Rota Vicentina

Shortening the cold, dark north European winter is becoming an ever more important objective for me and despite a January trip to Burma, I was getting desperate for some sustained good weather by the end of February.  I couldn't afford another long haul trip and after looking at its excellent website, the Rota Vicentina in SW Portugal seemed like the ideal alternative.

To Lewes

Lewes, a very pretty town nestling in a gap in the South Downs, is an almost perfect walking destination.  More interesting than Arundel, its more staid west Sussex cousin, Lewis has a defiant radical history.  The famous revolutionary Tom Paine wrote his first pamphlet in Lewis and 19 Protestant martyrs, refusing to accept Mary's Catholic restoration, were burnt there at the stake.  The spirit of non-conformism (and burning) is sustained with a unique annual firework display, claimed as the largest of its kind in the world, when the Guy Fawkes effigy is updated with more modern villains.   Perhaps more importantly, if you've just finished a long walk, is the excellent selection of pubs and restaurants, including those serving 'bitter' from the oldest independent brewery in Sussex, Harveys, located right in the centre of the town. With a direct train route from London and Brighton and buses back to Brighton every 10 mins, it's also very accessible.

3 days in Bagan - Burma by Bike

Bagan is perhaps Myanmar’s No 1 tourist destination and as one of the world’s greatest archeological sites is often compared with Machu Picchu or Angkor Wat. Set on a plain in the bend of the Irrawaddy River, it plays host to hundreds of temples the silhouettes of which rise above the palm and tamarind trees.  The temples were built by the kings of Bagan between 1057 and 1287 an intense phase of construction that was ended by earthquakes and Kublai Khan and his invading Mongols. Some 2,230 of an original 4,450 temples survive, a legacy of the Buddhist belief that to build a temple was to earn merit.

 

Bagan

To Bagan - Burma by Bike

Today Alex changed the itinerary and instead of a 4 hour midday ride along a hot open tarmac road we cycled from the hotel in Monyua along a dirt track road running along the top of a levee. Well done Alex, good call, it was a brilliant ride.

Interesting head wear

Monywa - Burma by Bike

Today’s schedule was overambitious, too much sightseeing and not enough cycling.  Alex, the tour leader is desperate to deliver all the visits, but knew that it couldn’t be done in the time, so reduced the cycling from 50km to 20km and increased the amount of bus time.  I can understand why he did it, but clearly someone at Exodus needs to have another look at the schedule.  To add insult to injury, we also arrived late at the hotel which was one of the best on the trip.  

 

Sunrise at the U Bein Bridge

The day started very early with another visit to U Bein Bridge near Mandalay to try and catch a sunrise.  The sun was a little later than anticipated (can the sun be late?) and this put us behind schedule.

Mandalay - Burma by Bike

Mandalay is the second largest city in Myanmar and felt busy and dirty after the relative emptiness of the Shen Highlands.  The morale of the group definitely dropped a notch and wasn’t helped by a cramped city centre hotel that seemed a little neglected (apparently the usual hotel was fully booked).  

U Bein Bridge

Despite it’s size Mandalay was only established in the mid-19th century when the then king decided to make it his royal capital.  Dominating the centre is a huge fort with outer walls over 2,000m long with a surrounding moat 65m wide.  The British arrived 25 years after its construction, and ‘relocated’ its treasures to the Victoria and Albert museum.

Shan Highlands - Burma by Bike

Crossing the Shan Highlands via Pindaya takes two days and they are the toughest of the whole trip. 

 

An easy stretch through the Shen Highlands

After an easy 18km (along the same road as Day 2), the Day 4 route climbs for about 350m up a hillside and the ‘king of the mountains’ is identified.  Needless to say it wasn’t me (I nearly killed myself coming third) but the guy who came second was 75 and later told me that he regretted the fact that he had only recently started cycling!