Getting into trouble with Google Maps navigation

 

When seeking a destination to drive to in Google Maps if you are lucky you find a pin and can access directions.

However the pin is sometimes in the middle of a place and you can drive around not finding the entrance even when close. I have also found it left me more than once at least 500 metres away from where I want to go telling me I have arrived.

A few weeks ago I was driving off the tarmac roads as in the Aljezur region there are many such dirt roads. There are no options. Since my Tom Tom gps died I have tried to rely on Google.

Returning from one place back the way I came I missed the route in forest area and realised I was going the wrong way. I stopped and put in Aljezur as a destination. Goggle took me deeper and deeper into the forest much of which is on steep hillsides. I was getting closer to my destination but having gone down two quite steep slopes I found the forest road blocked by some lengths of young trees. I could see the track ahead had not been used for some time and was overgrown. I have walked in similar places and know they can become dead ends.

I was able to turn the 6.3m vehicle and after about 200 metres attempted the first steep slope back. As I feared, the vehicle could not make it on the loose surface. I did not try much more as I could see that a wheel could just dig a hole for itself. It was one hour before sunset and the only consolation was that I had shelter and a cooker. I called the insurance rescue service and after a few discussions they told me a tow truck would come from Lagos. I had already said that it would need 4 x 4 to help me.

I tried to make a hot drink but the gas bottle was just empty and I could not access the locker to change the bottle as it was too close to the bank. The vehicle was also at a very uncomfortable angle.

Time passed and I had walked back to a junction of a few forest roads in the light of the full moon that night. I gave a pinned location to the rescue driver and he told me he was already close by in a small village but was told not to enter the forest with that vehicle. So why did they send him?

By midnight I could see that nothing would happen until Sunday morning. In the morning I was told that the insurance did not cover rescue because I was off tarmac roads. So Google had put me in a difficult and expensive situation.

I called my friend Pedro who also has a camper and he contacted someone from Odeceixe who had pulled him from sand near a beach one time.

Pedro organised for him to come to me but he also got lost in the forest as so many “roads” which Google try to send you on were not possible. Google tried to send me up really steep fire brakes in the forest which would be hard even to hike up.

Eventually we connected and came back to my vehicle. The  old Misubishi 4 x 4 pickup is equipped to tow. He placed the pickup ahead of my camper and connected his winch cable to the ring at the front, and took up the slack, stating to pull me forward with me giving gentle power to the wheels.

It was not too hard once we started to move to go slowly up the two slopes. At the top we stopped and did the necessary to pay . Being Sunday was an extra charge and I had to pay for an extra hour when he could not locate me because Google maps tried also to take him to so many dead ends and impossible places. I asked how to navigate out of the forest. He said to follow him.

It was not so easy knowing which way to go a couple of times, and once he told me to wait while he went ahead to check if it was possible to proceed.

One tree was partly blocking the forest road so he connected his winch to the tree to drag it clear. Together we manged to push the tree off the track.

Finally we reached a couple of houses and then tarmac roads again. I arrived “home” after 13.00 after a really unexpected overnight adventure.

 

SPRING IN THE ALGARVE

 

While large parts of Europe experience weather extremes, one day 22 degrees, next snow for example, in the normally sunny Algarve of Portugal we also have unsettled weather after a wet winter which filled the reservoirs.

Unsettled for us in April means daytime highs hovering around 20 degrees and nights around 15 if cloudy or less if clear, with occasional showers.

There is a profusion of flowers, insects are busy visiting them, and much birdsong. The young birds are out learning their skills as their parents move around at ground level to keep watch over them. Here we see blackbirds and sparrows doing this. We put a small container of water for them to drink and they use it as a bath too. One young blackbird sat motionless for many minutes in the water after taking the plunge.

We see hoopoe, azure-winged magpie, and dove as well as stork and egret. We hear the owl at night as well as the cicadas.

From the red cliffs through the pine woods we see below the long beach praia da Falesia, and in the distance Vilamoura. This week it hosts a major sailing event, European Championship, for the Finn Olympic class dinghies.

We are on a motorhome park, like a campsite with less facilities, and really out of the matrix here. In five minutes we can walk to the top of the cliffs, and then if we choose down wooden steps to the beach. Some people are already swimming.

The wine older people know from Portugal.

Yesterday evening on our walk we saw a snake already with its fangs into the tail of a beautiful creature which was restrained up-side down by the tail of the snake. Getting close to make photos the snake let go of it’s victim and slid quickly away. It was the largest snake we have seen in Portugal, more than 2 metres long and as thick as Anita’s wrist. It was a surprise.

Here is a good place to relax for a few days as we wait to know when we can travel abroad again.