Hey …we are back!! First of all I need to involve you in a small contrivance, a flight of fancy if you will. We need to pretend that as I write this (Thursday, 28 May) it is actually day thirteen of our adventure and not, as those of you with a basic grip of how time works will likely know, day fourteen. I am sure you are wondering why I feel the need to create this little fantasy world for us all to live in but the details are so insignificant and meaningless that I really don’t think you should worry your pretty little heads about it……ok well basically I have ballsed up the website and I have no way on my phone of un ballsing it up. So here we are then, it’s day thirteen (it isn’t!!) and the scene is set!

So yesterday (I don’t even know anymore, let’s go with day twelveteen) we had our first and very hard earned rest day in Lisbon. We Uber’d in from our campsite (I have decided that I will not lower the tone of the blog by mentioning too much more here about the campsite in Lisbon….the pool was adequate and pleasant enough to while away an hour or so in the heat but the rest of it was an abomination. We name all our campsites and this one is recorded as “campsite zero stars”!) down to the centre of Lisbon. Despite my best attempts at injecting some culture into proceedings we quickly decided it was too hot and partook in our first beer just before 10am. I am not proud of it or anything but equally I am not as ashamed as you might imagine.

We wandered around a bit between beer stops and ticked off most of the things we wanted to tick off…..Marc had his sardine lunch, we walked through Alfama and Barca, we sorted ferry tickets for the morning and finished up in the Time Out Market for yes you guessed it, more beer. We headed back to the pool at the campsite for a bit and then opted for pasta by the tent rather than the on site restaurant primarily to mitigate the risk of dysentery, again!

Today (as in day thirteen which is actually fourteen but as I may have mentioned we all need to call it thirteen please!) on paper looks like one of our biggest challenges yet ….over 80 miles, 10 of which are across Lisbon, two ferry crossings plus by 1030 it is now eleventy billion in the shade every day (proper el Scorchio you might say). Intimidated by what lies ahead we elect to set the alarm for 530 and get going.

Unexpectedly the roll across Lisbon is exactly that and rather than hit any of the infamous hills we have a really easy ride and hit the ferry port of Terrerio do Paco just as a ferry is about to depart……we literally get straight on and then 20 minutes later pedal off at Barreiro.

The next stage of our oh so cunning plan is a 20 mile blitz across the countryside to Sutobal where will pick up our next ferry. Our ambitious aim is to get on the 1030 if we can but it’s already getting hot and the pace starts to slow. We push on, pausing only briefly to pick up some stuff for lunch later and again, miraculously, arrive at the port just as the ferry is loading. Tickets hastily purchased we again ride onto the ferry with minutes to spare….this is turning into a good day.

When we arrive at Troia (which the ferry announcer described as “one of the most beautiful places in the world) we head off into the now “ice cold in Alex” hot countryside.

Modesty prevents me from over egging the pudding here but after thirteen (ish) days of cycling we are really getting quite good at this cycling malarkey and dare I say stronger and fitter. We crunch through the miles heading further and further south pausing every so often to find some shade, check the map and check how the other is doing. Even when we have to backtrack four of five miles because of a completely unsigned road closure we laugh it off (we don’t but you get the gist!!!)

Around 1730 we arrive in the very pretty town of Porto Covo having smashed over 85 miles and our campsite is a welcome relief after the horror of last nights….its clean it’s friendly and we are made to feel welcome…it’s been a good day.

As I am typing we have just sat down at a lovely looking restaurant although am slightly perturbed by the fact that as the waiter led us to our table he informed us that “there is a birds nest above and sometimes they will poop in your food” ….so that is something to look forward to then!! Speak again tomorrow when we finally stop heading south and start heading east to Seville….exciting!!