I had a fairly early start, as the trucks were resupplying the nearby supermarket and making a hell of a racket. I checked the ferry timetable for the short ride across the river to Spain (or the Google translation of it), and got ready. All went perfectly and I got to the ticket office, got my ticket and as I was 15 minutes early, I thought about grabbing a coffee.
Something made me verify the departure time with the ticket guy. Glad I did, as the ferry was leaving in a minute, so I scrambled over to it, rode down the wharf and onto the boat – in the nick of time.
The ride was uneventful – there were hundreds of campervans staying in Vila Real de Santo António for some reason. I haven’t seen so many since the summer in central Europe. I also spoke to a nice Irish couple from Dublin who have an apartment here.
Then it was time to get the morning’s coffee. I rode into the main square of Altamonte and had a selection of great places to go – very nice coffee too. I stayed too long though and it was drizzling as I left.
By 11am, I was leaving Altamonte with the poncho on and riding down a gravel path. Luckily, the rain dried up for the day, in about 30 minutes. I went into or around a few villages and stayed close to the coastal wetlands.
Eventually the quality of the path started to deteriorate. It was at times very sandy, muddy, rutted or rocky, but I thought I’d stick with it.After about ten more kms, it rapidly became almost impassable. I didn’t want to go back because it was a long way to the last opportunity to exit the path, so I kept going.
There was a low hole in the fence that led to an orchard, and I thought about bailing out immediately. So, I left the bike and scouted out the next part of the “path”. It just got more ugly and was lined with plenty of thorn bushes which made walking difficult. If I was out in the bush, I probably would have hacked and pushed my way through, but not here in Europe. I was surrounded by roads an farms but couldn’t easily access them.
Decision made. It took a while to take the bags off the bike and drag it through the hole in the fence.
Then I had to decide which way to go.
There was a farmhouse up ahead, but it was guaranteed to have a dog, so I wanted to avoid that. The dogs on rural properties around here all seemed to be big, ugly and loud (I have friends like that ). I crossed into another orchard and came out near a large trucking company. Luckily all gates were open and there were no guard dogs. I was off scott free but running very late.
It was only a few kms into the next town of Lepe where I found a supermarket, then had lunch in a park up the road. That’s where I realised that Spain is an hour ahead of Portugal. Late finish coming up.
From there, I stayed on a main road because I really trust Spanish drivers and the road had a good shoulder but after the village of Cartaya, I rejoined the path, the Via Verde del Litoral. Please don’t ask why – it looked in good nick, ok !
I passed two dogs just looking around about 50m off the trail. They were curious, started barking and then gave chase. I was well ahead of them by this time, so I hurried along. Unfortunately, the path soon became narrow single track the muddy but luckily there was a worn exit to a road, so I took that and escaped my pursuers. That was it, I decided to stay on the main road after that.
About 15kms from home, I rejoined the path because it was very clear that this was a well maintained section. It didn’t last too long, but I was soon on very quiet roads – but they were bumpy as hell. That continued until about 5kms to go.
The hotel is nice and they told me to put the bike into my room. Unfortunately, that meant cleaning all of the mud off it – the last thing I felt like doing.
Anyway, into the room, showered then it was time for dinner.
