So I could have cycled back to Albufeira today I'm that close but my apartment is booked from the 26th so more cycling is required 😂
Although Ive cycled this coast before I stayed on the main road and blasted through, so today I took the opportunity to head off on the winding roads down to every village and cove possible and boy was it spectacular in places.
I almost decided to visit the lighthouse at Cabo Sadao as an afterthought - a one mile diversion wasn't too much of an inconvenience, and the lighthouse was fairly standard as they go - but I'm glad I decided to walk 200 metres to the shore because it was immense.
Massive layers of sedimentary rock uplifted and folded at near vertical angles, the cliffs plummeted 400 feet and there were storks nesting on the edges of precipices yards away from vantage points that quite probably wouldnt be allowed in the UK.
I took full advantage, hanging over precipices to get photos !
Shortly afterwards at Porto das Barcas I stopped to celebrate the acheivement of 1000 miles on Tour and this was a little gem of a village with a port hidden so far below the cliffs you could almost not see it.
Lunch in Zambujeiro, followed by 2 consecutive tough climbs out of here and Carvalhal, both tough because the road was diagonal concrete blocks and the gradient was well over 10%. One guy on a mountain bike was stopped and pushing his bike ... I blasted past despite being on road tyres and having two heavy panniers.
Now the weather had been strange all day, never really getting light due to tons of Saharan sand being blow over and dumped on Portugal - the cars were coated and I had to keep wiping my Garmin and phone to see the screens.
Two more climbs followed, first out of Odiceite where there had been a forest fire and many of the trees were missing or black. The last climb out of Aljezur was a disaster - I missed the turn and saw another road heading up but, not knowing it I retreated and trusted my route - I turned onto a tiny cobble street which turned a corner and almost went verticle, I was cycling past peoples front lanes in a crazy steep ancient town layout. After much lung and thigh busting my 'track' joined the other road ... a beautifully smooth, wide, modern road with a steady 5% gradient ... Baah Humbug !