Please enjoy this 10th day of my Portugal’s Northern Coastline and Peneda-Geres cycling tour. After the past two super easy days, during which I focused mainly on sightseeing in the historic old cities of Guimarães and Amarante, it was now time, once again, to spend a long day in the saddle, as I began my homeward leg.
This day’s ride of 115km would first see Matilda and I head back west to reconnect with Porto. From there, we’d continue southward down the coastline to our day’s destination of Torreira, where we had already stayed on the way up. As we could have easily just retraced the same route from Porto back to our starting point in Peniche, the additional challenge now was to try and find some new roads and pathways to explore, even if we’d be riding through, and overnighting in, the same areas.
As Amarante is nestled at the bottom of a river valley, our pre-dawn departure started with a rather solid climb, which would account for a huge chunk of the 1275mof total vertical climb that we would do over the course of the morning; but what a reward we earned when we reached the first saddle, an absolutely glorious sunrise that instantly cured my heavy breathing and heavy legs.
Matilda and I had found, once again, our happy place, and so we would remain for the remainder of the day, only being briefly interrupted by a couple of snack and beer breaks in the afternoon. It was definitely go-time!
When we reached Porto, this time I decided to cross back over the D’Ouro River via the Ponte Infante Dom Henrique, instead of the more famous and touristic Luis I Bridge, which we had used on the outbound leg. It also saved a lot of time not having to fight the traffic congestion in that area. Once we’d cut diagonally down to reach the coastal bicycle route in Espinho, it was smooth rolling all the way to Torreira.
After having set up camp at the now familiar Torreira Camping, I took a late evening stroll to Praia da Torreira, located on the ocean side of the isthmus; and if the spectacular sunrise over Amarante in the morning wasn’t enough, the deep calm and serenity of the extended sunset over the Atlantic’s horizon would crown what had manifested into one of the best bicycle touring day’s that I’d ever experienced. It was as if, over the course of the entire day, the sun’s light had, by first bridging the empty coldness of space in between us, brought my body, mind and spirit back to full charge.
Be blessed,
Jyri
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I’m an Australian-Finn, now in the second half century of life. I’m an intrepid nomad and professional coach possessed with a keen curiosity to explore the world around me, and to keep discovering and learning new things.
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Please enjoy this 10th day of my Portugal Northern Coastline in Panet J cycling tour after the past two super easy days during which I focused mainly on sseeing in the historic old cities of gimash and amaran it was now time once again to spend a long day in the saddle
As I began my Homewood leg this day’s ride of 115 km would first see Matilda and I head back West to reconnect with BTO from there we’d continue Southward down the coastline to our day destination of toera where we had already stayed on the way up as we could
Have easily just retraced the same route from PTO back to our starting point in finish the additional challenge now was to try and find some new roads and Pathways to explore even if we’d be riding through and over uniting in the same Areas as amaran is nestled at the bottom of a river valley our pre-dawn departure just started with a rather solid climb which would account for a huge chunk of the 1,275 M of total vertical climb that we would do over the course of the morning but what a reward we earned when we
Reached the first saddle an absolutely glorious Sunrise that instantly cured my heavy breathing and heavy legs Matilda and I had found once again our happy place and so we would remain for the remainder of the day only being briefly interrupted by a couple of snack and beer breaks in the afternoon it was
Definitely go time when we reached borto this time I decided to cross back over the doru river VI the pon infant Dom Henri instead of the more famous and touristic Louis the first Bridge which we had used on the outbound leg it also saved a lot
Of time not having to fight the traffic congestion in that area once we’d cut diagonally down to reach the coastal bicycle route in Espino it was smooth rolling all the way to toretta after having set up camp at the now familiar toretta camping I took a late evening stroll to PRI torera
Located on the ocean side of the ismos and if the spectacular sunrise over amaran in the morning wasn’t enough the Deep calm and serenity of the extended Sunset of the Atlantic’s Horizon would Crown what had manifested into one of the best bicycle touring days that I’d ever experienced it was if over the
Course of the entire day the Sun’s light had by first Bridging the empty coldness of space in between us brought my body Mind and Spirit back to full Charge the Rays of Life Shine from the other side of Hell Wonder awakens Lifel