Hello from Praia de Odeceixe!
We are feeling so fortunate to be here on this wonderful trip. Another excellent day today.
After a good breakfast at our bike-friendly hotel, and pumping up the tyres, we set off southwards. The weather started cool and cloudy and we made good progress, stopping on the bridge over the river Mira near Vila Nova de Milfontes.
We made another brief stop by a traditional windmill in Longueira, for purely photographic purposes. The village felt very typical of the Alentejo (the region north of the Algarve), with low whitewashed houses with coloured window surrounds and stripes at ground level.
The countryside that we were mainly passing through also felt quite Alentejan. We went through more eucalyptus and cork oak areas, but also a lot of farmland. We saw all kinds of vegetables being grown: as well as the usual melons, beans, cabbages and tomatoes in smallholdings, today we saw huge fields of sweet potatoes, butternut squash, yellow squash (pictured), pumpkins, and raspberries (in polytunnels).
Although most of today's route was on paved roads, including a section on our much favoured N-120, we also did a long stretch on a beautiful coastal path, which makes up part of the Rota Vicentina, a network of walking and cycling trails in this part of Portugal. The views were really stunning, and the gravel surface wasn't bad at all, which, combined with the slightly cooler temperatures, made it a very comfortable morning.
After leaving the trail we unfortunately discovered a minor problem in that Stephen's bike had a broken spoke. We were planning to stop for lunch soon anyway, in Zambujeira do Mar. So with a nice orange juice and bifana to help, we came up with a plan for getting it fixed. We hope this will be okay in practice on Tuesday morning.
The sun came out while we were eating, and we took in the views of the ocean before setting off again.
Two short and sharp climbs in quick succession were followed by a very unexpected field, potentially even more exciting than a field of squashes - it contained ostriches and zebras.
I don't think any of us could have predicted this safari experience when we set off!
There wasn't much further to go after this, just another 20km or so of good roads, passing through some small villages. We soon reached the town of Odeceixe, which was very scenic, and from where we could follow the river back to the coast. This also marked the point where we crossed from the Alentejo into the Algarve, which seems to have come round very quickly.
It was just a short distance onwards and upwards to our destination for the night, Praia de Odeceixe. We couldn't be much closer to the Atlantic - we can hear the waves crashing at this moment. We enjoyed some beach time with an ice cream, a walk along the river, and a paddle in the sea in the late afternoon.
We're staying the night in a room over a fish restaurant where we have just had a delicious meal, with sopa do dia (vegetable soup), lulas (squid), dourada (bream), bolo de brigadeiro (chocolate cake), and baba de camelo (caramel mousse), not to mention a drop of the house white, Monte Velho, to celebrate the halfway point. It couldn't be much better than this!
Today's statistics: 67km, 500m of ascent
No comments:
Post a Comment