This was my earliest start for a while. I packed up my remaining things quietly in the dark at the hostel, then rode the 200m to the ferry. I did this expertly in semi-darkness thinking I was well organised, but not realising that I left a phone charger and cable behind at the hostel.
There’s no 8:20am ferry on the timetable, but there’s an 8:40 from the other side. Everyone lives on this side, so they leave at 8:20 to get to the other side to get ready to run the 8:40. So, you can get the ferry at 8:20 from here even though it’s unscheduled. Confused ?
One of the crew spoke perfect english – learnt during his days working out of Aberdeen (I assume on oil rigs). The crew were three great guys running a 10 minute ferry ride every couple of hours. That’s one relaxed job. I could tell they were bored because they insisted on wheeling my bike off the ferry and up the ramp. It felt like I’d just caught the ferry from Newcastle to Stockton (from built up residential to semi industrial).
From there,I rode about 200m to the beach. It’s deserted except for one guy surfing in some great waves. Google said the cafe was open but you can’t rely on Google in the off season here, or in Asia, or out in the sticks, or … I’m sure it’s great in the US.
There was a small town not far away where I found a coffee and a bakery full of some unappetizing things but I ate because I wasn’t going to be in many villages today.
For that reason, I made the decision to go off route and head into another village to go to a supermarket and bakery for the day’s food. With my original turnoff coming up, a bakery cafe appeared on my right. I thought it was a mirage at first, but I was pleased not to have to do extra kms just for food.
When I finally left and took the turnoff, the road was like yesterday – last resurfaced in the great depression. Lucky again that it only lasted a few kms. Then the road turned nice and smooth before I linked up to a bike path nearly all the way to Nazaré.
That sounds great but it was boring again like yesterday. It was gun-barrel straight for much of the way through similar harvested forestry and scrubby areas like yesterday – unexciting until it went closer to the coast.
As I tracked the coast, there were smaller villages and surfing spots and one larger place that looked like a retirement town. The one thing that all of these places had in common was that there was hardly anyone around. Admittedly, it was siesta time.
With about 10kms to go, I met a tourer coming the other way. Patrick was on a long journey (7 months to date), and heading north. He’s clearly much tougher and stronger than me – he’s wild camping on beaches and other places, and puts in some very long days on the bike. He’s also a really interesting guy, and we had a great chat for more than half an hour. Good luck for the rest of this trip and the next few, mate !
On arriving in Nazaré I turned to Google.to direct me.to where I was staying. It really got it wrong. An old lady pointed me.in the right direction though. She just thought I looked like I needed help – it was that obvious. The place is nice and simple, not far from the centre and has a place to stash the bike, so I’m happy. I’ve got a rest day tomorrow too.
Nazaré is one of the big wave capitals of the world, and winter is when it’s at its best. Unfortunately, I could see from a couple of hundred metres away, that it was as flat as a pancake. So, my rest day wasn’t spent watching big wave surfing after all.
It’s a nice enough place though and the sunset from the northern end of the beach was magical.