Under construction
Since these pages live under a cycling menu, I though I better start my story with the name sake.
For the second year in a row, I tackled the hardest climb, same route each day, the first two days in a row. In 2017, the first year I made it over Monchique, I did the ride on a Sunday and had a terrible time finding a restaurant with seats to serve me lunch. So, I really plan the whole trip around having 2 “normal” days at the start. This year it was Thursday and Friday. The only factor that could override this consideration would be a plane fare. Kayak, and I assume other online services, can show me a 5×5 day matrix of flights and returns for the Boston-Lisboa-Boston trip and might have to work around a bad Moncheque day. But 2019 worked out perfectly.
I go around the Moncheque road clockwise. Thursday I counted 3 killer hills and had to walk twice, I think both on the last unending pitch. Great lunch with people to talk to and the long downhill home. Friday was worse! Now I counted like 5 killer hills, had to walk twice BEFORE I got to the last one but at least only had to walk once on it. Less socializing at lunch and I was so broken down that I had 2 deserts!
Saturday was off in the Westerly direction. A first stop at my favorite ride spot, Bocoa do Rio. Last year I wrote a lot about “Talk to the men and see the lady”. The German archaeologist where not there and the lady now had a beard! On to Vila Do Bispo for a weak lunch and then the long slog home on Route 125.
Sunday has to be handled carefully as far as lunch, as I have mentioned. I was able to make a reservation at my favorite ride restaurant, Solar Do Farelo. This is a short easy meander. The first 2 Monchique days are more like 60 Km. Vila Do Bispo is also 60 but falter, Solar Do Farelo is more 30K though I usually arrive early and do a little bird watching etc.
Monday again has to be thought about as many restaurants are closed. I took a chance and went to the hippy town, Bario de Sao Joao. My first ride in Lagos in 2016 was to this location. There are two restaurants on the main drag and I have switched to a less hippy one but it was Closed! I resigned myself to riding on but took a turn around the block and found a new one! Again a 30K ride.
Tuesday is back to the East but Solar Do Farelo owner, Fernando, had told me that he is closed this year not just his usual Monday but also Tuesday Lunch in order to give his employees more time off. Valentina did not think there was a “new regulation” but Fernando made it sound that way. I planned on going onto another restaurant that I used to frequent before I found Solar, Fonte da Pedra. Again a 30K ride round trip. It was chilly! and she did not have the fire place going.
Wednesday was terrible wind but I made it West to the surfer restaurant, Zavail. Again, Boca do Rio was on the way so I was able to put in a little time at my favorite stream. Once I got up on the main 125, the wind was relentless. I saw a cycling couple ahead of me and tried to catch them before my secret turn off onto a parallel rural road but did not catch them. When my cutoff rejoined the main road in 3K, I tried to wait for them to catch up. I would have loved the company and might have been able to drag them to Zavail. But I never saw them and after waiting too long in the wind tunnel, I took off. The road into Zavail is hilly and very exposed. I had to walk a fair way but finally made it. No one was surfing! but at least the restaurant was open. They had their normal umbrellas down. This again is a 60K day, made much much worse by the wind. On the ride/walk in, I had seriously considered hiring a taxi to take me and the bike back to Lagos. After lunch and a bottle of wine, the wind seemed to have abated a little. I had to walk a stretch from Zavail to Rt 125 but got to talk to a older woman from Finland who had been driven into a hostel by the wind!
Thursday back to a reservation at Solar Do Farelo. I was almost an hour early and did poke down a side road that will now be a normal part of my bird watching.
Friday I was expecting to return to Zavail but it was again windy. The forecast called for better weather Saturday so I put Zavail off a day and instead returned to Bario de Sao Joao. My normal restaurant was open. I ate with a large cadre of dogs.
Saturday I did return to Zavail. Of course I went by way of Boca de Rio. The wind was ok though the hills where still there and I had to walk some each way in and out from Rt 125. Had a wonderful conversation with an older mother from the Neatherlands. No surfing!
Sunday was back to Solar Do Farelo. It was packed but I had my normal special 12 noon reservation. Fernando just asks that I be out by 1:30 and gives me the same table each time. At 4pm I met the driver from Megatourism back in Lagos and handed in the bike.
More lunching than exercise! No flat tires! Never road with anyone! So 11 rides, probably about 500K or certainly over 100 miles a week. I never had the energy to ride to Sagras at the end of Portugal. It has an 8K stretch that is exposed and ALWAYS terribly windy. It is a hard job but I probably will repeat these same rides again in 2020!