The cycling today was great. the roads were good and the legs were good - I was sailing along ...... Shame about the mechanicals !
I started the day with a 10 mile detour to see the nearby monster dam of the Aquelva which holds back about 20 miles of water. To avoid almost doubling back to Moura ther was an unpaved road which cut the corner, now I have experience of unpaved roads but lots of Google Earth views convinced me it would be ok.
As I turned off the road and headed up a dirt track there was a field of bulls which seemed to be paying attention to me - perhaps red panniers wasn't the best choice of colours. Bulls avoided I was in the orchards and could hear the farmers machinery somewhere nearby. The track deteriorated to compressed clay but it was decent to ride on albeit a bit squidgy in places after yesterdays rain. A field of Solar panels appered and I was half a mile off the road feeling good when suddenly the tack was blocked by a barbed wire fence. On inspection it was removable by a tight loop round a post so I opened it and as I dragged the bike through I heard a grinding noise which from past experience sounded like my derailleur going into the bak wheel. I stopped immediately, took the panniers off and looked with dread ... The derailleur was fine - the pannier racl had dome loose and was hitting the wheel. I rummaged through my repair kit but although I had a spare bolt it just wasn't long enough.
I contemplated trying to cut a bit of the wire fence to loop through the pannier but couldn't. In despair what to do I remembered I had bought some cable ties back in Albufeira as I thought they might be useful ... And boy where they. Two ties through the pannier rack and the job looked good. I was back on the road in no time and away .. to a click click click noise. What now ... The front derailleur was catching the chain so amother 20 minutes and a lot of difficulty the adjustment was made good.
As I reached Pavoa the town was about a mile long of the roughest cobbles I'd seen in a while - I cycled carefully worried about a cable tie snapping. I reached the end of the town and as I stopped to look I couldn't uncleat my left shoe - it was completely caked in mud from the track and stuck solid - after much heaving I got my foot loose but the cleat had moved so another 20 minutes cleaning and adjusting my left shoe was required.
The cable ties were fine coincidently.
As I crossed an arm of the reservoir I took pictures and a gopro video and then i was at Mourao at the top of the resrvoir where I turned right and after slogging 6 miles uphill I was in Spain. Well I parked the bike on the border and by my GPS I had the front wheel in Spain and the back one in Portugal.
Lunch at Villanueva del Fresno and I rolled on through drizzle into Alconchel where there is a fabulous looking castle above the town then into Olivenza by 5pm which wasn't bad after all the mechanical Issues and the fact I lost an hour going from Portugal to Spain.