Comment: Queen of the Road turns criminal of the sea

Friday 22 June 2018

Don't be confused by her sweet looks: Indie Luce is a hardened criminal now. What started as a cooling seaside mission landed the eight-year-old Newfi from Jersey in deep trouble with Portuguese police.

She has been travelling across the Mediterranean in a van with dad Alan Luce and his friend, Sharon Fitzpatrick, and sharing her top licks from her travels.

"Well, after the highs of Porto, it’s to the lows and van travel again. It was discussed at dinner that there was this place called “the Venice of Portugal.” So even with my best advice on “water usually means mozzies”, they set off anyway. It wasn’t to be a long journey - only a couple of hours - but to see the 'real Portugal', it was decided that we should take the non-motorway route. This, as any navigating Newfi knows, takes about twice as long.

"There was, however, a great finding on the way. Sharon could not get the camera out quick enough, but each high vantage point was occupied by loads and loads of Storks. Without exaggerating at all, there were hundreds, all having built their nests on motorway signs, tall chimneys and even high voltage power grid towers. We thought that this must be breeding season - even storks take a bit of R&R after delivering all those puppies.

Pictured: Aveiro Vera Cruz, the Venice of Portugal.

"As we pulled into Aveiro Vera Cruz, it did indeed have canals, gondoliers, men in fancy dress and silly hats and mobbed with tourists. As I’ve said, they are not totally dog-friendly in Portugal, but the gondoliers tried to tease me onboard for a boat trip around the canals and to the marshes - the place where they make Mosquitos. For three very good reasons I pulled back on the lead: we hate mozzies, he didn’t look Italian, and it was my turn to not want to entertain the humans.

"So we went for lunch. In all towns, in all places parking is an issue - we parked miles away and had to walk through a shopping centre, which was a bit like driving the B-roads, always takes Sharon longer.

Pictured: Aveiro beach and its multicoloured houses.

"The plan was to leave this mozzie-infested mock Venice and head to the dunes. We stayed at Aveiro beach, a great place on a spit of dune - sea one side, fresh water and mozzies on the other. The feature of this town is that all the houses are painted like sticks of rock, striped in multi colours, and deserving of a lick for sure. They indicated more tourists. Thankfully they only day tripped.

"We saw a garage that stocked the most amazing cars, micro cars - two cylinders dad said - putt, putt, putting along, but with a Newfi cool twist. They all had modern car body shapes, a Mini, an Evoque, a Bentley. All with enough space for two passengers and a Newfi... yeah, not! Great for Jersey, though.

Pictured: Indie is finding lots of beaches to explore on the road trip. 

"Did I mention the multiple of French Motorhome travellers that were in the Porto campsite? 18 in all, all numbered 1-18 with an obvious pecking order, but all travelling in a line down the motorway. Whenever we saw a roped-off area, we knew the Legion would arrive and muster their homes in a way cowboys did with wagons. They are a frail elderly bunch, but are always in packs - one showers, they all shower. The head honcho must be handing out loads of treats to get them all to syncro-shower. He has a clipboard.

"This campsite in the dunes miles from anywhere had a roped-off area... the French Legion was coming. And at 10:00 (French time), they trucked in.

"We stayed for three nights and walked for miles along the beach and to take pictures of the likeable striped houses. The grown-ups had a seafood lunch, with pink water.

Pictured: Indie exploring with mum Sharon Fitzpatrick.

"In truth, motivation is key when the weather is not great. I like the warm, not blistering temperatures. Newfi suffers in the heat. After a relaxing few days dodging the showers, we set off to Coimbra. This place was epic. More walks up more hills, but it was a great place. I would go into details, but this was the former Capital city of Portugal, so you guessed it: churches, places and squares. A restaurant let me indoors, and it was a truly traditional place. Another three days passed by, and we got the hang of leaving the van and taxi. Getting back was sometimes an effort, though.

"Coimbra is inland in the hills so the weather is milder and variable. In search of sun, we headed to Peniche on the coast. It was rainy. What can I say other than it was bits of steak for Dinan’s and a night in a paper bungalow? After a swim the next day, we headed off to Ericeria, which was very sunny. We stayed at a fab site with the intention of a few days at a Jersey mate's brother's hotel. Sadly, Sharon had to head to UK, as a relative is very poorly. So in the morning full speed to Algarve... Remember the passport issue? Well, it was kindly sent onto a Jersey couple that lived in Lagos for repatriation.  

Pictured: Another beach, another swim for Indie.

"We decided to stay at the little fishing village where Dad had stayed 40 years ago and Sharon 35 years ago. Portimao was not a village - not a fisherman in sight. As a flight had to be organised so for the last two days (flight was Monday, this was Saturday), we booked a five-star hotel on the beach on barking.com. Very simply, it was not to end up cheap: they only took dogs under 15kg. I know I’m carrying a bit but at 41kg, so I really had to breathe in. Food in the beach restaurants was great and meeting up with the custodians of the passport, Martin and Teresa Hughes in Lagos, was brilliant. They have given up Jersey roots to settle in this lovely part of the world.

"I sneaked a swim on this fab beach before the police caught me and issued a warning. I’m not proud, but I’m a criminal newf that has swam when not allowed. A serial criminal, like the Ronnie Kray of the stolen swims' world. In mitigation, I’m a Newf. Newfoundlands were born to swim and save people, but they can’t do that if they cannot get in the water! The beach guard gave me the yellow card. I thought I had them when I mentioned, “Well, what about Portuguese Water Dogs?” Ah ha! Gotcha, apparently they're banned too. Madness personified, but I suppose Jersey has a dog ban too.

Pictured: Indie disregarding the swimming dog ban like a true criminal.

"Monday came and off to drop Sharon at Faro - the news was not looking good from the UK, sadly. So it was down to two of us - both founding members of the "we're off" gang. We said goodbye and headed to a place the French had suggested, Tavira. It was a contrast from high rise resort towns to smaller character-illed places, and we soon realised it was the real 'earthy places' we liked - the ones that weren't so quick to say that dogs were 'proibidos'!

"Three days passed and our lesson learned was to drive to the less crowded places. So we drove right back to the far side of Portugal, Sagres. We loved it - very hot, but blowy. It was a very ethnic and surfy town, with long walks, friendly people and early nights. We stayed for three nights and it was dad's birthday on the last night. He had a Jersey mate driving to the Algarve.

Pictured: Indie's parents caught up with friends in Portugal.

"Dad is 61, and I'm 63 (nine in dog years!). The mad thing is that both our birthdays were on the same day! Both of us got lots of attention, we found our birthdays were on the 15 June when he applied for my pet passport... The word “party” was said. Dad's rugby mate arrived, Hedley Cox, who had bravely driven like Nigel Mansell to get to lunch (apparently he’s known to enjoy lunch). It was a long day and I had to listen to all the rugby tales a lady should not have had to. Dad enjoyed the birthday and well past my bedtime, they were still drinking yellow water that you put more water into. I think they suffered the next day.

"The nice thing was we went out twice, so I got twice the attention and pats. Long day and night. The following day, we drove all the way back to the other end of the Algarve to a friendly Jersey friend called CB (Clive and Charlie Barton) at his villa, Casa CB, where not only did they talk about rugby, but watched it... apparently a sad day, with grown men crying.

Pictured: Indie and her dad Alan Luce are on their own for now after mum Sharon Fitzpatrick had to go back to the UK.

"One more night in Portugal then off to Seville. Seville is no different to any city. Mad drivers. No parking, horrible accommodation. Dad booked a barking.com apartment, which I refused to stay in, and crunched the van getting out. The weather has arrived, and it was 42 in the city centre! Even with my wet coat on that is dangerous, so we decided to head back to the coast. The van journey was a no-brainer - dad paid for yet binned the accommodation, and we drove to Antequera which was fabulous. I had a treat that night, as it was a special historic building and I had been in the van for six hours. It was my treat... but I suspect he liked it.

Pictured: Indie is recovering from an infection in her paw.

"I was having a problem with my back drive paw, which was noticed by my caring dad. He took me to the vet immediately in the morning and they inspected, cut out the nonsense, gave me drugs (which helped) and a thermometer in the bot-bot (which didn’t). I have an infection and temperature, so on pills for ten days. So if you notice any spelling errors, I’m not typing this but dictating it.

 "He keeps singing on the road again, maddening."