Day No. 76 - Three class society... - Odiáxere Dam - GLÜCKsMUSKEL.DE - Travel Blog 315degrees

"People can be divided into three classes: Those who work themselves to death, those who worry themselves to death, And those who are bored to death." - Sir Winston Churchill

For many years, we were also among those who almost worked themselves to death. - But both Torgit and I have always had fun and enjoyed our work. - There is nothing worse than having a job and looking forward to the weekend. Nevertheless, we worked a lot, very much, sometimes too much.

The picture of the snails from our street art search in Lagos yesterday, on the other hand, fits quite well with what we have to report today. - We are slowing down a bit at the moment, meaning we are traveling more slowly. While at the beginning we had the feeling to travel like we lived at home, we are currently consciously taking it a bit more relaxed. - Here is a small example: We were exactly one month ago, on day No. 45 in Nazaré - at the Big Wave Surfer Hotspot the waves were not quite so big. This is probably the case at the moment. Two days ago, the French Justine Dupont succeeded in riding one of the highest waves ever conquered by a woman. - We would have liked to have seen that. But to go up there again now is too much stress for us, at least in one tour. - We prefer to take it easy. - But this slowness leads to unexpected consequences.

So far, there has always been something to do. - But today is different: after 76 days, Torgit suddenly says, "I'm bored. - It's the first time I've been bored." - I react immediately, as is my way, and try to bring about a solution. - What are we going to do about it, is my question. - Torgit's answer baffles me - Why should we do anything about it, it's actually quite pleasant. I let the whole thing sink in first, then I question it. - Torgit and I realize together that we don't really know boredom. And even when it threatens to become boring, we always look for something to keep us busy. As a rule, there is always something to do. - Strangely enough, we otherwise have a guilty conscience. - Can we just do nothing? - Is that even allowed? - The only time we do nothing is when we are not feeling well, when we are sick. And even then we have a guilty conscience about doing nothing.

Even when I'm lying in the hammock for a change, I'm doing something. I write in the blog, I read something, I check my mails, I call someone. - But this simply looking into the air is incredibly difficult for me, for us. - How quickly do we make fun of the smartphone generation? - Lazy, self-centered, in love with their smartphone. That's what I hear again and again. - But when do we really engage with ourselves? - Maybe now.

When I look out the window, there are the flamingos again. - They don't seem to have a bad conscience at all, just doing nothing. Torgit and I spend some time analyzing where our guilty conscience comes from. - I claim that she, as a civil servant, should be able to do this perfectly by profession. She cleverly counters that she has always waited tables in addition to her job as a civil servant. - But is there not already again the justification, the bad conscience? - We are not going to clarify the issue conclusively today. But you can sense that we both still need to talk about this.

It seems that there are people who are bored more often. I will probably not get used to it so quickly. - So what is there to do?

Since we have our appointment with Spacecamper on the 28th, we'll start measuring Hector today. If you have nothing to do, then you just look for a new task. In this context it is noticeable that (m)one has to do everything by oneself. - Actually, that would be Torgit's job, as the saying goes, you can't tell an engineer anything. - But this doesn't seem to apply to female engineers, we know women... and sizes, lengths and so on. (Note from Torgit: I don't have to comment on this, do I? )

Now we have been living in a van for months, watching the SpaceCamper videos over and over again, but somehow we still don't have a real feeling for all the dimensions. But we definitely promise ourselves to have to move less back and forth and to become more self-sufficient. - In a moment, I look at our electricity consumption again. It quickly becomes clear that we have to change the location again today. Otherwise, the battery won't play along. - Yesterday I googled a bit about solar bags, but that doesn't help us today. - So we hit the road. - We decide to drive into the mountains. - On the way we look for water. In doing so, we drive through a typical Portuguese road. - Thank God this one doesn't come close to the narrowest road on our tour. - But when suddenly a ninety degree bend comes, we also reach our limits again. But unfortunately again no one comes out of the bus to take a picture of it. Maybe sometime, somewhere. On the way we do a little shopping. Always exciting to explore a new supermarket every four days. Not far from there is our dry cleaner from the day before. - Will we still find Torgit's Flippi? No, it was a Floppi, we just get the confirmation that we really lost him here. But nobody knows where he disappeared to. - But by chance we see two more murals. We hope not to bore you with so much street art.

On the way to the mountains, once again a road is closed. We find an alternative route. - Something like this here always quickly reminds us of off-road tours. In any case, I would sometimes be more comfortable with a four-wheel drive. But Hector muddles through everywhere. In the end we are rewarded once again. Our day ends with a magnificent view of the Odeáxere Dam (Portuguese Barragem de Odeáxere or Barragem da Bravura).