My friend was flying into Francisco Sá Carneiro Airport so I found a nice looking beach nearby to spend a few days and wait for him.

I found this spot looking out onto the beach.

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It was really quiet here, hardly anyone around at this time of year.

The beach wasn’t great for swimming as it had loads of rocks but when I had a walk down I saw they were covered in hundreds of mussels!

I was pretty excited about a potential seafood banquet so gathered a few to see what they were like. I left them soaking in seawater for a few hours so that they spat out any grit and sand.

I’d just bought all the ingredients to make moule mariniere when I noticed these ominous structures looming in the distance…

There was also a sewage processing plant further down the road and when I looked a bit more closely the water looked pretty foamy. Reluctantly I threw the mussels back and made a stew instead. The thought of having an upset stomach in the van gave me shivers!

The sun is really low in the sky at the time of year and the solar panels didn’t produce much power after 2pm but this beach was perfect to watch the sun set. It set right in front of the van, you’d probably pay a lot of money for a house with this view.