Algarve | Spanish Border
First off-road & camping weekend for 2021
April | 2021
Hooray, finally we can leave our concelho here in Portugal. After again 4 month of covid lockdown we were really itchy to get out and try our new MSR-Elixier 2 person tent; and Stefanie her new Moskomoto reckless 80l soft panniers. As James has already for a long time the idea of having a track along the Via do Infante (A22), we wanted to combine our weekend trip with testing out the route along the stretch from the Spanish border at Vila Real de Santo Antonio until Loulé. As we wanted to visit James friends Sue and Tony in Alcoutim already for a while that seemed a perfect weekend-loop for off-roading.
Friday night and Saturday early morning we were busy trying to work out the set-up of the Moskomoto panniers on Stefanie's Amarelinha. Once we had the set-up, we were en route towards Alcoutim.
As usual, we had packed for lunch bread rolls, mayonnaise, tins of tuna fish and a package of crisps. Normally we look out for a little supermarket, tasca or petrol station to buy a cold beer and then we look out for a nice spot to have our "lunch". Late afternoon we arrived at Sue and Tony's place south of Alcoutim, close to the Spanish border at the Guadiana river. They welcomed us directly with cold beers to wash down the dust of the day.
We could even have a refreshing shower and then Tony explained us where we could set up our MSR-Elixier tent for the night. It took us still a while to work out how to set up the new tent and getting all ready for the night.
Back at Sue and Tony we had a fantastic BBQ, lots of cold drinks and even more things to laugh about, sharing stories and "talking covid nonsense/politics". Later that night we walked back to our camping spot and enjoyed the view of the sky filled with countless stars. During the night listening to the two (or three?) nightingales giving us a private concert.
Next morning, after a quick camping-cafe and all packed up, we headed down to the Guadiana river, the river along the Spanish and Portuguese border. Once down at the Guadiana river, we had a lovely off-road track along the Portuguese side of the river towards Vila Real de Santo Antonio.
From there we now rode back towards Loulé along the Via do Infante (A22). As we only had a track prepared by James on GPX-editor, we didn't know what to expect. So there were a mixture of street, off road tracks, single mountain bike tracks ("it is all about momentum"-challenges for Stefanie on her Amarelinha), up-and downhill (yes, the Algarve is not only beaches) and unfortunately fenced in properties or dead end-tracks where we had to find alternatives to.
Late afternoon we arrived well back at home in Loulé, without Stefanie not even dropping the bike once during the whole trip! It was sooo good to be out there after month after month in Covid-lockdown.
Hopefully our trip for the TET (TransEuroTrail) in Andalucia, Spain beginning of May 2021 will happen, fingers cross!
Places | Cities:
Messines, Alcoutim,
Vila Real de San Antonio, Cecela Velha, Loulé
Driven km | Trip:
Stefanie: 250km
James: 250km
Maintenance | Breakdown:
None
Health issues:
None
Special thanks to:
Sue & Tony for filling up our bellies with a fantastic dinner!