[xpost r/bicycletouring] Solo Bicycle Touring around Portugal
Hi! Just found this subreddit and I'm loving it!
I had this idea about two years ago. I was at a bar with some friends drinking beer and while talking about cycling some of them asked me why the Volta a Portugal (our main? cycling event) is always ridden in north part of Portugal and the south does not get so much interest. We continued talking and they kinda challenged me to do my own tour/volta, going around the country close to the coast and close to the border with Spain, passing in the "four corners" of Portugal, Caminha, Sagres, Vila Real de Santo António and Miranda do Douro. That sounded like a really nice idea, but I never did any kind of bicycle touring, never spent more than two consecutive days riding long distances and never did it alone. Anyway, I took the challenge.
Decided to take my old but reliable steel road bicycle, which unfortunately does not have rack mounts so I had to think a bit more about the bags. Found a nice (and not so expensive) KTM rear bag for the seatpost, the cheapest front bag that I could find and that could fit between my handlebar and decided to make a front stainless steel rack to give it some support. Bought some camping gear, but later I found that camping is not my thing, and rooms between 10-20 € are decent for me. (btw, in Portugal is not possible to do wild camping, not legal, so you need to go to camping parks and of course you need to pay like 5-10 euros in this season... so in my opinion it is not worth the "effort").
Planned the route a little bit, and transferred it to my garmin. The tour took me 15 days with two included days of rest. I was averaging about 140-150 km per day, which is a lot for touring, but I only had this amount of time to do it.
The only thing that I can say is that I can not wait for another tour like this! I'm not a person o travels a lot in my country but going by bicycle allowed me to go relatively fast but at the same time to enjoy and to see/capture the characteristics of the different places such as architecture and different accents between the north and south. The bags held on really well and I only had one flat during the two weeks. Found Sean Conway in the way, attempting to establish a new record crossing Europe, some other people touring but not much people.
I Going alone sometimes gets boring, but at the same time you simply can do whatever you want, stop to take photos, to rest, set your own pace and to stop to explore certain areas. It was definitely the best decision, "mind-refreshing"!
Here are some photos: http://ift.tt/2jYTsox
My route: Coimbra - Peniche - Setúbal - Carrapateira - Tavira - Serpa - Alandroal - Castelo Branco - Guarda - Mogadouro - Brangança - Montalegre - Viana do Castelo - Coimbra
Submitted September 26, 2017 at 01:27PM by ivazenha http://ift.tt/2xHGhh1
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