On Tuesday we took the train from Kaiserslautern (K-Town!) to Aachen, near the border with the Netherlands. When we got off the train we had a short 15 km ride into the Netherlands and our campsite for the night. It was a pretty nice evening as we rode out of Aachen. Anna went into a little shop to get some food, and got given complimentary bagels, onions and garlic. That stuff never happens to me!

As we got near the campsite we saw a big hill (by Netherlands standards). Anna said “I hope we’re not going up that”, which of course we were. The hill turned out to be a 14% gradient, which makes it officially the steepest hill we’ve tackled on this tour. In the Netherlands?! We started up it and as we did, three Japanese guys came past on road bikes. Two of them disappeared past pretty quickly, but the third was a bit out of shape and unwillingly kept us company as we ground our way up. At least it was the end of the day!

The campsite turned out to be a bit soulless, but on the plus side the owners basically told us that if we cleared out before 8 in the morning we didn’t have to pay. Sweet! We had showers and went to bed, planning for an early start. We had a long 95 km ride to do the next day, all the way the Leuven in Belgium.

We rose with the lark and enjoyed the view of the sunrise across the valley. I didn’t enjoy getting soaked with dew from the tent as we exited (totally Anna’s fault), but the lovely view from the top of the hill, and the subsequent race down the hill cheered me up a bit.

We got back on our route to Leuven and basically settled in for a long slog of a day. The road we were on was pretty busy and pretty straight, mostly through suburbs with the odd few kilometres of open countryside. We crossed the border into Belgium early in the day, which meant giving up the glorious Dutch cycle paths for the substandard Belgian ones.

The cycle path was alternately bad or worse, sometimes on the road with a good surface, and sometimes on the pavement with a rubbish surface. Cycle paths in Belgium are a bit frustrating. It’s like they’ve done 80% of the work and then just got bored, so often the path just runs out, or goes out into traffic. Sometimes it’s been put in, but then left to subside into the ground. Still, we persevere! Anna managed to find a nice little detour at one stage which gave us a few blessed kilometres of relief from the traffic, noise and potholes.

We finally rode into Leuven and headed to the town centre to wait for Alex, who is Anna’s university friend and our host for the night. Leuven has some amazing public buildings and a really nice feel to it. The old town hall is verging on the ridiculous with its incredibly intricate facade and its four towers bristling with statues and other embellishments.

When Alex got home we went off to meet him, had showers then headed back to town for dinner and drinks. It was a great evening, we tried some more delicious Belgian beers and had a good catch up. We headed home too late (obviously) and settled down for a kip on the sofa bed before our last little bit of European riding into Brussels tomorrow.

– Dave

Today I finished off cutting out the wooden animal templates for the open day. It was a long day, but pretty satisfying when they were all done! Anna drew out some of the templates for me to cut, edited the English language version of the Project website and applied for a job as a London cycle courier for when we get home!

After work we went round to Caro and Lea’s place for a grill (barbecue). Marten was back from his long weekend so he came as well. There was delicious food and beer, and we chatted about films, music and German versus English sayings. We found out that Germans “make an elephant out of a mosquito” instead of a mountain out of a molehill, and they go mad like an elephant in a porcelain shop instead of a bull (maybe a bull elephant?) in a china shop. We also found that someone who digs holes for others soon falls in!

We got home a bit late, and I definitely had one too many beers, not really looking forward to getting up tomorrow. It hasn’t really struck me yet that this was our last day at a rewilding project, and the last day before we start our journey home. The people at this project are so nice and they’ve welcomed us so warmly here that it feels like a stupid thing to be going already!

– Dave

We were packing up our stuff this morning when Olaf arrived to see us off. It was great to see him before we went, we had been sorry to miss him and Iris at the shooting club parade yesterday. By the time he came to see us he’d already moved his flock of sheep from one Christmas tree plantation to another, but was now ready to enjoy his Sunday. We said thanks very much for looking after us and he said it was a pleasure for him, which was nice to hear! Everyone was really cool at Rothaargebirge; it was amazing how everyone moved their time around for us. Coralie and Olaf made time for us even though they were busy, and Olaf sorted us out with a sweet campsite. Christoph, who owns the field we camped in, and charged us €10 for three nights, let us use his own shower and washing machine. Jakob and Sophie spent time showing us around, searched for wild bison with us and gave us their own perspective on the project, hunting and life in the area. We could have stayed a lot longer!

We set off downhill into a chilly morning breeze and headed towards Geißen, around 78 km away. The downhill didn’t last long and we soon found ourselves slogging up a four-kilometre climb. We mostly went downhill today but with a few little ascents to make it interesting. Because we were following Google Maps we also found ourselves on some interesting little tracks, luckily they were still ride-able, but we’re starting to think there should be different direction options for mountain bikes and road bikes!

We finally rolled into the campsite just outside Geißen, booked in and set up camp. When we went to visit the toilets we found they were about 700 m from our tent. While there we checked out the showers and found they were token operated. So, another 700 m back to the office to enquire. “Oh yes, the showers need a token but you need to get them from the restaurant (another 200 m in the other direction). It’s all on the paper we gave you.” The paper was a sheet of densely printed A4, which we hadn’t really looked at. Anna got subdued British rage at this point. It was lucky we had the bikes to transit between all the different areas. It was like a city campus at a university. There was no wifi. It was a pretty rubbish campsite. We made the most of it though and had a nice chilled out evening with a never to be repeated dinner experiment of Spätzli (German egg pasta) with tinned vegetarian chilli. Mmmmm.

– Dave

I slept fabulously and practically bounded out of bed when the alarm went off at 7am. Undoubtedly that was the result of my cakey dinner. I had a leisurely breakfast and took my time over packing up, but it was still all done in an hour. How is it quicker by yourself?

Unfortunately my swift exit was then stifled by the lack of internet. I diligently looked up the route for the day in Google maps last night, but this morning it was gone and I couldn’t get it back. So I had to try and look through my offline maps and figure out a route for myself. It didn’t go that well.

I left town en route to the next town, taking a busy country road that had a cycle path alongside it, which was fine. There were a few gentle inclines to contend with, but nothing major. After 20 km I stopped for a break beside a quiet, leafy roundabout on the edge of town, ate half my pretzel and cream cheese and talked to numerous passers by.

“Where are you heading?”

“Eschershausen.”

“Oh my, you’ve got a few mountains to climb!”

“Oh yeah?”

“Oh boy, they’re steep! One of them is 12%!”

“Wow that is pretty steep.” [Thinking yeah, whatever, I’ve been over the Rockies, the Picos, the Pyrenees and the Alps. I think I can handle the ‘mountains’ here.]

I headed through town and took a cycle path alongside a main road. Then, at a junction, the cycle path ran out. I took the side road and the cycle signs pointed in a lot of directions, but none that I wanted to go in! A man who’d parked up his company truck for a cigarette break chatted to me about route options.

“Where are you heading?”

“Eschershausen.”

“Oh, you’ve got a few mountains to get over between here and there!”

“So I’ve heard.”

He recommended me a side road and off I went again to look for the mountains. And soon enough, there was my first one. It crept up on me, gradually at first, not even looking like an incline but slowing my down none the less, then steeper and steeper until granny gear was engaged and I was chugging up at 6kph. It was so muggy and I was sweating like crazy! I had to stop a few times on the way up for water breaks and to get my breath back. But really, it only went on for 2 km maximum – definitely not a mountain! Perhaps something bigger is coming, I thought. Then I remembered having to walk up the tiny but insanely steep hills in Exmoor and thought I suppose they don’t have to be that high to be really bad.

I zoomed down for a bit, then started climbing again. And then after a few ups and downs were done, I stopped for a little rest to eye up the next hill. This one was the biggest of the day – and whilst it was far from a mountain, it was still enough to have me working after a few weeks of beer festivals and beach holidays!

The cycle path had been coming and going some more between towns and I was missing it on this steep hill. The traffic was mostly good to me, but it’s stressful having to check the mirror all the time, adjust road positioning, thank drivers (or call them wankers, as appropriate), worry about getting knocked off and try to find places to pull in for a rest and to check directions. It was relatively busy and people drive quite fast on the country roads! I did manage to make sure that nobody could overtake me when there was oncoming traffic, and nobody blared their horn at me, so that’s something.

At the top of the biggest mountain, there was a café and I pulled in. When I got off the bike, I felt all weak and wobbly. How long since that half a pretzel? The oppressive heat really stops you feeling hungry! I got a fizzy drink and sat down to take on the sugar. Then I rolled down the other side of the hill and headed towards the campsite. Just one more stretch of busy road to go and I’m done for the day!

It was only 3pm when I arrived and I found myself without much to do in the evening! I showered, did laundry, chatted to some English people who I had zero in common with besides English, ate the rest of my lunch for dinner, finished my book and attempted to do yoga, but it was busy and I felt self-conscious. What do we usually spend our time doing? Thankfully there was free internet and I browsed unenthusiastically until bedtime. Then I didn’t really sleep at all because the tent was pitched on a hill so I kept sliding down my roll mat, and I’ve got an annoyingly tickly cough. At that point I was probably better off on my own with nobody to moan to!

– Anna

We woke up and set off late this morning into an insane headwind. The task for the day was to cross most of Zeeland using the roads over the famous Delta Works, and camp on the most southerly island, Walcheren.

The landscape was flat, the inland areas were all agriculture, near the sea there were lovely wetlands full of reeds and water birds. It was good to see the North Sea again!

Today was all about the wind. We were headed south-west, and the wind was blowing right in our faces all day. It was really strong, especially when we were up on top of the dykes that protect the land from the water, and the dams that cross between the islands. We only had to do 70 km but it was one of the longest days we’ve had for a while. We got to the first sea crossing and slogged across, stopping briefly to admire the view and consume a life-preserving stroopwafel.

The first island we got onto was pretty quiet. There were a few trees which helped to keep us out of the wind. When we got to the dam leading to the second island we found there was a long sandy beach on one side. The wind was so strong it was picking sand up off the beach and sandblasting our bodies and bikes as we crossed the dam about 100 m from the beach. We could see it coming at us in little sandstorms which hit us like a load of tiny pinpricks. On the plus side, the kite surfers were having a great time. We bought some chips and watched them for a while from the shelter of the chip cabin.

The second island was pretty bare and there wasn’t much to stop the wind impeding our progress. We didn’t enjoy it! At one point my super-fashionable sun visor blew off into a ditch. I eventually found it after 5 minutes of frantic searching among the reeds. Honestly it was really windy, look!

The third crossing was hard but pretty awesome. It was across the massive Oosterscheldekering, the biggest and most ambitious part of the Delta works. It is 9 km long, and contains 4 km of sluice gates that are usually open, but can be closed to prevent a storm surge from flooding Zeeland. It also has a completely artificial island in the middle of it, which has now been planted with wind turbines. Pretty amazing and puts the Thames Barrier in perspective!

Once we got to the last island it was a mere 10 km to the campsite. Thankfully the last 5 were with the wind which gave us a much-needed break!

When we got to the site there was a sign on the gate saying “Voll” (Full). Anna refused to believe it though, and was proved right when the site manager came over and told us “there’s always room for bikes”. Music to our ears! Apparently the organisation that runs this group of campsites has decided its unacceptable for cyclists and walkers to arrive at a campsite after a long day to find it full, so they reserve a little area especially for us. So good!

We happily pitched our tent, and we’d managed to have dinner, do laundry and have showers before the rain set in. Anna sat in the tent doing what I imagine was fairly constrained yoga, while I went to the shelter and chatted with a family of Dutch tourers for an hour. The two kids looked about 15 and 13, and they have done 5 tours already, starting when they were 12 and 10! Pretty good way to spend the summer holidays!

We went to bed absolutely knackered, but happy that we only have one more crossing to deal with tomorrow, and IT’S BY FERRY!

– Dave

A photographer came to the village today to take pictures of the vultures, and we went to help out. We were on our way to Alinyà when we met one of the local guys, Juan-Anton, and got chatting. It was really interesting hearing his story. He moved from Barcelona four years ago, and has rebuilt a pig shed and yard into a beautiful house, which he showed us around. There is a book about the area called “Alinyà, Muntanya Viva” (Living Mountian), and Juan-Anton showed us pictures of people butchering pigs and preparing sausages, which were taken in his house! We also saw photos of Lluis, who runs the restaurant, weaving baskets. The people here have many skills!

Rafael (Silvia’s husband) came to collect us and we went to meet Silvia and the photographer, Herr Storsberg, at the visitor centre. Herr Storsberg is German and speaks little English and no Catalan, and Silvia doesn’t speak German. Luckily Anna does speak German so we were soon chatting away, with Anna translating from German to English, and Silvia from English to Catalan for Rafael, who claims not to speak English (but after today we think his English is OK!).

Silvia stayed at the visitor centre and the rest of us set off back up the mountain with a babel of voices in the car, and six big barrels of carcasses on the back of the van. With no Silvia we had no English-Catalan translation service and we felt a bit sorry for Rafael driving along with the conversation going straight past him.

We got to the top of the hill, and found a luxury bird hide, with a toilet, drinking water and big thick walls to insulate from the sun. British birdwatchers would be green with envy! Herr Storsberg went inside to set up, and we set about scattering chunks of rabbit and sheep across the feeding area. The smell wasn’t great, but I think the worst bit was the recognizable bits of rabbit. They were so cute, and soooo dismembererd!

There were no vultures in sight as we started scattering carrion, but by the time we finished five minutes later there were about 20 griffon vultures circling overhead. We put the empty meat barrels back on the van as the first ones came in to land. They were massive up close! It was amazing to get such a good view of them after seeing them at a distance so many times, it felt like being in a nature documentary! Rafael was suddenly in a hurry so we jumped in the van and started to pull off. I asked if I could take a quick picture but he said we couldn’t because it’s very important that the vultures don’t get used to people. That’s why he wanted to get out of there. So we headed back down the hill and left Herr Storsberg to enjoy himself for 4 hours!

On the way back we started trying out our Spanish on Rafael. I managed “Le vultures es aqui rapido” (hopefully that’s something like “the vultures is here quickly”). Not exactly Cervantes, but he understood and started telling us about the vultures in a mix of Catalan, French and English. In totally natural situations, it is actually the ravens that are usually the first to the carrion. The vultures have amazing eyesight and they look for the brilliant black of the ravens to identify feeding sites. Here they are also accustomed to the white van with the red barrels as well as the various feeding sites so they are even quicker to lunch! This conversation was a good ice-breaker, and after that we were less shy about trying to talk to each other. It was a nice drive back down the track feeling like we could actually communicate a little bit in another language.

We were dropped off at home while Rafael went and did more work. Anna pursued her journey to become the Ultimate Yogi (she’s at the start at the moment), while I read my book and took photos of things.

After a few hours Rafael came back and we went to pick up Herr Storsberg. He was pretty happy, he saw loads of griffon vultures and a black vulture. He saw a bearded vulture (the money shot) flying around, but it didn’t land. He plans to come back in October for another go at it!

On the way down the track Rafael pointed out an impressive looking peak with a little village nestled under it. The peak is called Eagle Mountain – very appropriate! Back in Alinyà, Herr Storsberg wanted to buy us a coffee, so we went to Cal Celso and looked at some of his previous photos while we chatted away in our various languages. He’s got some great pictures, if you want to check them out, have a look at his website here.

After saying goodbye to Herr Storsberg, Rafael wanted to move two of his horses up to El Ribatell where we are staying, so we helped him prepare some electric fencing, and later on we went with him and the kids, Joaquim (who is 11) and Carel (who is 5) to collect the horses. Rafael was leading one of the horses with Carel riding. Anna, Quim (pronounced Keem) and I were walking along behind, occasionally chasing on the other horse who was determined to try and eat every bit of grass in sight. We were halfway back to El Ribatell when it started to rain, massive fat drops. Two minutes later we got the rest, a heavy downpour which soon felt cold. Rafael told us to wait in an animal shelter while he sorted out the horses (we always suspected he didn’t really need us there!) so we hung around trying to learn Spanish and Catalan from Quim while Carel played in the straw. We saw a mouse climbing the wall, which was a good opportunity to learn a new word (ratolí). Rafael was back pretty quick, and told us to wait, he was going to get the car, take us home for dry clothes, then take us the their place for dinner!

We didn’t need to be asked twice, and we were soon sitting in Silvia and Rafael’s beautiful old house in front of a massive fire chatting with Quim while Rafael prepared dinner. Carel didn’t talk to us much; she was intent on trying to strangle Quim – but in a nice way. She was shouting “I love you – you’re in the prison!” while hanging onto his neck. Eventually we managed to distract her by playing a card game, and that kept us busy until Silvia got home. Rafael knocked the fire down to embers and cooked the meat for dinner (lamb, beef AND duck) over them, and then we sat down to the most delicious meal we’ve had for ages. Loads of perfectly cooked meat with a mushroom sauce and a cream sauce, salad, ravioli, catalan tomato bread (Pa amb tomàquet) with a tasty white wine (they had red but refused to serve it as it wasn’t good enough!).

We chatted about the food, the area and the lifestyle over dinner. Silvia said the only thing she misses from living in Girona is the people she worked with, apart from that everything here is better. I can believe it!

At about 11 pm, Carel started complaining that she was tired – the first time Anna and I have seen a child actually ask to be put to bed! So Quim and Carel went to bed while we had a dessert of delicious yoghurts from one of Rafael’s many jobs working at a dairy farm. We talked a bit more about the forestry project, and the way that the two Foundations that are active in the valley work together to try and met their respective goals.

Finally it was time to go, and we got our stuff together. We were planning to walk back but Silvia insisted on driving us, saying that the curtains in the village would be twitching if we were left to walk home! On the way back we were found out that Rafael and Silvia have been together since she was 15! She said that she’d never found a better man. Aaaah!

– Dave

We had Sunday free, which was good because we had loads to catch up on. It was a beautiful day!

We spent the morning writing up the blog from the last few days – we’ve been doing so much cool stuff that we haven’t had time to update it. We then headed to Cal La Lluisa to upload everything, check emails etc. We both walked barefoot down the road, and it felt pretty good apart from the occasional sharp stone. We were also happy to avoid this poo, although the butterflies seemed to appreciate it.

I stuck to coffee in the restaurant, but Anna had had enough of fruit teas and decided to try a mystery bottle from the top shelf. It turned out it is called Ratafia and is something that people make at home all over the Pyrenees. It has up to 50 different plants in it, which vary from valley to valley, and is fermented outside – apparently being exposed to moonlight is important in the process! All I can say is that this one was bloody delicious, like a fortified wine with added herbs that made you feel like it was doing you good! It was also about 20% alcohol but served in a half pint glass, so by the time we left we were feeling a bit light headed!

We walked down to the village to catch up with Silvia – she wanted to take us to one of the Project areas with her husband Rafael so they could show us some work we could get on with tomorrow. We waited in the other restaurant (there are two!) for a while, and then she and Rafael came to collect us.

We left the village and wound our way up another gravel track to the top of a small hill on the side of the mountain. The project is basically a herb garden; they are growing herbs in lots of different microclimates in the area to see which microclimates are best suited for each species. Our job for tomorrow is to weed the plots. Rafael gave us a demonstration of what to do. We said we felt a bit bad that he was doing all the work, but he said that one person working and three people watching was quite normal in Spain! After the demo we went and checked out a cool little cave formed by a spring. The water from here works its way down the hill and forms the village supply. Apparently natural water supplies are quite common here and are regularly tested by the government to ensure they’re safe to drink – better than paying for horrible hard water at home!

Silvia asked us if we had time before dinner to see their chickens. Of course we did, being basically tramps these days (in the best sense of the word). So we went up another track, at the top of which was a massive black and white dog bounding around and checking out the car. This was Silvia and Rafael’s Pyrenean Mountain Dog (Great Pyrenees). He is only eight months old! Apparently he will put on another 20 kg before he is fully grown, so will weigh in at about 60 kg.

These dogs aren’t used to herd animals, they are to protect them from predators, including eagles and wolves (which used to be more common here). They are raised from pups in the company of the animals they will guard, so that they become family. It’s important not to pet and fuss them too much because they also need to guard against people sometimes. Silvia said she struggled with that, and so did we! Apparently you have to be careful to pick the dogs with the right temperament; the ones who are too nice are no good for guarding. I said I thought there would be a good market for those nice dogs in the UK. So fluffy!

This guy was being used to guard chickens. Rafael told us that the hardest thing for the dog is to guard against predatory birds, because it’s hard for him to tell the difference from the chickens. When they started this little family they lost one chicken and had another injured, probably to eagles, but recently there haven’t been any incidents so they think the dog has learned his job!

Rafael said that he had heard of rewilding projects in the UK to re-introduce big predators, and he said that these dogs could be part of the solution to protect livestock. I think this would be a great idea; I would definitely not mess with these chickens – look at those teeth!

We headed back down the hill and Silvia and Rafael drove us home. One the way they insisted on stopping at their place to give us some of their home-grown potatoes. They had another dog at home, a little spaniel who was completely mental, jumping up at us and rolling over to get his tummy tickled. Silvia said he was very nervous, Rafael added that this is what happens when you cross a Spanish dog with a French dog. I don’t know if this is always true but I wasn’t going to argue.

After the guys dropped us at home we started cooking a much-needed dinner. Halfway through there was a knock at the door – Silvia had brought us gardening gloves. These people are too kind! Eventually we had dinner – sausage and mash with amazing Spanish sausage from the butcher in Organya. So good! Now all we need to do is get started early tomorrow and do sufficient weeding to justify all the incredible kindness we’ve been shown in our time here. A tall order!

– Dave

We woke up to find that we hadn’t been murdered in our bags. Good news to start the day! Anna was severely lacking in sleep though; luckily we are now so well versed in breaking camp that we can do it without talking! We had a quick brekkie before hitting the road. The first bit was downhill and I soaked up the cold morning air, knowing that it would be more than hot enough in a couple of hours. We crossed the river and climbed the valley on the other side, and the view opened up in front of us, revealing the “pre-pyrenees” that we were about to tackle.

As we got nearer the ridges, we started climbing the road beside the river, just below a dam. It was pretty busy, with lorries swerving around us, but Anna risked life and limb to document the dam, so you’d better enjoy it.

We stopped for lunch at the top of the dam and enjoyed two-day matured hummus with bread, followed by choccie digestives topped with raspberry jam. Mmmmm! We were then faced with our first tunnel of the day. We went through it, escaping into daylight just before a lorry trundled past. We decided that for all future tunnels we would take the longer but hopefully quieter and safer detours around the side of the lake. This soon paid off as we found ourselves the kings of the road with epic views opening before us, while the rest of those poor schmucks enjoyed fluorescent lighting and carbon monoxide. As we got to the entrance of the biggest tunnel on our route we found to our dismay that the road around was closed off with barriers. However we decided that falling rocks and landslides were less hazardous than speeding lorries so we squeezed through the barriers and made our way around. We were rewarded with a lovely long quiet ride past some stunning scenery. There were a few rocks on the road, but we escaped unharmed.

Once we turned east away from the river the road started to climb really steeply. It was narrow, quiet, beautiful and hot! The tunnels (with no convenient alternative roads this time) were small and a little disquieting, given the occasional motorbike convoys that sped past.

After an hour’s climbing we reached the edge of the Muntanya d’Alinya Reserve, marked with this rather unobtrusive sign. Hurrah!

As we continued up the road a car pulled over and the lady inside asked “Anna and Dave?”. Er, yes….

Silvia works at the project and she had been told by her colleague Susanna who we’ve been emailing that we would arrive tomorrow. She was unperturbed by the early arrival however, and we stood in the road introducing ourselves and hearing a little about the reserve. She said she was heading off for the afternoon, but gave us directions to the Project’s Education Centre and said we could just chill out there for the rest of the day. Sweet! So off we went, musing on how everything just seems to work out in Spain!

A little further on we stopped to eat, finding ourselves sitting on the steps of an 11th century church. As you do!

A few more grinding uphill miles and we arrived at the village of Alinya, where the Project has its Visitor Centre. The Education Centre where we were staying was only another 500 m or so as the crow flies, but most of it was upwards so it too us another half hour to get there. On the way we found a bag of potatoes in the road and snaffled a few for dinner. Beggars can’t be choosers!

We also went past some wild cherry trees pregnant with red delicious fruit. This made Anna happy!

The Education Centre is totally sweet, two floors with crystal clear mountain water piped inside, a space age composting toilet with a poo conveyor belt (I can’t get over that), a FRIDGE (WOOHOO) and two comfy sofa beds.

We had a wash and did laundry and soon afterwards Silvia came back. She said we could stay at the centre for the whole week if we liked (yes please) and then took us down to introduce us to Lluis, the owner of the restaurant, and part-time village taxi service. She said that Xavier, the Project’s Co-ordinator would come by the restaurant later on to introduce himself and let us know what we might be able to help with.

We decided to have dinner at the restaurant as well, and we were just finishing when Xavier arrived. He was eating too, so we stayed on and chatted about the Reserve, his own conservation experience, what we hoped to get from being here, and what we could do. It turns out that there is a group of students here this week from the University of Lleida, so we can attend some of the lectures and field trips they are doing, as well as doing some planting and maintenance in the forests, and helping out with a photography day for the vultures next week. Can’t wait!

– Dave

It’s getting really hot in the daytime now, so we decided to get up before 6 and start riding in the cooler morning. Unfortunately, Portugal doesn’t like us getting up early. There was no-one at the campsite reception so we didn’t get our €5 deposit back on our little gate tag, boo! Then when we got into town everything was shut (ok, it is Sunday). So we hung around bickering for a bit, I fell off my bike again which made me more angry, then we went to the shops and bickered a bit more. Then Anna found a chocolate Labrador puppy and her mood improved immensely. I was unable to maintain grumpiness in the face of this enthusiasm.

Out of town a massive valley opened up in front of us, covered mostly with terraced vinyards.

We stopped for food and sat by the side of the road with our legs dangling over the top terrace. Once we’d eaten we raced down a twisting set of switchbacks until we reached an old bridge over the river at the bottom of the valley, knowing all the time that going up the other side was going to be tough! And it was tough! The day was hotting up and the climb was crazy. We pedalled lethargically from one patch of shade to the next and gradually worked our way up past vinyards and scattered olive trees.

We got into a village called Cheires, and for the first time were confronted with a cobbled street we needed to climb instead of descend. It was hard work with the front wheel skittering about on the uneven surface. It’s a feeling we got used today, there was to be plenty more!

Thankfully this set of cobbles finished at the edge of the village and we continued up the hill to Sanfins do Douro where we found a lovely village square and stopped for lunch. There were loads of old guys sitting around on the benches chatting, it seemed pretty cosmopolitan!

As we finished eating we heard a drumbeat getting louder and louder. Anna asked “what do you think that is?” and I replied “sounds like a marching band.” And so it was, a load of kids with drums and batons marching down to the square. When they got to where we were sat they turned round and went off up the hill again. We aren’t sure what it was about, but it was a good ending to lunch!

After this we tried to find a shop to get some bread, and that’s when our problems started. It seems like they built the place at a time when gravity was at 45 degrees to what it is now. We had to push our bikes up and down several almost vertical streets looking for a shop, which turned out to be above the café. Presumably it used to be next to it until gravity changed. As I came out of the shop I found all the emergency vehicles in the district going past with sirens blaring. No idea what that was about either but Anna filmed it if you want to see.

Then we tried to get out of town. We were following google maps, which took us up an insanely steep cobbled street. Three locals came out of their houses and started talking to / laughing at us, eventually one lady managed to communicate that there was another road we should take.

At first it went well, but we soon found ourselves with a choice between a set of steep cobbled switchbacks or an apparently easier road that we hoped would go around the hill instead of over it. We had gone some way along this when a guy stopped us and said we couldn’t get through that way. But maps said we could, so of course we carried on for a bit. The road surface then turned to crushed brick, tile and eventually dirt and rock single-track, all on a silly gradient. But we decided we had gone too far to go back so we slogged up there, pushing the bikes and occasionally getting pushed back!

When we finally popped out at the top we had never been so glad to see tarmac!

Back on the road we started making good time but Google maps had another trick up its sleeve today. It directed us to take the IC-5. We use the “avoid motorways” option on our routes, but as I found out today, Portugal has two road designations that aren’t listed as motorways, but actually are. These are IC- and IP- for your info! To cut a long story short we did 10 awful kilometres on the IC-5. At kilometre 8 a motorway assistance guy in a van spotted us and what a hero he was! He didn’t give us any grief, but he tailed us for the two kilometres to the junction to get us off safely, gave us water, directed us to an alternative route that we never would have found otherwise, told us about a campsite on our route and even towed Anna up a hill! There are no photos. It was too awful. We took this one afterwards from the safety of a minor road.

We had a long sit down and some food after this experience to try and relax. After that we decided we would try the route we’d been shown. And it has been a good one in all respects, except that it was almost exclusively uphill all the way to the town of Carrazeda de Ansiães.

Having said that, there was a pretty epic view from the top!

By the time we got into town we were exhausted, hot and in no state to carry on. We stopped at a café to get cold drinks and try to find somewhere local to stay. The bartender was super helpful and told us about a good cheap hotel nearby so we’ve checked in to recover! After showers (soooooooo good) Anna is now doing yoga in an attempt to loosen off the hamstrings!

When the alarm went off at 6:30, it was still dark. The forecast was for rain, so we didn’t think there was much hurry to get up and ride before the sun got too hot, so we lay in bed another half hour. But when we did get out of the tent, we were greeted by a cloudless pale sky awaiting the rising sun.

It was just after 8am when we set of as the sunlight was flooding the valley, but the air was cold and it was beautiful riding. The road south out of Riano wound gently up and down as we were guided in and out of the valleys, through towns and across rivers.

Thankfully we were riding in the shade of the mountains a lot of the morning, welcoming the hot sun when it was there and looking forward to the shade again afterwards. My arms and hands were sunburned from yesterday and we both had pretty sore bums, but the weather, the views and the mood were all great today and we really enjoyed ourselves.

There were interesting birds to look at as well as the lovely mountains. We saw more of those cranes / storks today and quite a lot of their nests on top of tall trees and telegraph poles. There were also vultures and birds of prey around, usually riding the air currents above the high peaks. And there were hundreds of swallows darting around!

There was one big hill today, 2km of 8% and we pumped our way up to the top, thankful of the cool breeze and occasional cloud cover.

Just as it started to get hot, the sky clouded over and we stopped for first lunch with our jackets on. Then we saw the rain on the mountains ahead and donned preemptive rain gear after sweating up the next hill. The rain came down hard as we rode into Bonar, our designated stop for the day, but the shower had passed by the time we got to the campsite, which turned out to be closed.

On to the next town! Back up and down a few valleys, still enjoying the ride and still in the glorious shade of the clouds. Another rain shower later, we were in Vecilla. This town boasts three campsites and of the two that we could find, one was open – hurrah!

It was only 1pm and we’d done 65km! Feeling pleased with ourselves, we set up camp, did our laundry, showered (bliss after several days in the river!) and headed into town for food supplies before returning to cook dinner. Our laundry almost dried in the wind and sun in spite of a prolonged shower, which was nice. The dinner I cooked tonight wasn’t great though and I’m glad we were both in a good mood so that it was bearable! Attempting to cook tortilla on a camping stove is not recommended.

The forecast is pretty grim for the next week, but hopefully we will just have more cloudy days like today. I can’t believe it’s not tourist season yet, this seems like the ideal time to visit!