FARO and beyond

I had an an engine and a pleasant lady (who turned out to be my wife) for company on the flight, which courtesy of a tail wind (which earlier in the year would have filled my right hand companion with volcanic ash) whipped us in to Faro and extended our holiday by 20 minutes.
Percy
Is a Punto. He lacks the sophistication of Penelope our Sebring Cabriollo, but makes up for that with cost effective practicality. We spotted a couple of small scratches not noted on the documentation which the attendant obligingly ringed adding a number of spurious ones that gave a Dalmatian like appearance to his drawing. Fortunately Percy drinks diesel, so our unique exit from Faro is unlikely to have broken the bank. Percy drives well is air conditioned, and locks us in so that the nasty people racing alongside on motorbikes cant wrench the doors open and steal our expensive suits from Austin Reed(We had already covered this angle ourselves by leaving them in the car at Manchester)

Rocha Brava
Rocha Brava is a delightful development from the late 70s (I am guessing) only partly owned by Holiday Property Bond. The villas vary in size and amenity, but we have a bedroom and bathroom each (courtesy of our hard working children ) and the Television gives you as much Portugese practice as you are likely to need along with beamed in British programmes.
More crucially, 28 paces to the south is a private pool for the use of Bond holders only, which is a great start middle and end to any day. Temperatures here are currently around the 30 mark, with a bit of respite in the evening when the sun goes down (So probably not for Elton John). Janet is making ZZs after an unwelcome offer of a cup of tea when your blogger arose to take advantage of the cool of the day. (Not necessitated to counteract the friction generated heat of my typing)
I am no longer alone, and the ZZs have stopped as has the blog. Draw your own conclusions.
Silves
Yesterday we revisited a couple of old hunting grounds... Silves in the morning, where after a couple of false starts we parked Percy on the riverfront and walked in to town regenerating the local economy by purchasing two postcards and leaving the money even though the shop was like the Marie Celeste. The Portugese are so polite and helpful. They all seem to speak good English and are really courteous and helpful.
Following a nostalgic shopping trip to Lidl and a reminder about how daft we are to pay silly prices for bottled water in the UK where our tap water is quite potable, we tested Percys suspension with approx 30 litres (not counting the wine) and headed for

Casa Colhina
We stayed here courtesy of the Hill family (Hence Colinha) about 7 year ago. It is in the foothills and was set in a huge plot down a dirt road very much off the beaten track. The Villa had the potential to be gorgeous, but was desperate for a pool, and had needed a bit of finishing off.
Sadly apart from being fenced to mark the boundary little had been done, and the overgrown nature suggested a degree of neglect on the part of the new owners... Shame!!