Today's ride wasn't quite to script and definitely had its moments. I was out and riding before 9am without breakfast and the first thing was a 300 ft climb out of the Mira valley only to then drop 300ft into the Ribeira de Torgal valley before another 300ft climb. The gradients were up to 10% but the legs were good. After 7 miles I passed a small cafe in Nova Reguengo Pequeno called Cafe Ti Judite where I stopped for my planned breakfast which turned out to be a Ham & Cheese Toastie and a Coffee. We were in an outside hoarding and it attracted lots of blowflies which were a bit offputting, but not as of putting as a Southern English guy who was doing work on a property - he was f'ing and blinding every sentence talking to a Dutch guy who was also living nearby, There was a girl on the table adjacent to me and I hope she didn't speak English ... Embarrassing. Anyway I soon pressed on to St Luis where the road turned more rolling than steep. I passed lots of small settlements with 4 or 5 lovely cottages in typical portuguese white with blue trim and it looked like they were still working small holdings. The fields sudddenly became yellow with swathes of wild lupins and I could just make out Sines on the coast. After Cercal the road once again became a bit more steep and I had 3 climbs in succesion until I reached the top at santiago de cacem where I lunched at a Petrol station cafe - i do this often as the Galp ststions are great - easy and fast ... like me ! I left santiago on a great downhill run, I could now clearly see Sines on the coast which would have been far easier than my route through the mountains, but Sines is industrial with a port and a huge Oil refinery. The last time I cycled through Sines I couldn't find a road north and had to cycle along a motorway for 5 miles ! luckily it was a quiet morning. I was doing 20mph plus through Azinal and homing in on Melides when disaster struck - the road suddenly became unpaved for about 10 yards, there was about a 6 inch drop to a rough surface and then a 6 inch rise. Disaster struck as I was doing 20mph + and didn't see it till too late, I dropped, rattled and thumped into the ramp and as I thought that was rough I heard the back tyre emptying !n Now I had 3 spare tubes, 1 in the bottom of the pannier I thought may be old, one I had change dyesterday which was definitely punctured and one which i though was new. The new one was on in 5 minutes but it leaked - I took it back off and tried to repair it and the current puncture. A dutch cyclist asked if I was OK and I said yes as he cycled on. Next a Portuguese guy on a ricketey mountain bike stopped, he lived 2 km away and was heading to the beach, he was giving me his expert advice in Portuguese, telling me how the tubes aren't as good as they noww use plastic as well as rubber - all this as i failed to repair both tubes. He was picking them up, stretching them and dropping them on the grit which didn't help. I thought I will dig that 4th tube out of the bottom of the pannier and thank god it was good and I was soon ready to go after thanking 68 year old Julio for 'helping' I had planned to get the 5pm ferry from Troia across the estuary to Setubal and they run every hour. It was 2:30, I had lost 90 minutes and I had 28 miles to go - I pressed on hard even thinking i could still catch the 5pm ferry if I could average 18mph which I was doing easily, however once I reached the N261-1 and the estuary the wind hit me - 8 miles to Comporta and it was doubtful I could do the last 8 miles in 20 minutes ! From Comoprta I waould be on a narrow spit of land which is the Troia peninsular, the estuary was on my right and the open Atlantic ocean on my left, fortunately the road sits behind large sand dunes protecting me from the full force of the caostal breeze. I thought I would have a beer waiting for the 6pm ferry after I had arrived at 5:15 but cycling round Troia I quickly realised it's all gated and closed communities aorund the Pestana Golf & Country club. The ferry was immensely busy as I guess all the workers in the exclusive resorts were heading home to setubal. A 20 minute ferry took me across to setubal passing the head of the penisular which almost touches the large hills on the Setubal side around Sessimbra .... A place I've never cycled to yet ... There's a thought ! I then only had a few hundred yards to my hotel where after a quick shower and change I was out to visit a great Sports Bar in a housing estate I found 3 years ago to watch the Madrid Liverpool game.