Thursday 31st December Day 13: Vale do Jorge to Aviero 67km; 110m ascent The rain hammered on the tent most of last night, but luckily just as it was time to get up, it stopped! At least we were able to pack up and set off in the dry! Thereafter the day switched repeatedly between […]
A pleasant and speedy but somewhat unremarkable ride!
Wednesday 30th December Day 12: San Pedro de Moel to Vale do Jorge 72km; 520m ascent The ride started as we had ended yesterday, on the Estrada Atlantica. The only difference was the weather – this morning was still and dry! It was lovely cruising along the road with its dedicated cycleway – no traffic […]
Dodging showers along the Atlantic coast!
Tuesday 29th December Day11: Ferrel to Sao Pedro de Moel 76km; 970m ascent I was woken up during the night by some very blustery rain storms and was happy to see the tent was waterproof! When morning came it was still raining on and off, so we did all the tent jobs, such as sleeping […]
Admiring stormy seas!
Monday 28th December Day 10: Ribamar to Ferrel 71km; 800m ascent With a big distance to cover and a lot of up and downs expected, we made a good start from Ribamar. We could have cut the distance down by cutting the corner off and heading directly to Ferrel, but we suspected the little peninsula […]
A day of Portuguese passes!
Sunday 27th December Day 9: Guincho to Ribamar 50km; 870m ascent We could see what was looming ahead on the route – some long climbs to get over the headland north of Cascais – and so we decided to make a early start! I’d booked some accommodation for tonight, and we thought we had about […]
A Baltic day in Portugal!
Saturday 26th December Day 8: Alfarim to Guincho 46km; 270m ascent We woke up to a pretty heavy frost on the tent – it had been a cold night, and by the early morning it hadn’t warmed up much! We had a quick brew and then got pedalling in order to warm up, with plans […]
Christmas Day climbing!
Friday 25th December Day 7: Setbutal to Alfarim 58km; 680m ascent We had a lazy start to the day in our little abode in Setubal, doing Christmas calls with family and eating a big Christmas breakfast! It was 1030 by the time we were ready to head off, so we didn’t have any big ambitions […]
Long straight roads and tiring headwinds!
Thursday 24th December Day 6: Sines to Setubal 64km; 250m ascent We woke up to a damp tent after some overnight showers but as the sun came up it looked like it was going to be another nice day. After breakfast and some faffing around, including the opening of the last and biggest door on […]
A flat run north!
Wednesday 23rd December Day 5: Zambujeira do Mar to Sines 78km; 430m ascent The Mechanic woke up feeling a little better with his man-flu symptoms, although he also has a sore eye (something stuck in it maybe??) and wanted to stop at an opticians today to get it checked out. I managed to locate one […]
Checking out the West coast
Tuesday 22nd December Day 4: Carrapateira to Zambujeira do Mer 67km; 635m ascent The day started with a great sunrise behind the tent! Once the sun was fully up, breakfast was consumed and we were packed (takes ages!), we followed the track around the rest of the Carrapateira headland. It was really stunning. We’d chosen […]
