April 27: Day 0, Cabo de São Vicente-Aljezur
Last few optional things needing to be sorted out this week; sunglasses, getting a better pump, a whistle (to attract attention in an emergency), a penknife. On Wednesday night I do a last gear check, separate out the carry-on from hold luggage, squeeze a few big and light things into the bike box, and try to get an early night.
That spectacularly failed: a last few family things stretched out to 11pm so I set the alarm for 0250 with a distinct lack of enthusiasm. After the alarm goes I'm quietly trying to get my things for the shower when my cellphone rings - an emergency? Can I still catch my flight? No, the taxi driver thought the time was 0300 not 0330. Their mistake… and after that adrenaline hit, I’m awake.
I get out to the taxi on time. I've packed everything down to two panniers and the bike box. One thing I haven't figured out is how to carry all of it at once. I'm especially worried about the train station in Faro, where there won't be trolleys and there may be a long way to go, and I don't want to leave stuff unattended...
Schipol airport is busy at 4am, there's a long queue of traffic. I get everything onto a trolley but the bike box only stays on if it's sideways. So I'm 1.5m wide and it's a puzzle navigating the crowds, doors, and even through rows of flowerboxes. I'm defeated by the checkin queue, and just slide it along the floor. The handle holes are starting to rip. Hopefully it survives.
I get to the gate at 0430, it took a very efficient 30min when I'd allowed for 2 hours. Maybe the 4am rush-hour is actually relatively quiet? It’s dark in the gate area so I snooze for a bit, until 0500 when they turn the lights on. At 6 they start loading the luggage onto the plane, and I can see my bikebox sitting on the tarmac next to a surfboard.
I catch up on a bit more sleep on the flight, there's a few hours of cycling to go this afternoon and I don't want to get into debt on the first day...
From left to right: this is the bike box, fully packed. Waiting for the taxi with everything I’m taking for the trip. The bikebox, getting the VIP treatment for the flight. Last is the view after takeoff - pretty sure I’ve cycled down that canal.
Faro airport has a bike assembly station in the baggage hall! It's excellent, and includes a big footpump. I am terribly, terribly tempted to use it to set up my bike ... but I'm not confident that I'll be able to take the bike on the train to Lagos, and decide to play it safe.
Getting a taxi to the station isn't as easy as it should be. The driver of a station wagon says no, he can't fit the bike because his seats don't fold down. Eventually a minivan agrees, it needs some effort to fit it between the seats but we make it work. I'm wondering how it would go if I'd assembled the bike - presumably even worse, and maybe I'd have had to cycle there...?
Faro train station has no screens announcing which platform each train leaves from. They have a loudspeaker but it only speaks in distorted Portugese.
Since I didn't have anything else to do I had a good look at the panniers, and found a shoulder strap: that means I only need my hands to carry the bikebox, so I can carry everything.
Happily it's not busy, and since I know the time the train leaves I have a look around a few minutes before and it's easy to locate.
From left to right: +10C more than Amsterdam! Faro station; it’s a chill place except if you want to take a train and don’t understand distorted Portugese. Getting the bike assembled at Lagos station. Me in the Lidl carpark, with a full stock of bananas.
The start is the south-western corner of Europe, Cabo de São Vicente. It’s about 40km away, about 2 hours.
From left to right: the route transitions from road to gravel. I expect to see a lot of this. 20% gradient already - I hope I don’t see any more of this!
The ride was hilly. There was a hill with 20% gradient, which I made a point of riding up; I figured this would be the worst I would hit so I should check these things. (Foreshadowing alert, btw.) There was a seriously steep gravel downhill, which I gingerly went down with my back brake nearly locked. In Amsterdam the I only use one of the front gears; in all the training I don’t think I actually needed to change it down. On this leg I used every single gear, including the lowest one; which until now I considered a sign of weak character.
I’d also like to share one of the most annoying things ever, which is zipping down a nice long slope and hearing the navigator say “the route is being adjusted”. This happened several times and without exception meant that I’d missed a turnoff at the top.
Also: I didn’t have a fully charged phone and battery, so I was trying to conserve the charge for the main phone. Once while stopping for a map check, I idly wondered if I’d left screen brightness at lowest. I hadn’t, it was at maximum - so I turned it down, and the phone turned off. A crash? What’s going on? What was going on was that it wasn’t a crash; the screen was so dark you couldn’t make anything out in the bright Portuguese sunlight. I managed to turn the brightness up, but it was probably more by luck than judgment…
Anyway, after sampling what’s probably going to be the full range of the routes in Portugal, I got to Cabo de São Vicente. It’s a bit touristy, there even stalls outside selling stuff; and there were a lot of cyclists with panniers. It’s the start of Eurovelo route 1, which I plan to use this afternoon; but it seems like this is a popular part of the world to cycle in.
I got my phone recharged while having a berry smoothie - bikepacking in these exotic corners can a difficult business, but not today! After that I took a bunch of photos to mark the start, called the family (it was King’s day and they were gardening), pulled up the route and got going.
From left to right: by some fish, probably not the best way to remember the Cape. Sun is the wrong angle, no sea. Ooops, wrong way. Finally! And a selfie from when I departed, please understand why I’ve run out of smile.
Here’s where things started to go wrong. I was expecting to follow Eurovelo route 1 up to Aljezur (pop 5884), a simple run taking about 2-3 hours where I’d arrive early, could write this screed, and catch up on sleep.
The route turned onto a sandy path. Seems a bit adventurous for Eurovelo route 1? It’s not actually treacherously sandy, but I stayed out of the toeclips and had to put a foot down a few times. I could make it work though, I persevered, and shortly it improved. The surface turned to hard-pressed sandy dirt with potholes so I could make good progress. I passed a road construction crew; the surface went from very nicely pressed gravel (the final result), then I passed the Bobcat, then very lumpy gravel needing to be rolled, and then it went back to the original hard-pressed sandy dirt. It then rejoined the asphalt road, and after a bit I got the instruction “sharp left”. See the red box in the map image; it seems innocent enough - unpaved route that goes north then east and rejoins the road. Maybe a bit longer than the road alternative, but it seems OK?
From left to right: so sandy I took a picture. The point where it went wrong. This was such a picturesque dropoff I took a picture of it. And the slope here was so steep, I had to take a picture.
It was not OK. The route turned into a downhill biking track. The third picture shows the view. I walked the bike down with both brakes on, and it was marginal. At the bottom I did not want anything like that again, so I tried to delete all nearby waypoints - the idea is that the route will update to something sensible, instead of being forced down a particularly evil segment. No service, and the route app needs network to make edits … well; let’s press on and see how it looks. I’d say “it can’t be worse” but obviously it’s going to.
And it was. I followed the route to a surfing spot, turned right into a carpark, and looked around for where the route went next. The answer was, up a steep slope that was a steep scramble on your hands and feet - but basically impossible with a bike. I took off a pannier and climbed it to see if it was worth actually considering as a way forward: but the climb was tricky and tiring with just one pannier, I didn’t want to do it another two times. And with the bike it would have been worse. The fourth picture shows the view from the top - it was spectacular! So I gave up, and cycled up the asphalt access road.
I think that ended up costing about two hours, and in addition I rejoined the route further back. I set up a new route, taking me directly to the destination the fastest safest way; it was about 2.5 hours. It was about 6:30pm already, so if I got a move on I’d get there just after sunset. Get a move on I did.
The route basically followed the Eurovel Route 1, which was what I was originally planning for. I was hoping for a paved Dutch-style cycleroute, flat and level and easy to do 20km/h: this was a two-lane gravel road, hilly, with potholes everywhere. It passed a farm, with an extended family of dogs: some weren’t fussed, some kept watch, and two barked continuously at me - they were the only ones tied up. I waved at the farmer and got a move on.
The route did not entirely follow the Eurovelo. Occasionally it’d diverge, and I’d stop for a quick map check to be sure it was wise. (I had been burnt badly, it’s going to take a while before I trust the routes I’m given.) The sun was going down, but it was so hilly I couldn’t see the horizon. How long to sunset? Whatever the answer was: get a move on.
The route wound up to the top of a hill, where I couldn’t see the horizon but could see a very nice sunset. After a while I started to pass architect-designed houses, sometimes with carparks; some looked like holiday retreats. The light was getting bad so I put the lights on. And got a move on.
The light was getting really bad; the potholes were getting hard to see, and taking a fall at this point would move things from bad to worse! So I slowed down and pressed on.
The final push brought me in on the high side of Aljezur. Aljezur is built on a steep hillside, and the route down was a zigzag of small paths. I often had to go back and forth a bit looking for the next street down, and often needed both brakes on full because it was so steep. But the roads join up a bit like rivers: they keep joining larger ones. So I flowed naturally to the bottom, turned a corner, and arrived at the hostel! It was about 9:15; they were still open and still had my room. I had a very quick shower, and then went out to the last restaurant in town that was still open. So it all ended well!
But that experience with the route was so awful that tomorrow, I’ll plan a new direct route. And if I ever stop to take photos because the route is getting interesting … I will definitely stop and check the route.
