Another wet and windy night, with dogs barking, as I was so close to a town and perched on a ridge, hidden in the pine trees underneath some rough looking rock formations.
Today was a transition day, moving from the eastern side of the country to the western coastal areas. The riding was pretty easy, always on hard packed and well defined trails.
Livestock dominate this landscape, cattle mainly, but plenty of sheep and pigs and the odd field of goats. There are miles of green open pasture lands and the ever present cork trees. The villages are either really small or really large, nothing in between. I passed two beautiful ruined hacienda type quinta's today too. They would make great places to renovate.
Throughout the day, I seemed to skirt the edge of some huge rain cloud. Every now and then just getting a drizzle. At one point, the trail follows the edge of a huge reservoir. The trails here were a mix of hard packed red soil, then some really deep soft mud, with one deep river crossing. I had a few issues with the mud, mainly as my back tyre is now down to about 2mm of tread left. Once in a mud hole, it often took a fair bit of power to get through it.
After this I started to hit sand patches. These killed the power on the bike and the front end went all over the place. 'Power really is your friend' is the saying for sand and it proved correct many times today. I dropped the bike a couple of times as well, usually trying to turn around off the track as I'd missed a turn. Once off, its weird deep granite crystal sand, traction is a nightmare and the front wheel just drags to a standstill.
I also found several more locked gates today, forcing some big detours. I get protecting livestock, but blocking public highways annoys me. Feels like being back in the Peak District or certain parts of Wales with the intolerance that seem to have become acceptable behavior in UK society in the last few years.
One thing that surprised me was passing a bull ring stadium in the middle of nowhere today. It seems bull fighting is a thing here, you never hear of it outside of Spain, but given the size of the bulls around here, it's not a surprise when you actually think about it.
My only people interactions for the day were waves to farmers on tractors or in 4x4. One really friendly chap towing a trailer full of fresh cut cork, practically smiling his head off as we passed each other on a narrow section and I stopped to let him pass.
At one point today, I did my typical, changed from one GPX track to another and found I'd done it too soon and missed about 2 miles out. I decided to follow the obvious tracks to the start of the next file and ended up on a narrow single track next to a river. This turned into a wooden boardwalk which eventually exited into some kind of theme park bit. It was all closed up and no one was around, so I sheepishly scooted off before I could get shouted at.
I reached a large town called Montemore O Novo, pretty place with a big castle on the hill. It must have been important in its day with all the huge buildings and grand entrances, but now, I'm not sure what it does.
I decided to find somewhere to stay. That's not an easy thing in Portugal. After a good half hour of riding around looking for any accommodation, I finally asked someone. They pointed me to a place run by a tiny old lady. Outside was just a door and two windows. Inside was a labyrinth of stairs, rooms and corridors. The room was basic, a double bed, a wardrobe and a TV. Our conversation was a mix of Spanish, French and Portuguese. We worked it out, but it was a lot of frowning on both parts. In essence though 25 euros and don't make a mess was the message. Difficult as I was covered in sand!
Once kit was sorted and bike was locked up, I headed into town to search for food and a beer. I found the beer in a bar full of old Portuguese guys, all drinking tiny glasses of red wine and eating platters of bread and some meat. The atmosphere was lovely and the bar tender was busy opening new bottles of wine as each table finished another one. All the time, people were arriving or leaving and it seemed a ritual social event for everyone involved. Food was a trip to a mini market as I never found an open restaurant.
The room was cold, the shower one of those old shower in the bath type of things, but there was cheesy Hollywood action films on TV, so that took me to sleep time!
