Day 180 to 207 - 30th April to 27th May- Portugal

Point of departure: Santander, Spain

Point of arrival : Cascais, Portugal

Accommodation: our home

Km travelled today: 860km Cum: 30 547 km

Countries so far: 16/16

Where to next? Johannesburg, South Africa

No of photos: 260 (cum 7 380)

The last country - number 16! It feels really nice to be at home in Portugal. In many ways the trip had a kind of emotional closure on day 182, 2nd May when we drove to Belem (near Lisbon) with the Beast and took our photographs next to the "Padrao dos Descrobimentos" - the 52m monument to the Portuguese explorers, erected in 1960 to mark the 500th anniversary of the death of Prince Henry the Navigator. The monument represents the prow of a ship with Prince Henry pointing the way to a crowd of important people, amongst them King Dom Manuel. At the foot of the monument is a marble mosaic compass with a map of the world in the centre.

It was from Belem (Portuguese for Bethlehem) that sailing ships set out to brave the world's oceans and explore and discover unknown lands and continents.

In the light of the trip we were just completing, it seemed like a most fitting backdrop for one of our last iconic pictures with the Beast. We understand it may difficult to get Marina's name added to the list of Portuguese explorers, even though it might be appropriate.

Next to the monument is the Ponte 25 de Abril (the suspension bridge) across the Rio Tejo (River Tagus) - opened in August 1966 as the Salazar Bridge but renamed after the Carnation Revolution on 25 April 1974. The bridge was built with steel purchased from the UK and USA and has an overall length of 2 278m - the longest central span in Europe. The bridge is 70m above the river Tagus and is suspended from two pylons 190m high with world record foundations which go 80m below the river bed to stand on basalt rock.In July 1999 a railway line fixed beneath the bridge was added. With such a famous landmark, another picture was taken with the Beast.

Then an obligatory stop at the famous Belem Patisserie (opened in the late 1800's) for "pasties nata", the world's best!

A strange day in some ways… a trip which had been about 10 months in the planning and preparing, and to this point in Lisbon, a little over 6 months in the doing, really did feel like it was at an end. While there is much to look forward to in going home to South Africa, not least to see family and friends, there is some sense of sadness at the completion of what has been in some ways quite an epic journey. Thoughts about returning to some sort of "normality" and what to do for an encore… will life ever be quite the same?

Still, our time in Portugal offers much to be happy about. Just being in our home in Cascais is always as special treat, (even though John's list of chores never seems to get much shorter) and it has been good for him to get back on the bike (try and lose some of the weight he put on in Europe) and for Marina, there is always a little of re-organising here, re-decorating there, and keeping John's "to do" list on the move. Time also spent visiting Marina's family… tia Manuela, cousins Paula, Luisa, Claudia, Carlos (and kids), niece Carla, Jorge, Bianca, Angelique, Dylan.

A few days at our place in Albufeira (Algarve) were also very welcome and spending time with Emilia (Marina's mom) and sister Manuela. An unexpected pleasure was to meet up again with John's cousin Pete and Fran (from Bothel) who were on holiday in the Algarve at Armacao de Pera, and who will also spend a few days with us in Cascais before we leave.

A new role for the Beast has been that of letterbox. We were pleased to receive a note from Miguel Caetano, a Cascais resident who is planning on a "Cabo to Cabo" (Cabo da Rocha near Cascais, the most westerly point of continental Europe to cidade do Cabo - Cape Town) on a motorbike in 2011. We will be sharing our experiences with him in the next couple of days. Also, ex pat friends from SA now living in Porto, Zeza and Joe Raimundo saw the Beast parked outside, whilst visiting Cascais and also left a note to make contact.

One of our final acts of the trip today, 17th May (day 197) was to finally prepare the Beast and complete our packing in preparation for shipment later this week. We expect to complete customs and shipping formalities within the next couple of days with the ship sailing on the 20th May for Durban.

Which then leaves the final act… us flying home on the 27th May (7 months to the date since we left Johannesburg for Cape Town), via London and arriving on the 28th May, Iceland's Eyjafjallajokull Volcano and ash cloud permitting, and then a couple of weeks later, the arrival of the Beast in Durban, hopefully without incident!

Once we are home there will be a final blog wrap up.