Time for a break....: Day 62 – 10/06/13

Figuera da Foz – Camping Paredes da Vitoria

76.9km, 4hrs, 50mins, 749m total climb

After breakfast, we left Figuera da Foz across the Rio Mondego back on the N109 which we stayed on for quite a while again. It was mainly long and straight which made the first half of the cycle a little bit boring. Then it started to get a bit more interesting as we hit a Portuguese nature reserve area between Carrico and Marinha Grande which is covered in dunes and pine trees, typical for Portugal. Most of the pine trees were tapped for the sap which they apparently use to make paint and pine resin (google told us later that day). It also featured a fairly new cycle path which went on and on, almost dead straight.

Everything went very well and we were hoping for another fast day...until we hit a dead end. About 15km before out destination the bridge we were supposed to cross was missing. It seems that they are building a new one but didn’t put up any diversion. We saw a few equally confused cars turning around. This was slightly frustrating as we could see the other side of the bridge and the river wasn't that wide and didn't look deep either. We half-seriously considered the possibility of pushing through, but then we decided to cycle up along the river on a sandy dirt path for about 2km to the next bridge. The detour ended up being about 8km, so not that bad. The remainder of the cycle was just like the start. A long straight cycle path in between duney landscape.

We arrived at the camp-side in Paredes Velhas and were absolutely starving as we only had a few breakfast biscuits during the cycle. We had a quick sandwich and checked in. The campsite was quite busy and very Portuguese, there were no foreign tourist apart from us. We set up the tent and decided to treat ourselves to dinner in a little beach restaurant which we past cycling through the village earlier. We ordered fish soup and the chef's special burger (he assured us it was something typical from the region). The fish soup was luke warm and the burger was - unexpected. An old dry burger and bun fitted with a tomato slice and a fried egg and gherkin inside, then covered with melted cheese and drowned in some unfathomable luminous orange sauce that had no flavour at all. Could have been baked beans sauce with the beans strained out? All for 20 Euros which is quite steep for us. Unsatisfying.

We saved dessert for later and walked along the beach to another café watching a bunch of beginner surfers on the way falling off alot. There we had a bica (espresso) and a Feast icelolly which was equally disappointing as the ice cream was half melted and it was blessed with a very under average chocolate bit in the middle.

Maybe better food luck tomorrow!

http://ridewithgps.com/trips/1409289