Normally I´m excited and prepared days before a departure to a bike trip. Not so this time. I have some mixed feelings while preparing for this tour. The way along the south coast makes me think about lonely cliffs and beaches, rough sea and a plenty of different villages and landscapes, but also about flat and boring rides. A street too busy to enjoy and trails too sandy to ride.
The interior of province of Alentejo is beautiful, but boring. Trails are not built to bike and hike but for goats or trucks. Wide cork fields, sheep, goats, birds as far as you can see, as long as you can ride, not more not less. Only some lost in time villages as Beja or Cuba brought some variety in the day.
Nevertheless, both parts got amazing sceneries. Therefore, a mix seems the best solution.
I
I leave Lisbon by train and ferry to reach peninsula Troia. But instead of the road down south, I go eastwards to Grandola and turn southwards only a 30 km away from the coast. Grandola, Sao Bartolomeu da Serra and Santiago do Cacem are not that picturesque as the villages more in the east, but give a good impression of the quiet and calmness of the Alentejo.
An indicated hiking path leads through hills with funny ups & downs
through Cork forests. Abandoned or inhabited farms edge our way.
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Only at the artificial lake Arneiro Branco, next to Porto Covo,
we come back at the coast. Here we finally find usable and interesting
trails near the cliffs. From here on two different ways lead us down to Sagres:
A red-white indicated way is always easy to drive, meanwhile a
green-blue indicated trail leads us always nearby the cliffs and
beaches, but many times it´s too sandy to ride. I go for a mix out of both ways. What sometimes made me push the bike through deep sand, sometimes racing through boring fields. I pass by island Pessegueiro and Milfontes.It takes me two full days to reach Cabo de Sardao. From here on the cliffs are higher and the trails more rocky and solid. Between the lighthouse at Cabo Sardao and the beach of Odeceixe we always find a trail or an unpaved road next to the coast and grab uncountable many views down to the lonesome sea. It´s already afternoon of the third day when I reach Praia Odeceixe and Portugals most southern province, the Algarve. Trailroads bring me to the touristic overcrowded but still charming village of Aljezur and back to the beaches. I reached the surf hot spots around Cabo Sao Vicente and suddenly perfect mountainbike trails are everywhere along the coast. Tough uphills, steep thrilling downhills and the sunset show me my limits. Adrenaline at technical singltrails at Praia Amado and breathtaking sceneries on the way around Carrapateira: This part is a blast! Never before I enjoyed this zone that much and some when in the dark I'm ready to enjoy a cold beer and a hot shower in Sagres.
Lisbon – Sagres: Done once again! Thanks to the mix of interior and coast, landscape was never boring and always changing. Instead of a climb of 1000m between Lisbon and Sagrs I summed up to more than 2500m, I was able to avoid main roads and left all my mixed feelings. Finally a joyful way to the south.
