clairedavieswriter

Team Bernard reached an exciting milestone today. When we last crossed this river two weeks ago, just north of Cáceres, it was the Tajo. But a lot of water has flowed under the bridge since then. When we left our cosy cabin in the early morning chill, the only water we had to worry about…

We discovered last night that the adjacent petrol station not only doubled as our hotel reception, but also served breakfast, so this morning we joined boiler-suited farm workers for our café com leite and torrada. Importantly, we also discovered that, unlike in Spain, toast in Portugal is served pre-buttered and without jam or tomato. It…

I’m happy to confirm that, although there was a bit more climbing today than yesterday, there were no montes grandes (per last night’s wine label). Having left early to beat the heat, we broke our own record, arriving at our destination before sanduiche o’clock. Today’s filling was queijo with a delicious scraping of quince jelly,…

Fortunately for our legs, today’s ride was about as different to yesterday’s as it could have been. Yes, we still started on the N2, with its avenues of eucalyptus… And miles of scrub either side, dotted with stunted oak trees. But the hills had vanished – this was the view this afternoon, looking back the…

So how are you doing the end-to-end of Portugal? This is the general idea: Starting from Faro: (Technically the water taxi wharf was the furthest south I could get) We’ll make our way to the country’s most northerly point, which, according to my calculations (and I’m making the rules here) is the old customs post…

Getting two bikes and their riders from Tarifa to the start of our Portugal end-to-end in Faro turned out to be one of the most challenging parts of our Iberian adventure to date. After much fruitless research into Andalucia’s public transport network, we concluded that hiring a van was the only way. That meant an…

So what was it like? I hear you say. There are so many highlights, it’s hard to pick favourites. For me, it would be the epic scale of the scenery, under cloud-dotted skies. Jonis picked the silence, high on the meseta on a windless morning. From our vantage point, you couldn’t see a single building,…

Spain end to end complete ✅.Team Bernard have pedalled 1,196km from Bilbao in the north to Tarifa, Spain’s most southerly point. And this time I had someone to celebrate with This last leg was not a long ride, but we were made to work for our podium place.The summit of Cape Trafalgar was cloaked in…

Yes, it was a long way, but oddly, we don’t feel too knackered. Perhaps we were right to opt for chickpea stew last night instead of snails, like everyone else did (it’s the season for them apparently) Or perhaps our relative sprightliness is down to the ease with which we sped out of Sevilla –…

Cycle from the north coast to the south coast of Spain?Looks like we can tick that off the to do list. The water was a nicer blue than in Bilbao, but it’s still the Atlantic, and we had a few more miles to pedal, so we didn’t go for a dip, much to Bernard’s chagrin.…