Our stay at Camping Mougas may not have been the most glamorous but damn it does have one hell of a view! We spend at least 10 minutes just sitting and watching the sea, crashing on the rocks beneath us as the sun goes down. The constant roar of the waves is pretty much the only noise in an otherwise peaceful spot. It is quite windy (that will be the beans!) so we elect to pitch the tent a bit further back where there is a bit more shelter. There is a cafe on site so we saunter up (actually I say saunter it’s actually a climb….the entrance is so steep I think for the first time we may actually have to walk our bikes up if we are ever to leave tomorrow!) and enjoy listening in to other people’s conversation. We realise we have overstayed when we start involuntarily tutting at a young German guy who is very obviously a big fan of himself and his own voice and starts taking absolute codswallop to his very unimpressed and very bored looking friends.

We clamber back down the to tent where Marc rustles up some pasta and we eat in silence mesmerised by the view.

Final act of the day is usually to ruin any positive vibes we might be feeling by checking tomorrow’s route and today is no exception. It’s a massive 90 miles days although it all looks thankfully flat. We also can see we have a short ferry ride across the Mino estuary, so book tickets for the first crossing at 9am.

As per usual we are up and away just after 7am and head off south towards our “ferry”. We make excellent time, it is as advertised very flat and smoothly paved. We pick some pastries up with the plan that we can kill two birds with one stone and have a leisurely breakfast while on the “ferry”. We arrive about 20 mins early than our booked ticket so pull up and prepare to wait. Almost as soon as we do a man in an impossibly small boat way below us, gesticulates for us to walk our bikes down the teeny tiny gang plank and beckons us with a guttural “get in the boat” (I assume that’s what he said, he spoke zero English and we have no Portuguese) so we did! To be honest it was all quite a thrill being sped across the estuary although it wasn’t until we got on the other side that I realised he called himself “Popeye the Sailor Man”……that might have stopped us getting onboard in the first place!

Anyway, the speedier than expected crossing and the fact the we are now in Portugal and the clock has wound back an hour means we are already 20 miles in and it’s only 900 and feeling super confident about the day ahead.

The Garmin would very much love to take us along the EuroVelo route all the way to Porto and indeed given more time and different bikes, we would happily acquiesce. Unfortunately we have 90 miles to cover and whilst the EuroVelo route is often flat, beautiful tarmac, it is also all too frequently cobbled (we detest cobbles) and quite often sandy (there is a special place in hell for sandy cycle routes!!) which make progress exhausting and impossibly slow. We of course don’t want to miss out on the spectacular scenery that we have cycled all this way to see, but we do try and pick and choose when to stay on the road and when to dip down to the shoreline to pick up the route. From time to time it works and we get other smooth cycling and the scenery….a lot of time we do not and more than once we slow to a snails pace or have to turn around and return to the road …..it’s all very frustrating!

The weather today, if not “frustrating” is very undecided and unhelpful ….one minute we are gasping for air in the harsh glare of the sun the next we are in the middle of a biblical thunder storm.

As expected today is a very long hard day….our longest and hardest yet. We eventually drop down to the Douro and the centre of Porto (all the way from my front door by the way!!!!) around 5pm and decide we have earnt the right to a cold beer and some people watching.

The last five miles are up (obvs) and cobbled bastards) but we have now arrived at our campsite for the night just south of Porto some 12 hours after setting off this morning….jeez, remind me why we do this again? Oh yes, that’s it…..if you have not already done so please do click the donate button below and give as much as you can….it will help Saint Catherine’s Hospice and will mean so much to us. Thank you.