September 23, 2016

We wake up to glorious sunshine and make a quick get away to join the cycle path again that we left last night.  The first 20 kilometres or so are a delight of a flat, smooth surfaced track at the side of the road, through wild moorland dotted with heather and native pine trees.  The sun is shining through the trees casting long shadows across the road.  It is warm but has the feel of late summer.  No more dreary houses by the roadside just beautiful coastal views.

After a quick pitstop at a beach bar in a beautiful bay, the smooth track continues but the flatness is replaced by a series of ups and downs; a sign of things to come.  The native pines have been replaced with plantations of pines which are being tapped for resin.  Remember learning about rubber production in geography lessons at school?  Well, this is similar but with pine trees.

The hills are getting bigger and steeper – a couple are too steep to cycle up. Even pushing the bikes up is a challenge, but the views from the tops are really stunning.

The small seaside towns we pass through are really attractive, certainly not the run-down affairs we have spent the last couple of days travelling through.  We are very tempted to stay overnight at a place called São Martinho do Porto which is set on a horseshoe bay, but is about 20 kilometres short of our intended destination.  We decide that we should continue; we can always come back another time.

Unfortunately, the place we end up at is not nearly as nice and so we wish we had stopped earlier.