Day 3 Camino Portugués Santarém to Tomar

Day 3 makes the transition from a landscape dominated by the River Tagus and its huge and intensively farmed flood plain, to something much more mountainous and, from a cycling perspective, challenging.

First the metrics. Theoretically today's route was 62 km with climbs and descents of 330m. Because I missed a couple of turns, and we had to retrace our steps, we ended up cycling 72 km with a riding time of just under 5 hours.

Despite their electric MTBs, Christine and Robina are very cautious about "mixed surface" cycling. The bikes are horribly heavy and a fall could be serious. Today we came up with alternative routes to avoid what looked like the dodgy bits. In practice this meant that they stuck to the roads which are very quiet but occasionally cobbled.

We split the route into three sections: the first to Azinhaga,  mid morning coffee destination; the second to Vila Nova da Barquinha, where we stopped for lunch; and the third, the final section into Tomar. Golegã looked the nicest place, with the biggest choice of cafes and restaurants but it would have been too late to stop there for coffee and too early for lunch. 

The first leg followed the River Tagus although you didn't get to see it that much. Constant irrigation and heavy agricultural traffic meant that the path was rutted in places but I think Robina and Christine could have got through. The route was mixed, going from shady wooded lanes into huge open fields growing peas, potatoes, and maize. It's a long leg and coffee didn't come a moment too soon.

We parted company, after 7 km of cobbles, at Golegã, and Mike and I headed into what we thought was an off-road stretch with Christine and Robina sticking with the road. We should have stayed together because it was a great surface all the way to Vila Nova da Barquinha.

The only thing Vila Nova da Barquinha had going for it was lunch. Christine found a place full of locals and we were rewarded with something very cheap, wholesome but not exactly vegetarian.

The last leg was tough with a lot of climbing along a gravely surface through a eucalyptus forest. I enjoyed it but it was very hot and for the first time on the trip we had to do some sustained pushing. At the top of the pass there was a handily placed water hydrant which we shared with a couple of friendly pilgrims from Slovenia. So while we should have stuck together for the first two legs it was a good job Christine and Robina stayed on the road on the third.

Tomar is the biggest place we've stayed at so far, the magnificent Templar castle overlooking a town full of bars and restaurants. We finished the day with another amazingly priced dinner consisting of various types of crustaceans and lovely slightly fizzy Portugués white wine.

Day 2 Villa Franca de Xira to Santarém

Today's ride was a hot slog on mainly gravel tracks through the flat river plain north east to Santarém. Walking this stretch must be soul destroying, a huge flat agricultural landscape very reminiscent of the Fens in the east of England.

First the metrics. The route was 54 kms with 140 metres of climb and 51 metres of descent. All the climb was at the end involving a very steep pull up to the town of Santarém. Moving time was just under 4 hours.

The big lesson for today was not taking the route too seriously. If we had followed the Camino we would have had to navigate three railway stations and after yesterday's experience with the lifts this was something we wanted to avoid. It did involve a bit more road cycling that might otherwise have been the case, including a 4 km stretch with bumper to bumper lorries, but after we had made it to Azambuja the railway line was at last behind us. After that we tended to be very close to the route (yards away) but not necessarily on it and to be honest even the pilgrims were involved in route rationalisation.

After Azambuja the landscape became seriously agricultural - super productive with nearly all the fields irrigated. We think the main crop was tomatoes, at a very early stage but fields and fields of them. In the middle of this ocean of agriculture was Vallada, a small village on the side of the River Tejo and clearly a pilgrim staging point. We stopped there for lunch and given the number of restaurants and cafes we chose well. It's a national holiday today and the locals were out on the beach while we enjoyed a salad and what we think were local shrimps.

Vallada was the perfect place to stop as it left just 20 kms (more fields of tomatoes) before Santarém, some shade and a beer.

We're still getting into the swing of things and spent the best part of an hour this morning waiting for a replacement charger for Robina's bike. By the time we had consumed our beers, showered and washed our clothes the "golden hour" was well underway. We still managed a tour of the Santarém ramparts at the end of the prominotory facing east with amazing views of the River Tejo both to the north and south. I suspect we have a bit more agriculture scenery to cross before finally escaping the river and heading into the mountains.

Day 1 Camino Portugués- Lisbon to Vila Franca de Xira

Day 1 was much better than I was anticipating. There was a lot of the urban sprawl you would expect around a capital city: the mix of new development and the dereliction associated with property waiting to be built; but there was also lots of quiet cycling through wide open countryside.

Day 1, starting at the bike hire shop and finishing at Vila Franca de Xira, involved 45 Kms of cycling with just 150m of climb and descent. According to Strava our average moving speed was just under 12km per hour, which makes sense give how much of the route was off-road. There was only one hill but it was a horrible one, just on the other side of an underpass south of Vialonga, and too steep to cycle with fully laden unpowered bikes. Christine and Robina sailed up it. The weather by way has been warm, verging on hot, we're experiencing at heat wave in April.

There was only one section of sustained mixed traffic cycling, a nasty busy road just to the east of Sobralinho, and apart from that the route sharing was with people including some pilgrims. There was a surprising amount of rough trail which would have been treacherous if things weren't so dry.

Some important lessons from the first day.

The decision, forced on me by majority rule, to go to Vila Franca de Xira rather than on to Santarém was the right one. Vila Franca de Xira has nothing to commend it but trying to get all the way to Santarém would have been a big mistake. If you're hiring bikes they take a bit of getting used to and there's always some fiddling about at the bike hire shop. All of this takes time so not being too ambitious on the first day was the right thing to do.

Secondly, ignore the Camino when you're cycling out of Lisbon. Lisbon is getting more cycle friendly but it's still an intimidating place to start a trip from. Finding your way out from the cathedral, where the Camino starts, involves lots of hills and a complex one-way system. The simpler way out is the harbour side cycle way which joins the Camino about 5km to the east of the town.

Thirdly it's important to remember that the Camino was designed for walkers not cyclists. It's OK for the route to take walkers the wrong way down a one way street but that's not always so good when you're on a bike. My route already missed the worst of the offending sections but ignoring the waymarks is sometimes necessary.

Highlights of today were the beautiful wild flowers, hedge high, all purples and yellows on the stretch between Bobadela and Vialonga. Also, for Christine and the other 2 carnivores, the unexpectedly good lunch in a simple village cafe: oxtail stew with proper home made chips and a bit of salad. €10 with fizzy water and coffee. I made do with a cheesy omelette and the same chips, but so far Portugal isn't great for vegetarians.

The biggest challenge of the day was getting the bikes through the station at Alverca do Ribatejo, to get from one side of the railway line to other. Getting massive electric MTBs in the lifts was tough to say the least.