learned was the last weekend of summer vacations. They drank and laughed before heading to the nearby disco that we hadn’t noticed when we had arrived. By 3AM the noise was intolerable and we bolted out to find a quieter place.

In the morning, Manuel Silva, whom we had met the evening before had found us again and was waiting for us with pastries for our breakfast. He belonged to a 4×4/Land Rover Club called Landmania, (3,000 members), and he was so excited to see our truck that he posted a picture on facebook and invited all his friends to come over to meet us. He was further ecstatic about the fact that Gary had been on four Camel Trophies and even had a machete presented to him in Madagascar which said: “CONGRATULATIONS, YOU MADE IT”. After several tours of the truck with his local club buddies we moved to a parking area where we lined up all the vehicles for a group photo.

We were presented with a Landmania Trophy and a very nice Land Rover 60^th year commemorative tool knife. We had to sign the back of an original Camel Trophy plaque from the Zaire event while we presented them with a Turtle Expedition logo. After shaking hands for the fifth time we headed south again.