Yesterday we welcomed Charlotte and Jo off the plane at Porto airport who have come to stay with us for 3 nights. Me and Sarah had located us a very nice campsite to stay on for their duration so once we had picked them up we returned to base camp to decide on how best to spend our days. So, the girls formed a stringent specification for their holiday which obviously revolved the 3 essentials of: sunbathing, shopping and sightseeing! Oh joy!

We spent yesterday morning until the late afternoon sunbathing... obviulsy not being able to sit in the same place for more than ten minutes gives me some issues with this 'sport' and so to amuse myself i enjoyed such activities as hole digging, rock hopping and new favourite past time of trying to bury a beautified, beach ready Sarah.

As you may well have guessed by the title i am currently on the verge of going slighty crazy, to date i haven't got wet in 6.5 days and due to the swell pattern in the atlantic sending waves in every other direction other than portugal it is looking like i will be staying dry for a few more days yet.

So after the girls had suitably reddened themselves it was off for an afternoon in Porto, i had heard good things about Porto, amoungst other things i was lead to believe this was the hallowed home of Port drinking..... i wasn't let down!

Reaching Porto by metro was a reasonably stress free operation and the initial glimpses of Porto were fantastic..... until i was foolishly distracted and led up an alleyway by the sisters which clearly wasn't a well trodden tourist path! After close shaves with some unruly locals in an area to which i likened to what i would imagine 'the bronx' to be like we escaped into the real Porto.

Obvioulsy it was this stressfull situation coupled with the lack of water based activities which lead me to a new liquid based activity.... Port drinking! To cut a long story short we ended up in a local Portugese port cave which happened to be fairly liberal to say the least with its free samples!! After a 'number' of samples i was fooled into buying the second most expensive bottle!!..... obviously it was the heat which affected my judgement!

Today we have spent the morning 60km north in Vianna De Costella which we decided that Jo and Charlotte had to see. We had a good time, the girls more so as there was lots of shops to amuse them, leaving me in my own world of pipe dreams and 'surfer magazine'.

The first van trauma occured this afternoon with a knocking noise from the back end, although after tightening the rear off side bearing, fingers crossed should have solved the problem and i am just hoping that the wing mirror i smashed the other day hasn't cursed poor isabelle! 4100 miles down i think about 2000 to go.

So as the girls sun themselves on the beach and i escape into my own dream land of waves and ideas i shall bid you all farewell!

Lots of love to everyone

A slightly loopy Zach
xxx