Day 37: Vila Real de Santo Antonio to Faro

April 7, 2023

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This morning's breakfast got a very high rating. It started by having a large amount of sliced ripe mango, which is a thing all by itself. But also they would cook omelette, with possible mushrooms, tomato, cheese and other stuff. And there were nice cakes, one of which was called a royal cake, made from a secret recipe developed by nuns. It was moist, with a lot of ground almonds.

The pedestrian area of town gave us a pleasant few minutes' ride, before we launched out into the more normal streets. Athough we had a track from Google Maps, and there was always EV1 to consider, our general plan was to follow the highway, N125.

As we started on the highway, we soon came to a tree, which we will for now confidently call a Loquat. I collected a few fruits, despite the netting which showed someone was caring for the tree. The branches need to stay on their own side of the fence, if they want to be safe (from me!).

The next tree along was overhanging a car, making it really fair game. The fruits from this tree differed from the first one, being much more elongated. It had me wondering if it was the same fruit.

I jammed them all in my handlebar bag, with the long ones on the left.

Later, upon gobbling up the fruit, it was clear that the elongated ones also had elongated seeds. Yet otherwise the fruit is very similar. Does anyone have some insight on this?

We felt many of the houses along the way as we started out were very attractive. One group, with unique chimneys, turned out to be a hotel.

Other houses also had unique chimneys. We now remembered this chimney thing from when we passed through in the other direction, ten days ago.

The N-125 in the early going was a bit nerve wracking for having no shoulder. We were glad to see other cyclists on the road, though, as they would help alert drivers to watch for cyclists. In the photo below you see the "no shoulder" condition, some cars that we hope are alert, and lots of cyclists.

Something that we have not seen before was the harvesting of cilantro. We watched for a little while, as the workers cut a handful, kind of whacked it to shake off loose leaves and then tied the bunch. We could smell the cilantro even though we were quite distant.

Lantana was also very much in evidence. I think I may have seen an all yellow section, but normally they are pink, orange, and yellow. You can see that there were large embankments of them.

We entered Vila Nova de Cacela, and again noted some very nice looking houses or apartments.

We paused near a service station and noticed a lot of swallows in the overhead shelter. They are really cute, and fun to watch.

If you have ever bought a potted geranium for several dollars, you will be jealous of this giant hedge of the darn things!

Although it is futile to be taking photos of the millions of orange and lemon trees here, I did snap one, just for the record!

Unlike in Mexico, there are not a lot of roadside craft places here. But there are some, and like this one, they are very attractive.

Near Conceicao, here is a church. I am not so hot on churches, now that we have left Spain.

We remain suckers for Eurovelo I, and here we are again following one of their seductive signs. There was also a Camino sticker that someone put on the post. I wonder what they meant by 2009-2021? I mean, it's far, but not that far!

Absolutely predictably, EV1 turned to dirt after leading us in for a short bit.

We were not too crabby about it, because the trail led through a salt flat area.

Salt flats like these are a sure bet for spotting birds!

We think we might have shot this mountain of salt last time too.

We made it to Tavira, and certainly remembered the big bridge, and the waterfront where our hotel was. It is a very nice, dramatic area.

In the town we picked up a really nice broad blue bike path. Of course, it did not go on forever.

We found ourselves back on an EV 1 dirt track for another bit. There we spied plantations of trees that looked strange because of droopy leaves amid large sprays of flowers. There were large plantations of these, so they are clearly an important crop. Google Lens seems to think they are mangos. Possible?

This unfortunately fuzzy shot does show that there were a lot of these trees.

The roadside often had large displays of flowers, that we assume were wild. How nice are these!

You can see that this shot was 23 km out from Faro. There is a good shoulder, but for this distance at least the road was busy and noisy. As we got to Faro, though there was always shoulder, the roads became more tangled, higher speed, more enclosed. It was not so pleasant.

Here in Olhao we were battled traffic. Had we gone down by the water, it would have been a lot more pleasant.

This small road joining N125 was one that Google Maps would have had us on. Feeling we had a fair distance to ride today, we rather stubbornly stuck to the main highway.

Oh look, there will be a Paso in Faro tonight.

Because of our routing, Faro also did not seem very attractive today. Our hotel is on a nondescript street, and our room is very ordinary. But we are still happy, and gearing up for a push into the hills tomorrow!

Today's ride: 58 km (36 miles)
Total: 1,539 km (956 miles)

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