A day ride: horses and cows and reservoirs, and a GS

[Pedro]

Since my last ride to the Algarve two or three weeks ago I was missing riding my bike without freezing my nuts off, and ever since Morocco I was missing riding my bike putting wheels on dirt. Today, with a forecast of almost 20ºc I decided to go for a ride around. 

After a little work in the morning, I set off at around 10 or 10:30, heading out on tiny farming roads, not 15 minutes into it and the phone starts ringing and a couple of emails I really should see to come through so I stop at my local riverside cafe for a morning espresso at 11AM. Annoyed to stop so soon, but there are worse places to work out of your phone:

 

I jump the queue of three cars into @XTreme's favourite bridge (from my reports), Ponte da Rainha D'Amélia is my favourite way to start a trip. It's an old train bridge converted to road traffic, there's many like that around this area and they are great but since they were made for trains they often cannot deal with two full lanes.

 

Into Coruche through small roads and I notice this older gentleman exiting a shop on a pristine and shiny looking red old bike, I fail to get him on the phone but turn back to see the little jewel sitting outside the place he left. It looked 10 times more shiny in real life:

Nobody answered when I called, so I continued. I aimed for a reservoir close by, I had been there on a previous time on the bike and a few days ago with Sofia on the car for a picnic with her dogs, I wanted to see how the sandy dirt roads felt on the bike this time.

Stopped to check where I was as I took a little more dirt to get there, and spotted this cool guy under the shade, I said hi and he came for a nose scratch after the picture.

By 12:00 I was taking a little stop to enjoy the place, only a little after one hour into it:

Not a bad place to ride a bike. Sadly the high water levels make this a short little dirt road, it's only good for a few minutes but it sure is pretty.

 

Some parts of this area are sandy though, but I do like the GS's manners on these tires. Considering their current mileage I am very impressed, don't think I'll go back to more mixed/road oriented tires unless heading for a bigger road trip on rainy Europe.

Sandy area:

 

The little quaint dirt road turns into a full on service road, plenty of forrest industry this way so these are good for proper big trucks, you would be wise to remember that when considering  how fast you could ride there, plenty fast but a big truck coming around the corner would make things unpleasant.

 

Can't get much more Ribatejo countryside than this, I think the rural houses in southern Portugal are the definition of what a "home" looks like:

 

I had searched on google maps where to find something to eat and came across a little grocery style cafe. It's a very typical shop in these parts, somewhere where you can buy bread, pastries, grain, flour, vegetables and fruit, but also have a snack of eat a full meal. First, just a little but of road to get there, lovely smooth tarmac through pine and oak trees.

 

The views inside the shop, not really a vegan friendly location:

 

I make my choices of a vegetable "empada" and a ham sandwich, and enjoy them outside. My choice of a alcohol free beer raised a few eyebrows amongst the other clientele, most of them stopping by for a coffee and a little something else with a kick to it, before heading back to work on the forrest. My food was delicious:

 

As soon as I bit into the ham sandwich a little older dude appeared from inside the shop to say hello. He gave me an unrelenting stare and I couldn't help but share lunch, he gently put a bit of bread on the floor but was happy to have some ham 

 

Saved the location on my phone, I'll be coming back. Temperatures were now 19/20ºC, I rejoiced and sat in the sun. My mid layer was folded away and I prepared to enjoy the perfect motorcycling temperature.

 

Rode just out of town to stop by a lovely field filled with happy looking cows munching away on green grass, last year they weren't so happy. What meat farming should always look like:

Through Lavre and heading to Ciborro, I took a detour south on a dirt road down the plains you see on this landscape picture taken a few minutes previously:

After a little water crossing, not deeper than a foot, I asked a gentleman about directions and he stated there was open roads all the way to Montemor. It's easy to get lost in the maze of farm access dirt roads to find a closed gate preventing you into private property. I followed this great 3rd and 4th gear dirt road between fences. The GS's engine is great for this, all the torque you could want to slightly break traction with tact, it's a treat on this road.

 

Looking at these two, the little one, my plan for a stop by the butcher for a steak for dinner was dismissed in my mind 

 

Quick stop for a wee and I realize I had been here before, arriving from a detour from the road coming from the South, it's a lovely place.

 

On my way here I passed a cow loose on the road, it wasn't happy at all that I came close by, and trapped between two fences reacted by having a go at me. I gave it a quick braap in third and avoided her. When I stopped I checked the map and realized there was a way back north via more dirt roads, another 20 or 30km maybe so tried to go back 1km to get to those, but found the loose cow on the way. Whenever I approached she jumped on a fearful alert and stared at me with her hoofs stomping the ground.

She was not happy at all, and I was not confident that I could get past her a second time, with her on alert. Between stared and stomping, she grazed 

I swear the road was narrower and the cow bigger in reality ...

 

Decided to go 10km longer the other way and get on tarmac instead of crossing that cow, so made my way out of dirt and to Montemor o Novo, then got on the N2 and headed north, eventually went a longer way but maybe gained time.

 

Stopped to take a picture on steep street crossing a southern village center, just for @yen_powell since he like the northern version so much. 

 

Stopped in Mora to fuel up, but it took forever. First a lady had her car's fuel filler flap closed, and nobody could figure out how to unlock it, then the card machine started updating mid payment, spent a few minutes there enjoying the chaos and paid cash to move on.

Stopped by Montargil dam to see the place. I hadn't been there in ages, spent a couple nights there twice once in the summer, it's a great location to go for a swim as it's usually got water and it's always really hot. The water level was way higher than last time though, this is as high as they'll let it go before flooding houses, it was cool to see.

 

The Montargil Biker Club has the coolest clubhouse I've ever seen, converted from an old primary school building:

 

there's a poem written by the door, I loved it, it sounds and rhymes better in Portuguese but translates to: 

Quote

 

We're open when we're here

Closed when we're out

If you you´re here and we're not

It's because we're either not yet here or already out

 

 

The plan was to now get on the road and head home before the low sun. That plan lasted for 15 minutes before the GS got a little detour out of tarmac for a couple of kms, stopped for a call on a particularly rocky road:

 

That lasted for not much more than 5 or 10km, got back on the road and was making progress when crossing the small bridge at Raposa, decided to stop to take a couple of pictures the storks living on it for @Clive:

 

I remembered there's a nice dirt road going from there to Muge, where the bridge I was going to go back home is, the light was getting to be really pretty so took that which although obviously ridden at a lower speed than tarmac probably still saved me time as it was almost straight.

Well, it would have saved me time had I not stopped twice, once for the pretty light, and then to look at the horses:

I've been here with completely no water at all and just a rice field down there. 

The road was softer than I remembered, but that might be because most of the time I rode through here was on the XR.

 

Back on the bridge returning home with the sun starting to lower

 

 

And through the tomato farm fields with the sun in my face.

 

Stopped by the little shop down my street to buy a broccoli to make pasta for dinner, and in time to have a shower to wash the dust off and have a cold drink with a little bit of light outside before the mosquitos came.

Overall, it was a great 300km ride, game me exactly what I wanted:

 

[Saul]

Stunningly good report and pictures Pedro, 

[XTreme]

Brilliant report Pedro.....and yeh.....that bridge is superb!

[Clive]

Great ride report @Pedro and photos.  

My buddy in Germany sends photos of the Storks nesting in his area, they even tried to build a nest on his church roof  

Never seen a Stork in this country, must be something to do with Brexit.  

[Pedro]

34 minutes ago, Clive said:

they even tried to build a nest on his church roof  

Never seen a Stork in this country, must be something to do with Brexit.  

Best use for a church roof, too! Here they're becoming a nuisance, they're not going away for the winter anymore and population is really climbing.

 

[Sir Fallsalot]

I bet crossing that bridge at a rate of knots would be mesmerising 

[Pedro]

2 hours ago, Sir Fallsalot said:

I bet crossing that bridge at a rate of knots would be mesmerising 

It would, unfortunately there’s a tight corner on both ends, and the bike weaves a bit over the grid platforms.

[XTreme]

4 minutes ago, Pedro said:

It would, unfortunately there’s a tight corner on both ends, and the bike weaves a bit over the grid platforms.

As that's an old Railway Bridge is there any old railway tracks or stations around there?

[Sir Fallsalot]

44 minutes ago, XTreme said:

As that's an old Railway Bridge is there any old railway tracks or stations around there?

For gods sake say no @Pedro or you'll have the ginge descending on you 

[Pedro]

58 minutes ago, XTreme said:

As that's an old Railway Bridge is there any old railway tracks or stations around there?

Honestly, Pete, what does logic tells us if there's a an old rail bridge?

There is an old disused railway stop but the line still works, it's just been moved to a more modern bridge right next to that one, but it's made of concrete and ugly, before the old bridge was freshened up and converted to road traffic. There's also Portugal's most important Porto - Lisbon track, quite busy, about 5km away. 

 

[Pedro]

1 hour ago, Pedro said:

It would, unfortunately there’s a tight corner on both ends, and the bike weaves a bit over the grid platforms.

Also, @Sir Fallsalot, the rails are mangled and bent all the way through, as a reminder not to get too cocky, plus going down on that would be like falling on a cheese grater.

[Sir Fallsalot]

8 minutes ago, Pedro said:

Also, @Sir Fallsalot, the rails are mangled and bent all the way through, as a reminder not to get too cocky, plus going down on that would be like falling on a cheese grater.

I think it would be worse than that i would say going down on that would be like going down on Pete's mange

 

[XTreme]

19 minutes ago, Sir Fallsalot said:

I think it would be worse than that i would say going down on that would be like going down on Pete's mange

 

[Slowlycatchymonkey]

6 hours ago, Clive said:

Great ride report @Pedro and photos.  

My buddy in Germany sends photos of the Storks nesting in his area, they even tried to build a nest on his church roof  

Never seen a Stork in this country, must be something to do with Brexit.  

I’m no ornithologist (paging @Cupid Stunt) but they look more like Herons to me. 

Used to see them in the reen’s (or rhynes if you’re not under the influence of Wales ) round here, can’t remember the last time I saw one. 

[Clive]

33 minutes ago, Slowlycatchymonkey said:

I’m no ornithologist (paging @Cupid Stunt) but they look more like Herons to me. 

Used to see them in the reen’s (or rhynes if you’re not under the influence of Wales ) round here, can’t remember the last time I saw one. 

Herons.....we have Welbeck Lakes near us and the trees around there are full of Herons and their chick's in early summer.

Herons..............Storks think Storks are larger than Herons.........but what do I know.  

[Pedro]

1 hour ago, Slowlycatchymonkey said:

I’m no ornithologist (paging @Cupid Stunt) but they look more like Herons to me. 

Used to see them in the reen’s (or rhynes if you’re not under the influence of Wales ) round here, can’t remember the last time I saw one. 

They're storks.

I know that because these are the birds that bring babies.

 

EDIT: Plus they're big, fly with a stretched neck, and clack their beaks.

[Clive]

13 minutes ago, Pedro said:

They're storks.

I know that because these are the birds that bring babies.

 

EDIT: Plus they're big, fly with a stretched neck, and clack their beaks.

Totally agree, and Storks are much bigger than Herons, and the  Heron are more grey in colouration. 

[Slowlycatchymonkey]

I was told you can't tell the difference on size or colour cos they come in a variety of colours and sizes that overlap but that stork beaks are much thicker and often cross over hook style where's as a Herons beak is smaller straighter and pokier. Mind you the person who told me that is prone to making crap up

[Clive]

[Sir Fallsalot]

3 minutes ago, Slowlycatchymonkey said:

I was told you can't tell the difference on size or colour cos they come in a variety of colours and sizes that overlap but that stork beaks are much thicker and often cross over hook style where's as a Herons beak is smaller straighter and pokier. Mind you the person who told me that is prone to making crap up

storks are a very rare sight in the UK so if you see one and its not white its probably a Heron LOL

[Slowlycatchymonkey]

12 minutes ago, Sir Fallsalot said:

storks are a very rare sight in the UK so if you see one and its not white its probably a Heron LOL

Not sure but I think the phot is in Portugal

[Pedro]

17 minutes ago, Slowlycatchymonkey said:

I was told you can't tell the difference on size or colour cos they come in a variety of colours and sizes that overlap but that stork beaks are much thicker and often cross over hook style where's as a Herons beak is smaller straighter and pokier. Mind you the person who told me that is prone to making crap up

The NECKS! Storks fly with stretched necks, Garças don’t. Garças are still migrating though, not hanging around towers and bridges. Plus in Portugal storks are the big one that clack their beaks and bring babies. 
 

Had to look what herons are, here we have garças 

[Slowlycatchymonkey]

13 minutes ago, Clive said:

Yer thats the guy. Absolutely full of chatter about environmental stuff and yet everyone loves him 

 

[Pedro]

Could be worse, we could be having the raw bacon discussion.

[Slowlycatchymonkey]

Okies, rock n roll as this convo is I think I'll go and descale the kettle