July 3, 2025
Day 10: Alcoutim to Tavira
The End
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route data and details https://strava.app.link/NGfqW6W9HU
As we only had a relatively short day of cycling, we allowed ourselves the luxury of proper breakfast and aimed to head off by 8 o’clock. This made a significant difference to the temperature as it was already warm at eight whereas the previous few days we would have had two cooler hours before that. We, or at least I, had allowed ourselves to be deceived by the moderate distance and moderate number of climb and their steepness. In fact they seemed extremely steep to me and several of us were struggling slightly in the increasing heat. Beautiful scenery and views. Eventually we all arrived at the café about 15km from the end and had a good break and cold drinks. Very cheap prices as always in such places compare with northern Europe and the Norwegians in particular cannot believe how cheap it is.
From there it was mostly downhill to the coast road, and then a slightly winding lane down through marshes to the very classy hotel, although as always with these places they look down their noses at these poor cyclists and seemed to be very under-prepared for what to do with storing our bikes. But eventually we got our bikes packed away in their cardboard boxes, and managed to get into our rooms, and overcome the challenge of ordering food and drink at the bar. You would have thought that having four or five waiters they would be qualified to take an order, but only one was, so we had to wait for him to be ready having been turned down by several others who had nothing to do! Probably made far worse by the fact we were tired, hungry and thirsty.
The hotel is in the converted building of a tuna factory and colonial style Portuguese architecture, with beautiful grass lawns and generally a very relaxed vibe and the beach alongside. We had taken arrival photographs on the beach when we all arrived, and the rest of the day we just lounged around. Drinks and speeches at seven and then buffet dinner at eight.
As with my previous ZWAP tour to Barcelona this was an inspirational event. ZWAP is a cycling club formed around an electronic online platform called Zwift, which is a way of doing indoor cycle training on an electronic bike, linked to other people around the world. ZWAP is a cycle club set up for people who do this, who are called Zwifters against Parkinson’s.
Although I did not use the Zwift electronic training system, I am an online member of the ZWAP club, whose members either live with Parkinson’s, or support those who do, and who are actively keen on cycling. Rune Vethe is the chairman of the club and much of the logistics of planning and booking the trip is organised by Rune Bjerke. They and the other volunteers have done a fantastic job in arranging all this, and special mention must go to Steve Wesson, who drove the van, supported and maintained us, and did all of this free of charge on a voluntary basis because of his wish to support cyclists with Parkinson’s.
It has been great to be able to mutually support each other and achieving something difficult and fun, and that in temperatures up to 46°. It was even harder than we expected to be, but because of our shared experience with Parkinson’s and cycling, we all had a fantastic time and were able to be understanding of each other. The net result is that I have made great friends out of this. Unfortunately, I will be unable to attend next year‘s tour which is from Seattle to Phoenix via San Diego but I will be following along avidly
I will now upload a load of photographs since there are so many to choose from, which I will do properly on my laptop when I get home
Today's ride: 58 km (36 miles)
Total: 677 km (420 miles)
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