Silves to Portimão

We have reached our destination! It's been a fantastic trip. Here's a quick report on our last day of cycling.

We can confirm that the castle in Silves looked as beautiful at sunrise as at other times of day.

We had a final hotel breakfast and repacked our panniers for the last time, then set off. Rather than going directly to Portimão, we went up the Arade river - again, lots of scenic roads, orange groves, fig trees, farm animals, etc.

The main point of the detour was to visit an impressive dam and reservoir.

Having got up to this high point we came back down towards Silves, then onwards towards the coast.

Most of this stretch was really beautiful, but we had the slight drawback of a busy road into/through Portimão. This was mostly unavoidable as we were dropping off our hired bikes at a very fancy bike shop. Fortunately we survived the traffic and the people at the shop were very helpful. 

So we said 'thank you and goodbye' to the bikes, and headed off into the centre of Portimão on the bus to meet up with my family - but not before being befriended by some British cyclists who had just finished their ride for the day. Quite funny that it took us the whole trip to find any other cyclists to talk to.

Today's statistics: 38.2km, 405m of ascent 

It's been a brilliant trip, with many happy memories to look back on, and a wonderful introduction to bike touring (and gravel bikes) for me. We were so lucky to have minimal mechanical problems (no punctures), excellent weather, and friendly places to stay. I'm very grateful to Stephen for planning (and replanning) the route, and for keeping me going throughout.

Next up, a week of relaxation and recovery, with lots of time with my family by the pool and on the beach. We are feeling very lucky!

Overall statistics: 477.9km, 4349m of ascent