Portugal/Spain Day 8: Santa Clara-a-Velha to Aldeia dos Palheiros (49km, 1000m)

Sep 21

We had camp oatmeal for breakfast, packed up and headed out to start our day with a steep hike up a short hill, way above the lake, then a sporty descent down to the dam which we rode across. It is just a Dam to keep the lake, so it had a park on the opposite side – a bit weird to us who are used to hydro-electric dams in Canada. The lake is called Albufeira de Santa Clara and looks like a dragon to me, branching off in sharp spiky spines in all directions. There is apparently a little pool right near the dam but no beach or other lake access, at least not near our bike route, so no swimming in this one.

We climbed above the lake and up to ridge riding in forest /farm country – it was very undulating with punchy climbs and descents. We are both feeling pretty tired from yesterday’s hard day and today didn’t feel easy. Axel gets into regular grooves mid-ride, singing to Ryley (go-to’s include: Old MacDonald, Baa Baa Black Sheep, Skinnamirink, and the zoom zoom rocket song), telling us stories, talking to himself or his trucks, taking his shoes off and putting his feet up on Ryley’s strapped on gear bag (this looks like he is hilariously chillin’, big smile on his face). It tends to the positive and happy, but is also interspersed with many (often whiny) demands for snacks, breaks, needing to pee, needing us pick up his dropped car/cracker/container. He’s way more capable than last year’s ride (of course) and can mostly reach all the things he needs/wants which is definitely helpful. This morning he made up a song that went “oat bar oat bar, pouch, pouch, pouch, tells Ryley to “get moving, dada” when he’s taking a break, and has been reminding everyone (including himself) to drink our water. 

We moved pretty steadily with the normal breaks for Axel and us and managed a possible record slow distance of ~15km by 11am, when we did a huge descent-climb/hike-descent into a little ‘town’ called Monte da Ribeira. The locals were sitting out in the cafe chairs but no sign of any coffee being made or drank, so we joined the sitting, made some pb-j’s, made 8 trips to the bathroom for Axel to not poop, then headed onwards (a big downhill then another big climb so we could stop shortly for Axel to sort out his call of nature on the side of the road). Anyways, sorted it was and on we went.

The afternoon was much more chill, thankfully, with more mellow terrain (some paved) and hills. We rolled into Santana da Serra around 2pm,found a spot for coffee and what turned out to NOT be custard pastries (very disappointing) and Axel and I walked into town to find the mercado for a snack resupply, but it was closed. We did find another (closed) cafe in an alley under a bunch of colourful hung umbrellas which was very pretty. 

The next section was downright pleasant, more rolling and we got better mileage in. Of note, it’s overcast today! A bit muggy but makes for a nice break from the very hot days we had on the coast. We even had a sprinkle of rain – we coulant decide if we didn’t feel like dealing with a downpour or if we’d welcome it, but it didn’t pour so we didn’t have to figure that out. We passed several big puddles on the road later in the day so it obviously did really rain just not on us.

We crossed paths with 2 bikers going the other direction – they were finishing up the whole EDT staring in June and are about 4 days from the end. We told them to enjoy the beaches! They told us that they swam everyday in the Swedish section but recommended avoiding Sweden in the spring if we didn’t like mosquitos! 

We made it to Aldeia dos Palheiros around 5:30, struck out at 3 restaurants (all closed or kitchen not open till 7) grabbed a snack, made ramen in the parking lot and let Axel go wild on a slide in a derelict playground (Axel said the broken swing “needs some bandaids and some goopy cream” to fix it). We biked a couple km out of town and found a hayfield beside the trail to call it for the night!

https://strava.app.link/ohjPl2qM6Mb