nbjtours

Wild Camping in the Serra de Monchique

87 miles 3514 ft climbed

The majority of today seemed to be on straight Roman roads blasting across the undulating plains of the Alentejo. We were joined at Porridge by a solo cyclist John who was travelling from Faro to Porto over 2 weeks it seemed to get away from family issues. Leaving the campsite just after 8 we covered over 17 miles in the first hour and managed 32 in two hours so our breakfast stop was made just afterwards in very good time. 

There was not much going on in the countryside which was dotted with cork oaks and olive trees, but we did see this station which in theory still served the nearest town and the railway was still operational but it really didn’t look as though it was still in use.

The highlights of the morning session were passing through two small towns of Viania do Alentejo and Vila Nova de Baxio which unlike the small Spanish towns we passed through last time, are full of people and busy. The first also featured the only significant climb up this cobbled street but gave us the best view of the morning over much of the route we had cycled.

The second leg was a further 30 + miles and gave us some more great views although the roads stayed straight. We were lucky in that whilst dry the cloud cover only started to break later in the afternoon so although warm we were not scorched by the sun.

Whilst as ever seeing loads of flowers and birds – lots of kites and storks today. One thing that you do come across that is more unpleasant is roadkill. Flat snakes and frogs often. Thankfully mostly you can smell and not see, although today there was a fully bloated cow next to the road and this mongoose like animal. 

Nick was very taken with this petrol station that sold Bridaljus  fuel. 

Having crossed the arid plains full of barley and a 1246 hectare Olive tree plantation that seemed to go on for miles and must have cost a fortune, as it was fully irrigated we then started a little climb into the Serra de Monchique from where I write this blog sitting On a stone at the top of the track that leads down to our wild campsite for the night, listening to the sound of the bees and a very  loud Cuckoo

Only one more day and 85 miles to go before Cape St Vincent with Chris and I hanging on to that mountain goat Nick we will get there. The forecast is for the hottest day of the tour so far so wish us luck as we intend to start at 7 to avoid the heat of the sun for our big climb of the day.

Posting now as battery down to 3% here we go ….