clairedavieswriter

Like Tom’s Best Man speech in Four Weddings and a Funeral, today had ‘something for everyone’. We knew about the stonking climbs and hair-raising descents before we set off.

But when I planned the ride, I’d been expecting intense heat, not a stiff northerly and squally rain showers, like the one about to hit us here…

There weren’t too many flat bits between the ups and downs, to allow for photography, but this gives the general idea: miles and miles of eucalyptus and pine plantations. The hillsides rang to the sound of chainsaws, logging lorries lumbered (as it were) past us and wood chip poured off hoppers at a processing plant.

A highlight of the day for us was passing within metres of this

We’ve since learned that the geodesic centre is different from the geographical centre, but it can’t be far off:

Obviously this was Bernard’s highlight

The lowlight (if that’s a word) for me was being buffeted by the backwash of a speeding articulated lorry when I was already battling the wind and rain on a steep descent. I can only assume the driver didn’t think this instruction (or the one about giving cyclists 1.5m) applied to him

Despite the conditions and the terrain, we arrived at our hotel in good shape – and in time for today’s sandes / sanduiche de queijo.

But soon needed a further boost of calories, which we found in a café in Sertã’s lovely riverside park

Speaking of food, a flexible approach to vegetarianism may once again be required at supper time, because Sertã’s typical dish sounds like a hybrid of haggis and black pudding. Just as well we topped up at teatime. The lurid yellow sponge-custard-turnover thing was a bit of a disappointment, but the hot chocolate was sensational.