March 21, 2025
Day 4: Tavira to Faro, train to Lagos, Lagos to Salema
A blustery, squally day with the piece de resistance in the last 2 km- two 20% hills
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After a lovely night at the Ozadi Tavira hotel, we were ready for our non-purist riding day. But first, a delay in starting due to a deluge that popped out of nowhere. It went from bright sun to sheets of rain and wind in five minutes. We opted for full battle gear, with two layers plus leg warmers and long gloves. Come to the Algarve in the winter they say for sun and warmth. 😀
Dan used cycle.travel to build our routes, converting them to gpx files, sending them to ride with gps, then downloading onto our Garmins with a phone sync. And mirabile dictu, it worked (more on that in a bit). This proved very handy in the first few km through Tavira, as there were lots of turns. After 4 km though we were on a delightful farm road through orange groves.
Then came the wind and rain squalls. Quickly donning rain gear and putting a helmet cover on, we continued into a 2 gear headwind. Quoting famous Pacific Northwest mountain climber Fred Beckey, it was “mildly unpleasant”. An hour of this dreck brought us into a small town, which fortunately had a bar open for a well deserved coffee. We met a British couple who were living full time there. Dan and I both were startled when they said they didn’t know a word of Portuguese. My Sevilla friend Pedro told me the Portuguese word for cortado, it’s pingado. And we knew enough Portuguese to order food. But, just gobsmacking. (Yes, unfortunately, many Americans fit this description as well).
During our coffee interlude, Mother Nature calmed down a bit, turning off the faucet, and just throwing wind to beat a dirty deegan down our necks, and everywhere else. We arrived in Faro in time to go to a Spar market to pick up lunch for the train. The packaged Caesar salad for 3.50 euros was quite edible and fresh.
For the train, bicyclists buy their ticket (8.10 euros) on board. Cash only. After a scrum to load, it was a pump to lift the bikes up, we secured space, and found single seats on the standing room only train. We believe the conductor was the same charming individual we had on our December 2022 trip. I coined him “nurse ratchet” from the Ken Kesey book, “one flew over the cuckoos nest”.
Our journey to Lagos was delayed a half hour, since we had to wait for the higher speed train from Lisbon to arrive in Tunes, they’ve had even more rain and wind to the north, disrupting some services. Getting off in Lagos, Dan was able to load the ride to Salema, I was not. 😡. Somewhat infuriating. I’m going to investigate further.
The last 20 km featured more climbing than the first 40, ending with two 20% hills, one of which apparently was too short to show up on the list of climbs. We are staying in a villa at the NAU resort. Dan found a very good rate for two nights, the unit has a washing machine, and it was nice to enjoy a home cooked meal, albeit going to the supermercado required a trip down and then back up a 20% hill. The forecasters continue to predict an end to the blustery weather in a day or two. It’s been warmer in Copenhagen than in the Algarve.
Today's ride: 59 km (37 miles)
Total: 319 km (198 miles)
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