Sunday, May 11th, 2014
Route Map and Garmin Ride Statistics
The weather forecast was for a fine and sunny day, starting cool and getting hot. The scene from the balcony at 7:00am was consistent with that forecast - mist in the distance, but not a cloud in the sky. This made for some almost perfect riding in the morning, and some hot and sweaty hill climbing in the afternoon.
There weren't many options for coffee or lunch, but those there were proved ideal. The peloton arrived in Mertola almost at the same time, and so there was a bit of time spent deciding where the best place might be. Derek and I headed to the other end of the street and had a quiet coffe, cake and iced tea before setting off again. Mertola was 60km into a 135km day.
There seemed to be a different circus in quite a lot of the larger towns we passed through, and Mertola was no exception. But the formula was the same - Circo X is in town, and a van with a poor quality loud speaker made sure everyone knew about it.
Opposite the circus was a castle.
And just past the castle on the way out of town was a nice bridge over a river gorge.
About half way into the day's ride we finally entered the Algarve - the most popular holiday destination in Portugal for Brits and Germans, apparently.
The scenery was similar to what we had seen for the past few days, but it was getting hotter, and more affluent, at least superficially.
We arrived at our designated lunch stop in Alcoutim after about 95km of cycling. Alcoutim was originally the stopping point for today's ride, but as in other parts of Portugal, the GFC has caused hotels to close, including ours. What should have been a 95km ride therefore turned into a 135 ride.
Alcoutim is lovely, and sits beside the river which forms the Spanish border. That's Spain on the opposite bank.
We found a nice little cafe by the river and the proprietor and his wife managed to cope with 15 sandwiches and drinks, and therefore had a good day's business. We were happy to keep another (possibly) struggling Portuguese small business afloat.
And the sun beat down!
When Derek and I left Alcoutim we turned to the last page of our instructions, and that proved to be a big mistake. Derek wanted a photo of my Garmin clocking 100km, as follows:
And with two "senior's moments" coinciding, and the objective of 100km pending, we sailed past the left turn indicated at the bottom of the previous page of instructions - result another 5km, more up than we needed, and a mini tour of the Algarve!
We managed to catch the others at the top of the hill, everyone stopped for a final drink, and then we cruised into the golf resort and first tee which doubled as the hotel reception.
Then we cycled a kilometer back to our villas where there was a lovely pool and bar complex! Now this was a day where a plunge into the pool really was heaven.
Not wanting another beer, I had a couple of Rum and Cokes, and if you've ever had spirits and mixers in Spain or Portugal you would know that they are not miserly with quantities. Between drinks, another dip in the almost perfect pool managed to keep me cool.
I hope you're all jealous!
The day finished with a group dinner in the golf club house with a terrace bar with views towards the coast.
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