Day 6 - Abrantes to Mora (76km, 430m)

Thursday, May 8th, 2014

Route Map and Garmin Ride Statistics

The view from my hotel room was spectacular, although if you're alert, you will realise this picture was taken as the sun set rather than as it rose. Mo matter, although it was cloudier and cooler at 7:30am than this photo would suggest.

We knocked over the 15km back to Abrantes in 40 minutes and were then back on the official route for the day - about 80km to Mora.  Do the maths - that's 95km! Much of it was spent passing through pine forests used for paper, cork plantations used for corks (obviously), and a large dam used for water and recreation. Here's Tony D coming up a hill closely followed by Steve, Neil and a rather large truck.

Apparently, this part of Portugal is the "bread basket", and we certainly saw more sheep, cattle, goats, and wheat than in the north. This scene is almost Australian! Baaaaaa.

There weren't many food or drink options, so one took them when one could. Derek and I decided that a service station with bar and pool was good enough and stopped for a coke and a bite to eat. Others gave it a miss and only 2 km down the road came across the best restaurant in the district. You can't win them all.

And everywhere storks!

And almost everywhere, cork plantations. These trees appeared to be recently harvested, and are much less densely planted than the two experimental cork plantations in Canberra.

The way they are harvested produces a rather strange effect on the trees, and there are tricks transporting cork bark regularly passing us on the roads.

Then we came across a TV crew and a large number of people having lunch beside the road. I have no idea why the reporters were there, but most of the people were walking to Fatima from their home town of Evora, about 100km south. If you don't know what Fatima is, it's kind of like the Portuguese Lourdes. If you don't know what Lourdes is, Google or Wikipeda should help.

We arrived in Mora, location for tonight's stop, just before 2:00pm. We were advise not to go to the hotel until 3:00pm, so Derek and I passed an hour in a nearby bar drinking beer, eating chips, and watching the world go by.

Once we did get into the hotel, which was really a guest house/bed and breakfast, it was quite luxurious. If my room is any guide, everyone got a suite, and a very interestingly appointed suite at that.

The "parlour" was faux palatial, as were the other shared rooms on the ground floor.

As usual, we found the nearest bar, and had a few more drinks until the sun got too hot and we returned to the hotel.

Where we had a few more drinks! This time, the owner brought out some of the very local red - produced 500m down the road. Here's Naomi, John, Tony and Ged enjoying themselves.

And after wine comes...? Food! The glassed in balcony provides a perfect backdrop for dinner before we all went to bed for a very well earned sleep. And tonight we get a sleep in - breakfast is at 8:30am Yay!