TET Portugal 01

 

By about 10am our convoy of four bikes rolled by the lake in the picture below. A dirt track skims the waters edge and the water presents a perfect mirror in places.  It was serene, the only thing spoiling the serenity was my bike backfiring like a shotgun every corner. Blissful.

Just prior to that we'd pulled into a petrol station at and the attended, a man in his 50's, tanned, weathered, old beyond his years and drinking a beer for breakfast pointed at the frog on Barrie's chain! Odd. No idea, but it was alive and well. 

I'll get the elephant out of the room now, my off road bike had been stolen a few days ago, putting the whole trip in jeopardy.  These things happen in life and it's how you deal with adversity that makes the person. 

Like a knight in shining armour Andy, from my previous Destination Dakar trip,  kindly lent me his bike and sacrificed his trip!  Thank you so much Sir Andy. I owe you big time. 

I wired in a GPS unit, fitted an air filter, borrowed a RAM mount from Jason and used a coaster from the hotel as a luggage heat shield (above and below)! Boom, job done and I was good to go!! 

The lake tuned out to be a reservoir and my three companions posed for a quick snap a top the concrete monster. The mirror in full effect. 

Note Barries odd stance in the picture below.  Bent over the bike, thumbs up and forcing a smile. What you're looking at here is man putting on a brave face on. No slide, nor slip nor crash had marred his day, but an upset stomach had him clawing at his trousers like a teen on spring break and searching for a quiet spot. 

The countryside is much more verdant than I expected, but it's dusty, really dusty. Anyone riding in any position other than front can feel their teeth grinding down on the dust clouds. We're all going to look like tramps in a week with stumpy blackened teeth.

Lunch at a roadside cafe consisting of energy bars cake and bananas. The foodstuffs of champions. We'd asked the hostess for food by pointing at our mouths, I assume she must mistaken that to mean we wanted toothbrushes and said no.  She later cooked for a whole table of locals. Pleasingly Barrie's left them a gift for their courtesy.

Sarah is proving to be a good rider, however at one point I'd lost contact of her. Upon returning I found her bike laying on its side, but she was missing!

Oh god, oh god she's fallen of the side I thought! I nearly started shouting 'Sarah, Sarah!' over the valley and then she calmly stepped out of the shade of a tree. 

Thankfully she'd stepped off the bike when the back slipped at low speed. 

Back on even an keel and plain sailing we covered a few dirt miles and ground down our teeth. 

Nom nom. 

Barrie and Jason were waiting at the ice cream petrol station. They'd taken to riding together as Sarah and I plodded along at a more sedate speed.  Jason set of first and Barrie waited a while before setting off like a greyhound to chase down the rabbit. 

As it turns out both Barrie took a wrong turn and ended up in fenced compound with several huge Alsatians. One of them looking more like Rabbit horror dog gave chase.  Glad it filled up on good ol' Liverpudlian meat first. (Barrie 😉) 

Seeing my opportunity to make up a few miles Sarah and i bypassed a section of off-road. We'd done 80miles by this point and the constant juddering was taking its toll on our arse cheeks. The bikes, fitted as they are, with planks of wood masquerading as seats. 

In true testament to both Barrie and Jason's skills they actually finished the route, Barrie even beating us to the hotel! 

Our hotel for the evening was Deolinda in Santiago de Cacem. The hostess doesn't speak a word of English, her husband makes wine and spirits and they were great to us.... and themselves when they presented a bill for €370,000

The spirit is 48% by volume and the picture below shows Barrie Four Cakes trying translate 'no i asked for Cream not moonshine with my desserts!'

100+ miles covered today, map shows our progress to Porto.

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