A Rest Day in the Hills

Day three in the Algarve was supposed to be a rest day. After two big days out west I planned something shorter and inland, heading east from Silves into the hills between the coast and the serra. I rolled out just before quarter to eleven on a clear morning that was already 24°C, and it only got hotter.

The first stretch was the easy bit: down out of Silves and across flat farmland to Algoz, where I took a half-hour break before the riding proper began. From there the road wound east to Paderne, and soon after that it started to climb.

Loulé was the far end of the loop and the main stop of the day. On the way in I passed a little blue three-wheeler doing duty as a rolling advert for a vinyl record shop, then a roundabout topped with statues of cyclists, which felt like a proper welcome.

I stopped for 40 minutes in the old town to refuel, with the castle walls just round the corner, before heading north out of town for the second half of the loop.

Refuelled, I climbed to Querença and on up to Eira da Cevada, a long, steady drag rather than a wall, and at around 350 m the highest point of the ride, 60 km in. Then it was west through the hills above Salir and Benafim, where the road kept rising and falling far more than I’d expected. So much for an easy day. Just short of Alte I passed a wall hung with rusty chainsaw chains.

In Alte I found the Germano biciArte Café, a café made for cyclists: a bike on the wall outside, and inside a white track bike mounted on a Portuguese flag, yellow jerseys and old bike wheels turned into ceiling lights. It’s named after the owner’s grandfather, who rented out bikes on the same spot back in the 1930s. I made the most of it and stayed for over an hour. It was a rest day, after all.

From Alte the road dropped west through São Bartolomeu de Messines towards home, but I had one more detour in mind. The Arade Dam turned out to be the cherry on the cake: blue water stretching away between the hills, with the low sun glinting off it.