Cape St. Vincent

Today we rode another 80K south towards Sagres. It was a beautiful day once again, and we enjoyed more coastline, farms and villages as we continued on our way through the Natural Park into the southern region of Portugal, which is known as the Algarve.

More than five centuries of Arab influence can be seen in the area. Even the name, Algarve, is derived from "Al-Gharb", which is Arabic for "the West". When we travelled through Aljezur we looked up to see a majestic 10th century Arab castle high atop a coastal cliff, whose original purpose was to defend the river harbour where it met the ocean.

We stopped for lunch in Carrapateira, a village near the a 2K long beach on the Vicentine Coast. The main square where the restaurants were located was surrounded by white washed homes that are typical of the region.

With one last major site to see today, we quickly passed through Sagres on the way to Cabo de Sao Vicente, the south-western point of continental Europe, where a lighthouse stands atop a 75M cliff, guarding one of the world's busiest shipping lanes. The views were spectacular all along our route and we stopped frequently to take it all in.

While we had become accustomed to empty roads, we saw many more people here, including carloads of surfers who trekked down the steep cliffs to the sandy beaches a few kilometres East of the point. In this photo, we are less than 2K from the Cape, and Kevin is looking towards the lighthouse as he takes care of our bikes.

At the lighthouse, a 5000K footpath heading northeast to Estonia begins. Some of the path is on paved roads, including the section that we had just travelled. We returned to Sagre on this route, where we stayed overnight in a lovely harbour front hotel. The view from our room was stunning.