Sebutal to Santo André

September 11, 2022

Through the Dunes

This morning we woke up to fog. Much to my astonishment, it was still warm enough to eat outside on the terrace and be very comfortable. Fog is freezing at home, but not here. Our entertainment at breakfast was watching the road tour get ready for their ride five stories down. They did a yoga/calisthenics workout on the sidewalk as a warm up. We old folk don’t bother with warm ups…we need to save our energy for the task at hand. Keith went down to take a picture, was roped into chief photographer duties and reported back that several were calling “oh my aching a#*” as they pointed their bikes towards Lisbon. The moral to the story…renting a Pinarello would be awesome, but always bring your own saddle, especially when doing over 100 km a day.

More mirror fun on the breakfast terrace.

The ferry crossing was uneventful. We met four other bike tourers on the boat, two from Poland and two from Switzerland. We all swung south and the real riding began. We saw about a dozen touring cyclists today.

Our lime green ferry, with the addition of some Coca Cola branding.

Here you can appreciate the ferry colour better.

Today’s scenery was repetitive, sand dunes and pine trees for kilometres. The road was great, only moderately busy with very respectful drivers. No shoulder most of the time, but cars gave us lots of room. It felt good to do some uninterrupted cycling even if the view was somewhat uninspiring. The terrain was rolling, never any big hills, but rarely flat either. We think we were lucky it is Sunday as there were no trucks. The fog burned off and we had a bluebird day.

The most inspiring shot of the day. The rest was pine trees and sand dunes. We saw green and stopped, so surprised to see green.

We went through an area with dozens of stork nests.

We stopped for coffee in Comporta and ran into the Swiss cyclists and had a chat. Comporta had a few interesting coffee places and a fantastic artisans market. I spent some time in there while the CN watched the bikes.

Too bad one of these would be so hard to carry home.

Then more rolling hills and pine trees. So much sand! The CN was so mesmerized by the monotony of it all that he missed our turn. Pretty much the only turn we had to make. I saw the road signs. I didn’t get my nickname the GTW (go this way) for nothing, but this time I didn’t call as I knew Keith was on his game. He stopped after 4 km in the wrong direction and was he ever mad at himself. I wasn’t the least bit perturbed but it took a few minutes for him to forgive himself. Imagine the Swiss cyclists surprise to see us coming back the other way. It meant a great side of the highway visit though.

At the turn around we felt peckish. We are still not right on top of things obviously. All I had in the feed bag was a hard boiled egg, a power bar and some candied lemon peel gifted to us by the hotel. We woofed that down and began looking for a spot like the one in Comporta. We didn’t find anything quick and easy like that. Instead we came to a restaurant. It was absolutely packed, chaotic and had customers lined up out the door. It was fascinating to watch. The second was a little less busy, we could get a table, but we clearly had landed right in the middle of Portuguese Sunday mid day meal. Adults, kids, dogs, everyone was there. At the first spot no one spoke English, at the second one of the servers was our saviour.

We only had about 15 km to go after our lunch and then the hotel appeared on the horizon. It will be interesting to see if tomorrow is more of the same or if we will be along the coast.

We headed straight to the InterMarche after settling into our room and having a beer on our room terrace. We wanted to load up on snacks for tomorrow. We were both still full from our late lunch, so we picked up snacks for tonight’s dinner too. I found the walk to the super market nerve racking. Every house had a dog, every dog barked. When it was a yappy little chihuahua I wasn’t concerned but when it was two barking growling pit bulls the fence didn’t look high enough for me. We came home another way.

Keith’s favourite aisle. These prices are so low, and we have no idea what it would taste like. We will have to try one. If it ended up going down the drain it wouldn’t be much of a loss.

The supermarket had the most interesting display of fish. We didn’t buy any of course, but had fun looking. We found everything we needed and will visit the best bakery in town in the morning. The wonderful woman at the front desk helped us out there.

When I see displays like these I wonder how long until there won’t be any fish left in the ocean.

We weren’t sure what this was. Some kind of salted dried fish we think and there was so much of it.

So many different varieties. It was a huge part of the store.

We aren’t sure where we will get to tomorrow. Should be interesting.

This is an interesting Relive. You can certainly see where we had our navigational hiccup.

https://www.relive.cc/view/vYvrLkQg5L6

Today's ride: 72 km (45 miles)
Total: 225 km (140 miles)

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David MathersThe Relive link takes me to the Sebutal loop again 🤔. Looks like you’re getting into the touring groove. Keep up the great work 👍
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2 years ago

Keith ClassenThanks Dave … think we should have that sorted out now.
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2 years ago

Kathleen ClassenHehe, not yet and I am done for the night. I will fix it in the morning.
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2 years ago

Keith ClassenTo David MathersSpoke too soon. But it will be sorted out tomorrow I have been advised. I think it was a matter of posting the wrong link.
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2 years ago

Rachael AndersonSounds like Keith has the same issue Scott has with missing turns even though he can set the Garmin edge up to beep! It must be a male thing! I love that our Garmins let us track each other and message each other from the device. also,nice we have our routes loaded, I tend to be in the lead and stop and wait at tricky turns. Looks like great riding there!
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2 years ago