July 1, 2025
Day 8: Evora to Beja
Still madly hot
route data and details https://strava.app.link/3ysI0hSOEUb
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Another very early start, with a 5 am alarm and planning to leave by six. We managed to get away by about 10 past and had about 25 or 30km in the dawn sunshine with not too much heat. Pretty agricultural views and although we were on a main road really not very busy.
Plenty of small towns of villages offering café stops. These are theoretically best avoided because a group of six or seven can quickly waste 20 minutes getting coffee going to the loo et cetera and everybody waiting for everybody else. Two or three of those stops and suddenly you’ve lost an hour, when you were trying to get there before it gets too hot.
Eventually, the heat got to me and when Steve pulled up in the van at 67km of the 81 we were meant to be doing and I knew that the last few miles was on an uphill main road it was an easy decision to jump in the van. Steve and I headed south of the town where we were staying to check out the main road out of town for the following day and see if it was suitable, which it was.
Even with all that, we were at the hotel by midday and had a couple of hours wait for check-in. Although in fact that turned out to be much quicker. I went and got some Chinese food for lunch, then spend the rest of the afternoon in the air-conditioned room. I washed my kit from today, the last time I would have to do that this trip. I hung it outside in the Sun and in the blast of air from the air-conditioning unit and everything was absolutely bone dry including the shorts within half an hour.
Dinner was a very nice steak at a small restaurant about 300 m away. We definitely could not have walked any further in the heat. We then went to a went to a large supermarket opposite to get snacks for breakfast to have in the room
Today's ride: 67 km (42 miles)
Total: 527 km (327 miles)
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