'Jotown' and his Worldwide Adventures: A Relaxing Couple of Days !

Thursday morning I was ready , to stretch the legs a ‘little’, having checked the map, and seen a point Cape Sao de Vicente… the most South Westerly point in Portugal… it was only about 25 miles away !, so I had decided to have a good ride there,and hopefully see the lighthouse !

I was off early before 9 a.m., and riding along the coast road, bypassing lots of villages as I thundered along…not too bad I thought, should be able to get there, although was feeling a little tired as I got to Sagres, the last town before the end, leaving me about another 5 miles to do… should I keep going ?… What would you expect me to do, I carries on, into the increasingly windy headland, with the coastal winds battering me backwards ! I could then see in the distance the red/white stripes of the lighthouse – I was going to make it, and in good time, arriving at the lighthouse complex just before 10-45 a.m. Wow , I’d not even stopped on the way…and was well pleased with myself …as I looked down at the boiling Ocean below, and the cliffs rising steeply out of the water below, loads of coaches were arriving disgorging their passengers, who were no doubt wondering who this sweaty cyclist was ?, and the handily placed sculpture ? – I just had to take a picture !

Then it was back on the bike, to start to make my way back, again into the strong winds ( which seemed to have got stronger…??), firstly stopped at the next finger of rock, where there was an old fort , and then to the next finger, with a far more impressive Fort Sagres – they wanted me to pay…so I just took a quick picture, and carried on !

That’s when it got hard, really hard, I seemed to be pedalling uphill for ages, into a fierce headwind, although occasionally I did pass other cyclists - walking !) I kept on and on, hoping to get somewhere near to where I was, it just went on and on and on….2 hours later I managed to get back to the campsite.. exhausted, but well pleased with my 69 Kms bike ride…and it was rather warm ! I had had a little ‘casualty’ – the screen on my camera had got smashed in my saddleback, so I can’t change any settings now, and pictures will be a little ‘guesswork’ – maybe no more ‘arty’ sunsets… we’ll see ??

I made it to the pool to cool down ( and it was freezing !), had lunch, and snoozed the afternoon away, before a relaxing ride into Praia da Luz in the evening, to relax my legs a little !

Friday Morning ( 1st May), being a public holiday here, I decided I maybe should take it a little easier… so I put the boots on, and setting off early, walked into Praia da Luz, to walk along the rocky headland, to the next costal village Boucha…I wasn’t quite sure how far away, but knew there was a trail to it…and as I stopped to take a picture, discovered another slight problem… the water bottle top had come off, so my ice cold litre of water was now….3 drops !, and everything in my rucksack was sopping wet, I thought it was just condensation on my back ! Anyway I kept going along the rocky cliffs, looking down at the sea, where there were a number of scuba divers swimming around, towing warning floats behind them, presumably to stop boats running them over ! It was again quite hot, and I had a couple of hills to climb up and over, however after 5 kms or so, I reached the quant village of Boucha, and the small sandy beach there…Time to turn around, and head back along the cliffs and hilltops, stopping for a sandwich en route, as the heat got hotter and hotter… the coastline being quite eroded here, and various fingers of rock went out into the ocean, and so did I, seeing the unusual rock formations as I went, until I got back to Luz again, and treated myself to a nice big tub of ice cream, before heading back uphill to the campsite… and collapse ! Another 20 Kms walk in the hot sunshine – so what to do ? Eat, drink… and snooze !