Portugal Tour

Saturday 16 Apr (50 km):

Improvment of Aim'jie's baggage. On my bike I put a removeable bucket in front. That's praktical for water, cap and especially the smartphone for navigation.

Sleeping place before Málaga between small boats. I use a carton instead of isolation mat.

Sunday (38 km):

At the port of Málaga we push the bikes. 

To avoid car traffic, we use the beach promenade often.

Behind Málaga, we leave the coast and follow the hiking trail GR-248 northwards. The long-distance hiking trails are usually marked in white and red.

It's a hot day. We make long breaks.

The car road to Pizarra has little traffic and is fine for us.

Sleeping place before Pizarra with a great view

Monday (43km):

We make a detour before Pizarra...

... in the Sierra Gibralmora

View to Ardales

Tuesday (37km):

We slept before the village Teba under an olive tree.

Often we find small roads with very little traffic. For that we accept detours, ascents and road bumps.

Many poppies, wild radish, marguerites, etc. are blooming at the roadside in spring.

My impression is that Andalusia has more smelly livestock farms than Germany and France.

Here you can watch Aim'jie riding her bicycle...

Aim'jie is not really fit to ride a bike. Often she has to push it.

We prefer even dirt roads to asphalt roads with much traffic.

Many thanks to the makers of the hiking trails! Now we're on the GR-246.

Wednesday (55km):

Sleeping place, protected from the wind by bushes, protected from the rain by our tarps. There's rain in the night and in the morning. We relax and start in the midday.

Still some drops are falling. But so little, that we don't need protection. The plants are thanksful for the rain.

Cows in flower-power

Thursday (33km):

We like to sleep under bushes or trees. They protect from the wind. And if there's no wind, they protect from the dew and they reduce the temperature differences.

We are on a 40km long dirt road between Morón de la Frontera and Dos Hermanas. 40km no village!

Friday (6km):

We slept in this hotel. We didnt find a free roof that would be good enough for Aim'jie, and there was much rain and wind in the forecast. We leave the hotel at 4 pm.

We find again a route without traffic. But this time it was a mistake. Our map (Osmand) was wrong, we get into a dead end. And it starts to rain...

...and the dirt road becones a mud road. We find a dry place under a highway bridge, but our bikes are full of mud. We clean them under the bridge.

Finally we sleep under this highway bridge. With the bicycles we build a little windbreak. What a contrast to the **** hotel of the last night!

Saturday 23 Apr (42km):

We had to drive back to Dos Hermanas to avoid the muddy roads. Finally we leave Dos Hermanas.

The Municipality of Seville has done some good for cycling, even if some bike lanes are not maintained.

However, this bike path is an impertinence. It has more than 20 of those needless barriers where you have to get off the bike every time.

Here you are asked to stop at every property exit. Granted, these crossings are dangerous. But then better cycle lanes right on the side of the road!

It starts to rain - just as we decide to shop and eat at Aldi.

Sunday (73km):

We slept 18 km southwest of the center of Seville. In the morning two boys come and show us their hut they built under a tree only 10 m from our sleeping place. 

Andalusia doesn't have many real forests anymore. Here is one.

About 10 times we have to ride through water like here.

There is a stork's nest on almost every one of these high-voltage pylons.

Monday (55km):

We slept under this tree, 10km north of the center of Huelva. In the daytime we ride to the coast, to get a first view over the Atlantic.

Tuesday (32km):

Overnight place, 4km from the coast. As we didn't find a good place under a tree, our sleeping bags are wet. No problem, we dry them in the midday sun.

After 7km close to the coast...

...we reach the border to Portugal in the town Ayamonte. The border is the river Río Guadiana. 

We cross the Río Guadiana on a ferry. The next bridge for bicycles would be 100km landinside. Good bye, Spain!

Nice path at the coast at Altura in Portugal, approved for bicycles

Last break

Wednesday (47km):

We slept under this carob tree.

There are many salt lakes.

We are on the ev1 (EuroVelo1) from Scandinavia to Spain along the Atlantic coast.

Some sections of the ev1 are nicely made and marked. There we see often cyclists.

Video from the coast close to Olhão

This traffic sign is probably intended to warn of the slight narrowing caused by the wooden railing.

Once there, the sign unintentionally takes on a second meaning: the bike path ends suddenly, but there is a narrow gap through which we push the bikes.

Thursday (39km):

We slept in a wild area under this pine tree.

Friday (17km):

We slept here in an unused land, under the sky. This time there was only a little dew.

How did this big chunk get on top of the smaller stones? I guess it was a great collaboration. Or Obelix was here ;-)

We reach our first destination: the community Healing Circle Sanctuary close to Silves.

Saturday 30 Apr  (17km):

Overnight in the community

We reach our final destination, the "Terramana" project of Oiko and Sève. They buy 18.5 hectares of land between Silves and Portimão and create there a "spiritual rawfood community" on the Arade River.

Our food:

Cariza, found at the port of Málaga

Mulberries, tasting not so sweet like the ones in the Alpujarras

Butia, related to dates, collected from the ground

A tree of  Butia

Nisperos

Wild radish, sow thistle and wild mallow

Yacon, a tasty and healthy root from our garden

We also still have eggs, sun-dried bananas and figs from our garden. And dried fish.

We asked a farmer if we could pick some of his oranges. "Wait a minute" he said, and brought a big bag full. We added wild peas and fennel.

The wild pea plant is the favorite of Aim'jie.

We still find almonds from last year and crack them with a stone.

A bouquet of flowers to eat! Mallow, poppy and wild radish

All parts of the mallow are good to eat. But the seeds are our favorite.

Wednesday morning, after the rainy night, we notice that we stepped on garlic plants that are growing only 2m away under the bushes.

Prickly pears, this kind is a bit sour...

...and they color the lips so beautifully!

The Prickly pears on the plant. They have many spikes. Most people touch them only with gloves. I am not so sensitive about that.

Northwest of Huelva, we find these piles of discarded oranges. Many are moldy, but we find good ones as well.

Red mulberries

We don't find much food on the way. Mostly we bought our food, exceptionally also cooked food, almost everything from organic farming.