Cycling Europe

After a late night we were both late rising. On just 6 hrs sleep (after 4 hours the night before) we awoke to a foggy beach-side view to the Atlantic ocean. The fog was so intense that our visibility was only about 30 metres and as we were riding my arms were getting wet!

We stopped at a small petrol station were we got breakfast and a new companion. A dog, that we gave a pat, decided to run with us for about 3Kms. In that time he almost got hit by either us or cars on numerous occasions. I hope he got home alright.
We had lunch which included a sleep in the warm sun on a hill over-looking a the bay in Sines. From there we travelled along a beautiful stretch of beach during the red-orange Atlantic sunset. We were a bit short of reaching Vila Nova as it was pitch black on a thin road with many cars speeding past. But we found a camp ground with some basic amenities to get us through.
I was impressed with Sam, sticking it out through the pain and soreness, he’s doing well for no training! Hopefully tomorrow will be warm and sunny again.

Waking a little earlier than the day before we left the camping ground just north of Vila Nova de Monfontes and rode towards the town. We past through only to pickup some supplies to have a brekky looking over the wide river with large cliffs.
We headed for Odeceixa, a coastal town tucked in behind some tall ranges. A little slip-up with garmi (Gamin GPS) meant we took an extra four kilometres getting there. Luckily most of the way we had a tail-wind, which we remarked to a couple of American cyclist, to their disliking, heading in the other direction.
At this stage we were hoping to possibly make it all the way to the southern tip of Portugal, Sagres, but we had to rethink our plans just out of Odeceixa. Steep hills followed by steeper hills meant we were slowed down a bit. By the time we got to Aljezur (a quaint little town) we were pretty puffed and decided that Carrapateira would be more a more suitable location to camp for the evening.
 
We found the town just on sunset and stocked up on some food. We found a good spot to camp almost out of a strong wind but it happened to be in the front yard of a vila-cum-apartment building. We knocked on the door of the only house with a light on to find a little old lady, who by the smell of it was making a delicious pasta dish. We asked if we could camp in her front yard and she said yes, but around the back would be more out of the wind (from what we could understand). She showed us a ground level patio that was half under-cover. It was completely out of the wind and also came with a hot outdoor shower!
We set-up camp, had dinner and a couple of beers at the local club and hit the hay. It was only 9:30.

In average conditions on flat ground the beginner cyclist can maintain a speed of 20-25 km/hr, so when we were knocking out 30-40km/hr pretty consistently on the way to Sagres this morning, I found myself thinking “man those first three days have paid off!”, and thought it would be smooth sailing from then on.
Sagres is the most south-western point of Portugal, and not that you can tell by looking out to sea, but it sits on the “border” of the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea. All of these Portuguese towns we have been passing in the south have lovely whitewashed square staged houses with terra cotta roofs. Sagres had those, but also some very beautiful beaches with high sheer clifs, and a fort out on the point with a troop of fisherman who pay their 1E50 each day for the right to fish off the south-western most cliffs, they must have ginormous sinkers.
We polished off the shortbread, cursed the cobblestones on the way out and got back on the road. Because Sagres is right out there on the point, we were forced to back-track a little before heading east. This is where I realised that yes, this is still week one and it sucks, and no, you’re not awesome that was a tailwind helping you out this morning. We battled into wind and uphill for 10Km, and after a bunch of highway we are now snuggled up in our first hostel in Largos. Who knew how much we’d miss a real bed and a bath after 3 days. Yeah I know, a teaspoon of cement should do the trick right?