Faro to Monte Gordo

November 13, 2024

We hadn’t decided how far we were going to ride today. Rick Steves’ guidebook entry seemed to suggest Tavira was the best Algarve town west of Lagos to visit, but Monte Gordo was better located in terms of breaking the distance between Faro and Alcoutim. Unless, of course, we saw a great place for a beach break on the way. As given away by the title, we rode to Monte Gordo without even considering stopping in Tavira. In fact, getting through Tavira was one of the icky bits and we didn’t even know it was Tavira until we had escaped and asked each other, “What was that place?”

We also had a slightly delayed start because, when packing up this morning, Al couldn’t find his hat (yes, that nice Rocacorba one) and realized he must have left it at the restaurant last night. We had drunk an entire bottle of wine, after all.

A bit of research showed that the restaurant would open for lunch at noon so we figured someone would be in well before that to start the prep. Accordingly, shortly before 10, we were ensconced at a café across the street, enjoying coffees we hadn’t had with our granola back at Happy House. When my coffee was done, I started riding, first with a circle round to see if the restaurant had a back entrance. It didn’t, so I carried on, knowing Al would catch up. He did, before I’d even got out of town. The cleaning lady had arrived and rescued his hat for him.

We followed EV1 for almost all of our route today. We also rode more unpaved surfaces than we normally do, so the energy expended for 64 km with less than 300 m of climbing was quite a bit higher than it would have been on smooth roads.

The unpaved surfaces ranged from nicely packed fine gravel/dirt to an unrideable deep layer of ~40mm stones (in multiple places and for long extents). There were also some pleasant boardwalk sections through the salt marshes. At one point, after lunch at Cabanas de Tavira, we escaped to EN125 for 5 km just to get some smooth highway asphalt.

Between Olhão and Fuseta. There have been very few EV1 signs seen on this trip, even when riding EV1.

This sign, seen on EV1 where it enters Cabanas de Tavira, is soon followed by one of the unrideable large loose gravel sections.

I had eggs Benny with smoked salmon for lunch in Cabanas de Tavira. Al had a burger.

I’ve been seeing occasional Ecovia signs since Carrapateira. This one is as we arrive in Alturs. None of them are in particularly good shape or particularly informative.

We arrived in Monte Gordo without drama and checked in to the Monte Gordo Hotel Apartamentos and Spa. Not a character place but clean and spacious, 63€ including breakfast. There’s a dinner buffet available as well so we are off to check that out.

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Today's ride: 64 km (40 miles)
Total: 463 km (288 miles)

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