Portugal - Lisbon to Celorica da Beira

Day 22 - Saturday 18 May, Portugal - Lisbon to Celorica da Beira

Despite not getting back to our hotel until about 1pm, I woke early on Saturday morning feeling that it was time to start heading home. Badger and I had discussed our plans the evening before and had decided to get the Tuesday ferry from Bilbao to Portsmouth. It definitely felt like we were on the final leg of the trip. I tried booking the tickets on-line, but the hotel WI-fi was not that good and I wasn't sure whether or not I had managed to book and pay for the tickets. I gave up, we went for breakfast and then phoned Brittany Ferries and managed to definitely book out tickets.

By the time we had sorted out the tickets and loaded up the bikes it was about 10.30 and Lisbon was starting to get busy. Getting out of Lisbon turned out to be quite a tricky and lengthy process and at one stage we got separated when I took a wrong turning, however I managed to find Badger again and by about 11.30 we got onto the Northbound A1/E1 motorway. The sun was shining but the strong Atlantic winds kept the temperature quite low and I was feeling pretty tired and sore. We hadn't got very far at all before I had to stop and ask Badger to rub some Ibuprofen gel on my sore neck and shoulder Video - not for the squeamish.

After our pit-stop we had a quick blast up the motorway to get us on our way then Badger took us off the motorway and we headed towards the Spanish border in a roughly North-East direction. We were traveling on single-carriageway roads and were able to make pretty good time. In the late morning we must have got onto one of the main routes for the Fatima pilgrimage, for about 50k we saw dozens of bands of pilgrims walking in the opposite direction to us. This part of Portugal felt much more developed and densely populated than the South.

The middle part of the journey was fairly uneventful and we stopped for lunch at a road-side restaurant in a town en-route. This turned out to be an excellent choice, but we were both stuffed by the time we set off again and I found the afternoon pretty hard going. We stopped for a coffee at a cafe on a round-about and shortly afterwards got up into some very hilly terrain. This proved to be much more interesting and challenging riding, but felt as though we weren't making much progress and at one stage I thought that we had got completely lost, but Badger's navigation turned out to be correct.

At about tea-time, we pulled into the cafe "Aresole", which on closer inspection turned out to be the "Cafe Are y Sol", but it amused Badger nonetheless and after a stop for coffee and biscuits he was keen to get a picture of me on the bike in front of the cafe but as I moved the bike on the somewhat rough car park I put my foot into a pot-hole, the bike leant over over too far for me to keep it up and over went the bike and me. It was all a bit comical; I short forward like a cork from a pop-gun, tripped over my own feet, failed to keep my balance and ended up with my chin on the deck and glad that I was wearing a full-face helmet and protective bike gear.

I hardly had the energy to stand up - I hadn't realised until then just how tired I was and I ended up being lifted to my feet by some very concerned locals. Luckily the only thing that was hurt was my dignity and a few more scratches on my visor. The same could not be said for the bike, it went down on the same side as in Ayamonte, the left hand mirror had popped off again, the indicator was cracked and the left hand side of the bike was looking a bit tatty. Badger and I were able to lift it back up and pop the mirror back on again and the damage seemed to be purely cosmetic. Badger refrained from videoing me whilst on the deck, but he did record a video of the place shortly before the incident.

Just About to Take a Tumble at the Cafe Are y Sol

We decided to press on but stop at the first decent-looking hotel and by about 6.30 we had arrived at the town of Celorica da Beira, which is pretty much just this side of the Spanish border. We spotted a decent looking hotel as we took the exit for the town from the round-about. This turned out to be a good choice, we booked in and after a quick shower I was ready just to put my feet up. We seemed to be about the only guests - a combination of the recession and lousy spring weather conspired to keep visitor numbers down. Badger went out for a wander round the town whilst I had a nap before dinner. We dined at the hotel and were the only guests in the dining room, which was a shame as supper was excellent. We also caught TV coverage of the previous evenings hill-climb in Lisbon City Centre, which felt slightly weird.

Day Summary

Day -	22
Miles Covered in Day	210 approx.
Miles Covered in Trip	3640 approx.