Category: Garry’s Blog

Garry McGivern’s Portuguese bike ride, Wednesday 19th-August-2009 Santiago de Compostela to Ribadeo. 114 Miles. Long day today, I was on a mission to catch a train from Ribadeo to Santander so that I could get the ferry home tomorrow, but I missed it!

I’d worked out last night with my magic piece of string that Santander is about 300 miles away and Bilbao 400, the two places where I can catch a ferry back to England. But the ferry from Santander leaves tomorrow, and the ferry from Bilbao leaves on Friday, so I had no chance of catching either one this week! And on the other hand, neither destination is far enough away for a week’s ride! Santander, I would have made it on Saturday, four days before the ferry leaves, and I would have possibly made Bilbao on Sunday or Monday at the latest, again leaving me four days to hang about!

Detour? Not Likely

Now I know I could go on a detour somewhere, but I’m really not very good at going out of my way. If I can get from A to C without going to B, then I will! But after looking at my Thomas Cook European timetable (I always carry the pages I need for the countries I’m travelling in), I saw that there was a train that left Ribadeo this evening. Which would have got me to Santander overnight, allowing me enough time to catch the ferry tomorrow, solving all my problems of having to go on any detours or hanging around.

Had I not made a beeline for Ribadeo, I could have cycled up to A Coruna and picked up the coast from there. That would have been a few more miles, but we are where we are. I’ll just have to have another rethink tonight.

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Garry McGivern’s Portuguese bike ride, Tuesday 18th-August-2009 Playa America to Santiago de Compostela. 71 Miles. Well, I was right about it not being a flat ride today. And I was quite surprised I’d cycled as many miles as I have. I thought it would have been a lot less, but whatever it was, I wasn’t going to cycle any further today. I’d had enough, plus I didn’t think there would be another campsite for another 30 or 40 miles.

I’ve now moved inland and away from the coast and can certainly feel the difference. What breeze I had on the coast has completely disappeared, and there’s no air at all now. Hopefully, I should be back on the coast tomorrow.

I’ve seen loads of people walking the Camino (the way of St James) today, and the nearer I got to Santiago, the more people I saw. And had Miguel not told me, I would have known nothing about it. And would have been a little perplexed as to why so many people were walking here. And I’ve definitely noticed more of the yellow shell-like signs. They are a dedicated bunch of people walking in this heat. Walking is just hard work, even when it isn’t this hot! At least on my bike, I get a bit of a breeze.

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Garry McGivern’s Portuguese bike ride, Thursday 13th-August-2009 Porto Covo to Estoril. 100 Miles. I was on the road nice and early and wasn’t locked in this morning. And for the first hour or two, there was a sea mist, which sometimes made it pretty hard to see the road, but at least it was nice and cool! It was also nice and flat, a double bonus!

I was rather anxious this morning. According to my map, there was a ferry that ran between the Troia Peninsula and Setubal, which hopefully, if it still ran, would save me about 30 miles! However, if it wasn’t, not only would I have the extra 30 miles to cycle but also another 20 miles going up to the end of the peninsula and back again!

I arrived in Comporta, which was the point of no return. I either went up to Troia Peninsula and took a chance on the ferry still being there, or I cycled the long way round decisions decisions! I looked around to see if there was anybody I could ask, which of course when you want to find somebody you can’t! In the end, I decided to go for it, and if there was no ferry, then there was no ferry. I’d just have to come back!

Point Of No Return

The road up to Troia was quiet, with no other traffic on it! After all, why would there be if there’s no ferry? There didn’t look as if there was any other reason to be heading up this road! I was starting to get very anxious now. But before I knew it, I was over halfway to Troia. No point in turning around now; I’d just as well carry on! Shortly afterwards, three cars in a row passed me coming in the opposite direction, which made me feel a lot better. Maybe the ferry was still there after all! Why else would three cars be so close together if they hadn’t just come off a ferry?

With renewed vigour, I picked up my pace and spotted a sign for the ferry shortly after! Panic over, no need to worry. It looked pretty much as if I would be able to get a crossing here after all! And I certainly couldn’t miss the ferry. It was bright green!

The crossing only took about thirty minutes, and I was in Setubal before midday. After leaving Setubal, I had my first real hill of the day, which I didn’t enjoy! It was long and winding without any shade! Which in the midday sun made it hard going! Coming down the other side was nice. It was good to feel the cooling wind in my hair, or what hair I have!

Two Ferries In One Day

I had to catch another ferry today. This time it was to cross the river Tagus into Lisbon. Once in Lisbon, I was going to do the tourist thing, but after finding myself on the right road I needed to get out, I decided to stick with it and carry on cycling! After all, it’s not very often that I manage to negotiate cities and towns without getting lost!

As I made my way out of Lisbon, there was an accident just in front of me! I’m not too sure what happened. All I saw was a body skidding along the road with a motorbike on top of them! I think they possibly got hit from behind! They finished up in a pile at the side of the road! It didn’t look good from what I saw, although I didn’t look too closely!

That put me on edge for the rest of the day, and I was glad to stop this evening!

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Garry McGivern’s Portuguese bike ride, Wednesday 12th-August-2009 Figueira to Porto Covo. 82 Miles. After such a hot day yesterday, I wanted to be on the road as early as possible. So I could get as many miles in before it became too hot to cycle.

It was dark when my alarm clock went off at half past four this morning. And still hot, it must have still been in the mid-twenties, even at that time of day. Although it was dark now, I knew it would be light by the time I’d had breakfast and packed away.

It was just coming up to six o’clock and starting to get light as I began to make my way out of the naturist’s camp! Although I didn’t get very far, the main gate to the campsite was locked. But at least there was a small side gate, and when I say small, I mean tiny. And even after taking all my panniers off, I struggled to get my bike through!

There have been a lot more hills today, and hard going in this heat. And I’ve decided to stick as close to the coast as possible. That way, I get to benefit from what little breeze there is, and in this heat, any help is greatly appreciated. And getting on the road as early as possible is definitely the way forward. I made sure that the camp gate wouldn’t be locked tomorrow morning.

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