Hill tops and slippery bends

The morning dawned bright and sunny and looked set fair for a good day's riding. Breakfast was a bit subdued, partly because everyone was still tired, partly because everyone was maxed out on ibuprofen to counter the aches and partly because we knew we'd be saying farewell to Marshall when we left.
Before leaving the hotel in Coimbra we assembled all the bikes in front of the hotel and took a picture with the riders on the steps. This was similar to a picture we took last year, but this time there were many more bikes.

We stopped at a petrol station on the way out of town to fuel up and while we waited for one guy to get more painkillers I showed a couple of the guys my Zumo sat nav and what it could do. I've been riding with it on the bike to record the various routes we taken. It'll be interesting (well to me anyway) to see the range we covered on the various days once I'm home. Both Simon and Jim thought the unit was great and look set to purchase, so if you're reading this Mr Garmin, a free Mapsource upgrade would be nice!

We rode for around 20 minutes to meet the guides and then set off for the trails. We were told that today's ride would be on some of the larger trails at the top of the mountains. As we made our way up the slopes Alex stopped to show us a section of hillside used as an enduro course. It was hard to believe the slopes could be ridden, but Alex showed us what could be done with years of off-road practice and made it look easy. Swine.

As we got to the mountain tops there are large tracks made by the company that service the wind turbines that grace the ridges. The monster windmills are so impressive close up, their hi-tech blades slicing through the steady breeze with a wonderful sound. The roads, however, I don't like. Whilst they may be wide they're covered with a gravel like stone which causes the bike to move underneath you.

Once again Jim & Simon, the sand specialists, were in their element sliding the bikes into the bends on the back brake before powering out scattering gravel everywhere. There were still plenty of other rocky tracks during the day which were great. There were also a some tricky descents with loose rocks and washed out sections - all good to keep the pulse up.

We also visited the runway on top of one of the hills, where we all saw how fast we could get the bikes to go and I practiced some amateur wheelies.

Shortly before lunch we stopped a mountain top for a group photo. And then we headed to a restaurant for lunch. We'd met the owner last year, a grumpy old bar steward who gets really upset if you don't eat all the food. A lunch of grilled meats with bread and olives was eagerly devoured.

During the afternoon we worked our way back towards our new hotel (our bags having been taken from the previous hotel by van). One long climb, navigating switchback after switchback had us all sucking in big lungfulls of air by the top, but the views from the fire observation station at the top made it all worth while.

After a short, but tricky in places, descent we hit tarmac which then carried us (bumpily in places) back to the hotel. An excellent evening meal was had with Phil having us all in stitches with his classic dwarf joke and many others. It goes without saying that this much laughing is only safe on a well lubricated throat.

[A guy is in a bar chatting to the barman when suddenly he goes white as a sheet. The barman asks if there's a problem and the chap says that his Mrs has just walked in with his mistress. The barman looks up and then looks back at the chap the colour also draining from his face. "Small world isn't it" he says... - I thank you Mr Saunders]