To the Cabo de São Vicente!!

Woke to ‘a cracker’ of a morning! Weather has cleared. 

We have a big day ahead.

Left our lovely rural accommodation and after a short-lived navigational error trying to avoid the main road we in fact ended up riding it for a short time and it was reasonably quiet.

Into Aljezur close to 10 am after a big descent. Already very hot. Pretty town. Water in the river here too! 

Then a big ascent back out. Some big ups (!); we toiled and sweated away but were rewarded with several buzzy descents too. MF tells me we climbed 165 m twice.

We are not far from the coast and can at times see huge sand dunes bathed in sunlight as we veer closer. We stop briefly at a small surfers’ town and decline to have coffee here as it seems pretty ordinary and then put the ‘after-burners’ on to leave a ‘pack’ that came up behind us, leaving them ‘in the dust’ as we climbed - and climbed - and climbed; and of course, because we had committed to setting the pace, we had to keep at it lest the pack behind us catch us and overtake us.

Lots of campervans passed us.

Finally we gave way to the pack and stopped at a pine forest alongside the road that had tables and chairs - perfect for our picnic lunch. 16 kms to go!

We pressed on, the day getting very hot (the temperature varied a lot today from 21 to 35 deg C); water at Lidl on the way through Vila do Bispo.

Then a nice rural road through desolate country (not a tree in sight) - until we hit gravel road again (argh). 

Then thankfully paved road again all the way to the lighthouse (passing the Fortaleza do Beliche - built in 1632 and perched precariously on unstable ground which has eroded right up to the walls of the fort on one side - hence the fort is now closed).

Cabo de São Vicente, the southwesternmost point of Portugal and of mainland Europe. The lighthouse here:

Yay!! We made it.

We celebrated with a sangria for me and a mojito for MF; then ‘cycled’ the almost 7 kms into Sagres where we are staying the night - exquisite spot!!

Stopped first for a delicious icecream and coffee which I suspect also mitigated the earlier alcohol somewhat (and which cost a small fortune; we are in tourism-central here).

Great accommodation with views out over the water. 

Pizza for dinner. And a lovely walk along the cliff area overlooking the beach.

Cycled 66 kms; climbed 514 m.