Monte Gordo to Alcoutim

November 14, 2024

Last night’s dinner buffet was just fine. It was 18€ per person and there was soup, bread (for which there is always a charge in Portugal), a selection of salads and salad items to assemble your own (including tuna); hot courses included a fish dish, chicken, quiche, rice, Brussels sprouts. And then there were desserts: 3 fancy ones plus fresh fruit and cheese. We each had a glass of wine to accompany and left full.

This morning we woke to discover that the forecast we’d seen yesterday was correct. We are reportedly in for a couple of wet, blustery days. Not a headwind, at least. As pleasant as this hotel is, we don’t really want to stay another night.

You might as well take on potentially bad weather with a full stomach, so we started with the breakfast buffet. It was excellent. Al found all the components for a Full English; I had my usual granola with yogurt, fresh fruit, and pastries (they were small). Our only quibble would be the coffee with the odd-tasting milk.

After packing up, I replayed a video our daughter-in-law had posted on our family WhatsApp and added some Rydergiggles™️ to my day.

The unofficial bike area in the hotel garage. Our bikes plus several pairs of rented town-style bikes.

The unofficial bike area is near the dryer exhaust of the hotel’s laundry room so we waited until we got outside to decide whether extra layers would be needed. We were happy to find it to be a perfect riding temperature and not raining.

There was a good bike path beside the road as far as Castro Marim and shortly afterward we turned off onto narrow quiet roads. Even when our route joined N122, it was still a quiet road with very little traffic. The best riding day of the trip so far and especially in contrast with yesterday!

Al met another cyclist on the way into Castro Marim but she was going the other way.

We finally reached the Rio Guadiana, the large river between Spain and Portugal. There was a lot of road infrastructure (paint, boardwalks by the highway) through Guerreiros do Rio (red paint) and Laranjeiras (yellow paint). There must be a lot of (seasonal?) traffic through here to justify it. There were also a lot of good-sized sailboats moored beside or in the river.

An archeological site, Villa Romana do Montinho das Laranjeiras. The Roman ruins were exposed by floodwaters.

Up until the Miradouro do Pontal, the last high point and 6.5 km before Alcoutim, we were toying with the idea of riding all the way to Mertola today. But it started to rain just as I got there (Al was waiting) so we decided it would be wiser to stop for the night in Alcoutim. We didn’t need to temp fate with another 37 km of riding, 611 m of climbing, and 577 m of (cold) descending, based on our planned RWGPS route.

We rode through the old town without seeing the other hotel we were considering (without knowing its rate or whether it was even open because Google had no information other than its name and rating) and registered at Hotel d’Alcoutim, the one my research had flagged as a good prospect.

Our room looks great, bright and spacious with a river view. 50€ plus 10€ each for breakfast.

After settling in, we walked into the old town for lunch. There is a restaurant at the hotel and the kitchen is advertised as being open from noon until 9 pm, but it’s dark in the dining room and we will likely be having there.

I noticed this wall by a school as we rode to the hotel.

In old Alcoutim. There were several hangings like this, this one about Coca Cola was the most interesting to me.

Looking across to Sanlúcar de Guadiana, in Spain. Those are the two River ferry boats on the left with the green awnings.

Alcoutim has bike share! I wouldn’t think the town is big enough for that to be viable.

We started with post-ride refreshments. Guess whose is whose!

The menu listed these as “tapas” but they are much larger plates and somewhat higher prices; the cheese and meat board was 12€ and I think the fried squid was the same. Delicious!

Zooming in on the Spanish windmills we could see from our table.

Old Alcoutim with the castle on top, as seen from near the ferry dock. We had our “tapas” on the little terrace just left of centre of the shot. We congratulated ourselves on our decision to stay here when it rained quite hard as we were finishing our meal. It didn’t rain long but long enough to get the parts of cyclist not covered by rain gear very wet.

We congratulated ourselves on our decision to stay here when it rained quite hard as we were finishing our meal. It didn’t rain long but long enough to get the parts of cyclist not covered by rain gear very wet. When the rain stopped, we made our exit and walked back to our hotel.

I’m writing this in the lounge while Al lubed the chains of both bikes, added sealant to his tire that’s been slowly leaking, and—went for a short swim in the hotel’s outdoor pool. Somehow this beats riding in the potential rain.

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Today's ride: 47 km (29 miles)
Total: 510 km (317 miles)

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Scott AndersonWe stopped for lunch in Alcoutim years ago on our way to Mertola, when we had less vacationtime and kept our days longer. It’s a nice place though, one that I’ve always wanted to go back to.
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1 month ago

Jacquie GaudetTo Scott AndersonWe’re more or less following your tracks but we decided to make the days shorter because, well, the days *are* shorter in November. Sunset has been around 5:30 and it’s nice to have time to walk around and explore in daylight.
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1 month ago