Day 2: Ferreira do Alentejo to Serta

Today was a longer day. I was on the road by 9:30 this morning, and only got to my hotel at 4pm. I did stop for lunch, and had a couple of breaks along the way, but by the time i got off the bike, my rear end was completely numb.

The riding today was very different from the tight twisties on the climb up from Faro. Although there were a lot of altitude changes, the roads were wider, and straighter as i rode through the heart of the agricultural part of Alentejo. Long higher speed bends fruit orchards, sheep grazing and vineyards were everywhere.

Full disclosure, unlike yesterday, i put my pendant camera on first thing today, and was being more careful to take shorter clips, but more of them. What i forgot to do was to put the memory card in the camera, so all of my button pushing resulted in no video clips at all from todays ride.

Here is a clip from yesterday on a different section of the N2 which highlights how incredible these roads are to ride. You will notice in the clip that i run into 0 traffic. I have taken to slowing down and pulling over to let people pass whenever i get someone behind me just to be able to go at my own pace and maintain the feeling that i have these great roads all to myself.

https://video.wixstatic.com/video/1d37dd_00b5b979db5b40b3b00b68010ddc3176/1080p/mp4/file.mp4

More N2 Twisty Roads, and no traffic.

Almost as soon as i left Ferreira do Alentejo this morning i was riding a stretch of roads that were lined with tall, old trees. It was almost like riding through a tunnel, and lasted for 15-20k.

Riding through a tunnel created by these very cool trees.

After a couple of hours of riding, i started a decent that lasted 10k or so and ended at this dam that was created to form this recreational lake with beaches and waterfront hotels.

Bridge across the man made lake.

20km long man made lake.

From the dam the road started climbing back up in altitude.

My lunch stop was at a small town on top of the plateau after i climbed up from the dam. There was absolutely no English spoken at the road stop restaurant that i chose, but with the help of google translate i managed to order Bistec do Puerco which came with a fired egg and loads of french fries. Add a bottle of beer and a coffee and the whole bill was $13 euros.

Further along, i stopped to take a picture from the side of the road of these crazy tall thin trees and the view from the top of the mountains before the 70+% grade going down into Serta. When you see signs in both Portuguese and English telling you to test your brakes now, you know the slope on the way down is going to be steep.

I am not sure what kind of trees these are, but they are very thin, and very tall growing on the side of the hills.

View across the mountain valley before the descent to Serta.

The hotel/guesthouse that i had booked in Serta was in the heart of the old part of town and was made up of a cluster of renovated old buildings. I made sure that they had a garage for motorcycles before booking, but the cobblestone road (if you are feeling generous, more of an alley) I had to take to get to the garage is not one i would have wanted to take with the Goldwing, especially not if it was wet.

Two way traffic is actually allowed on this road (alley) in the old part of town.

Tomorrow is scheduled to be a shorter day, which suits me fine right now. Hopefully my butt will have fully recovered feeling before i get back in the saddle tomorrow.