Spanish coast SW

First time we forgot something and left the locks behind at Isla Cristina. I am sitting sunning myself by a beach at La Antilla while gary is pedalling back to the little hotel Paraiso where we had a bed to sleep in, the first for a good month! He'll be at least two hours. I kept his heavy bike bags to give him wings and this break gives me time to write.

We will continue for a day or so along the Spanish coast before going up to Seville for a couple of days to see the city before the flight back to Toulouse on the 23rd.

We are looking forward to seeing all our french family and Sacha and little big man baby Lucas are coming over from Quebec!

Dawn will be forty on the 28th,so a big celebration to come. Little viggo, Daisy and J's new baby has totally changed since we left.

Looking back over the last 5 weeks, lots of colourful memories come to mind and warm scents of pine trees and sardines on the grill, not to mention the fresh salty tang of the air. I became so keen on  sardines that i decided to use 'sardine' instead of 'banane' as my cycling mantra up tough hills. I gave it a go but soon went back to 'banane, left push right push,banane,left right........etc,etc

We complained about the rainy weather in the basque country but have other memorable images of that beautiful rugged coastline. When we finally climbed on  that first hot day to 400 meters above the sea from Irun, I can remember gazing down over the green drop to the dark grey/blue sea below and seeing a clear pattern of white birds' heads bobbing far below like a strand of pearls.

People were often warm and supportive, giving us the thumbs up sign when we reached the top of a hill as they drove by in low gear. 

Before leaving Portugal, we avoided one stretch of the coastal mainroad by following tracks across the salt flats finally ending up on a sandy beach opposite one of the flat islands in the group called the ria formosa. When I was waist high in the crystal clear waters, fish were swimming past me in all directions following the ebbing tide round the islands.

Some of the undrained flats were a deep red colour,right next to another rectangle of bright blue water. I have never seen nor eaten more fish than on this trip!

We now find ouselves south west of Seville in an extraordinary village El Rocio, suggested to us by Olivier , Martine and Pierre who met up with us near the spanish border.What a pleasant surprise to meet up with friends and neighbours by a beach in Portugal, so what did we do? Went and ate indian curry together!

Next day we took a ferry from Ohlao out to the islands and walked along a sun drenched beach together and had a picnic!

Going back to the present, El Roncio is very like an old mexican pueblo with vast areas of sand surrounding an old white walled church.There are mules pulling carts full of visitors, beautiful horses prancing by and enthusiastic flamenco style singing in the church, loud bells ring out over the marsh land and guns go off frequently to scare the pigeons away. Gary was forcibly ejected from his bike twice in thick sand! Just a few scratches.

We have cycled north to get here next to Donana, a national park full of scrub, pines, storks, flamingos and the odd lynx. In a couple of days we'll arrive in Seville and spend 3 days there before flying home. Will finally have lots of tapas and gaspacho!

So look forward to seeing many of you soon

Down the road.......

Anna

Salema

After finally being totally intoxicated by the sun, we are also immersed in the wild, cold Atlantic sea where there are big rough and tumble waves that are indulged by fabulous looking bronzed creatures on surf boards who could be perfect candidates for any advert depicting health that, we have discovered, coming from all over the planet to ride the waves or anything else they can get to ride in an apparent evenings past time if some of our campsites are an accurate source of information. But alas, my dancing fingers are getting the best of me as we are enjoying our morning cup of coffee here in a coffee shop Anna has discovered which she has the uncanny knack of doing in each port we arrive in, this one, Sagres, Portugal, which is the furthest point West you can get in Europe and where the sunsets are spectacular as in a Japanese pastel painting and the warm and alternating cool evening breezes that make for extremely wonderful sleeps and lazy mornings.I'm being called by Anna to get my ass in gear as she is astride her bike, pedals reving as we make our way to our next destination, Salema.

We never did Lisbon as when we arrived at seven thirty in the morning, after me sharing my bed on our first class match box compartment with the front wheel of my bike, not my first  choice, we were totally convinced finding lodgings wouldn't be a problem, UNTIL, reality began to set in after one 'complete' after another and we sought refuge in a bike shop hoping the proprietor would be able to guide us. His advice, 'GET OUT OF LISBON!' which is very bike unfriendly and IF we did find a place to stay, the cheaper ones could be on the fourth floor, not fun to lug bikes and bags! Following his advice we found ourselves on yet another train, very bike friendly, where we found ourselves after an hour ride stopping at every small station what would turn out to be the start of our adventure in the sun, SETUBAL!

We were hungry towards 3pm and saw a sign for a menu at 7.50 euros, didn't realise then that it would be the best value so far! Chilled white wine,  salad, big plate with grilled fish, new potatoes and greens, followed by lemon mousse, then the waiter gave us a glass each of a local port wine on the house!

Spent a day cycling to  beautiful beaches near Setubal, then took a boat over to the mainland south of the port. A long ride south followed on from there through sandy flats with the surf pounding onto empty stretches of beach for miles. Days later, the land showed signs of  baked brown grass and knotted pine trees, golden brown cattle grazed on these tough prairies.

The surf was hard to swim in as there's a strong undertow but it was lovely to hear the surf  pounding all night long beyond our tent. Since then we have seen the landscape  change to forests of pines and eucalyptus giving off a heady odour in the heat of the day. Riding has been a combination of flat, rolling hills to some awfully steep climbs hoping around each corner would be the top. Each day we stop for picnics and end up at a campsite usually in enough time to set up camp, drink a beer and frolic in the exploding surf and laze about in the very fine hot sand until we make our way back to camp to shower and prepare to look for a place to eat our evening meal. We've eaten more sardines here in Portugal than we've ever eaten in our lives, they are so so amazingly good and CHEAP! 

We climb into our tents around 10:30 and sleep a cozy sleep until round bout 7! I'm up around first and prepare the teas and we laze around depending what's planned for the day. We're not looking at the kilometres covered on this trip, only curiousity of the next place down the coast that gets us moving. Today we're in Salema in a beautiful gorge surrounded by lush green shrubs and palms with the sea very close by. Tomorrow we're off to Lagos for a looksee and we'll decide then if we stay or move on eastwards.

down the road........

G&A