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Cycling from Ereira to Coimbra
I had a nice time in Ereira but after some days (evenings) the mosquitos mosquitas won.
There were about 45kms left to Coimbra and I was really curious if I would make it over there today.
I started cycling at 10h00 and immediately felt it once more would not be 🐌 a "highspeed" day.
That should not necessarily become a problem since I had some options
namely making a detour through a forest or keep on cycling the official main road.
The forest would probably bring me a nice spot to wildcamp,
if I would have enough water at the very moment I would stop anywhere remote.
First I cycled a very bad tertiary road with an awfull lot of potholes, and "speed" was down. It is mandatory to avoid "boinking" into any pothole since you feel these 500 very hard bumps per kilometer are trying to 💣 destroy the OnTheRoad 4.0 🖱️. Or at least the Vaude cyclingbags 🖱️ then the hooks of them have a very hard time (with my 50kgs of luggage allin) 🖱️.
Then I arrived at the regular secundary road and it was time for a selfie.
That road turned into a mainroad further on. I had not checked the heightprofile and it was Very Hilly here. Something I had not at all foreseen since I was supposed to be cycling along the river Mondego.
Also (ofcourse) the railway Figueira - Coimbra was Very Close, I sometimes even cycled directly next to it. Trains have the same limitations as ships, they can't conquer hills 😁. In practice the "horizontal" world was very close horizontally but not vertically.
But I did notice some interesting things along this mainroad. Did you ever see a doorlock like the one in this series ?!
And I came along this bargain for sale which brought me in doubt for some moments 😭. However, there easily can be a bad personal reason for this situation 😕.
That main road continued for a while which was not my piece of cake then 500 cars are far (10x) more worse then 500 potholes 😬. Then I got to the next secundary road.
I decided to cycle that smaller road to then take the detour through the forest that I had planned in my gps already. There it was called a "track" which could mean it was an unpaved "road". But I had to take that risc, my brain just orders me to do so 😉. It is quite simple : old mountainbikers never die !
So I left the mainroad but in the first village an extremely annoying dog was hindering me. Dogs are like racists, you are "different" and (therefor) don't belong here. "So get lost", which makes me think about there owners. But I also found a cafe where I had a limao 😋 lemonade and watched russian tv. Poetin was on, also "well-"known as PoetOut.
There was a sign "picnic and ⛺ recreation area this way", which happened to be my way also. I instantly decided to camp there if that place would be more or less usable and stealthy enough, but that area never showed up. After some beautiful tarmac kilometers I arrived at a t-crossing and my gps told me to turn right to the "track" which was indeed an offroad track. So I did, I always obey 🙃.
From here on it was indeed an offroad track, ment for forest maintenance and also used extensively as a mountainbike trail.
The first 25mts were a kind of dropoff and I knew I couldn't return with the packed bike anymore. Then 💧 It 💧 Was 💧 Going 💧 UpHill. Twice.
When I finally got to the end of the forestroad I was rather exhausted. That is why they had built that wall over there for me. And let's be honest : who wants to be on any civilized road if you could be offroad ?! However, I had been quite busy getting here and had actually not seen nor noticed a place to wildcamp.
While in that forest I did not see any animal. But once I returned to the tarmac this beautiful lizard was there. Have the animals maybe emigrated too, into the civilized world ???
Once in Coimbra (but still at the "wrong" side of the Mondego) I cycled to the hostel I had marked in my gps, but it was closed. Too bad since it is situated in a nice and lively area and at only 10 minutes by foot from the centre. This hostel is of the type were all customers have their own key of the frontdoor so it can do without personel. If you book there you have to state a fixed timeblock per email of ie one hour when you will arrive. Only then will someone come over there to help you in. But I can't book anyway since cycling the way I do is too unpredictable concerning the "eta", the estimated time of arrival as gps systems call that.
So I left there and enjoyed the view at Coimbra from the Santa Clara bridge. But I was late and had to decide now whether I would cycle into town to the east to try to get to the other hostel I had marked. Or to cycle south to the camping at another 5 Hilly kms (in town).
I decided for the latter but halfway I first visited the Bombeiros to ask if they would host me. Ofcourse they didn't since they were not even allowed to do so in these times of corona. That was a real pity since now I would have to stay quite far away from the centre of Coimbra. I had no idea Coimbra is so hilly everywhere, not only in the centre. But since I had no other option left I had to accept that situation.
I had to push some 4kms of those 5kms since it was all going uphill, out of the town, into the hilly suburbans. When finally at the camping I was completely finished. However and as usual, after just some 10 minutes rest all (and myself) was well again. I registered, raced down to the terrain for tents and just managed to put up my tent before dark.
Then I had one shower and two imperials (small beer) which was the next challenge. I had to climb up some 70 stairs to return to the terrass to get to those beers. Returning also was a challenge since all stairs had no functioning lighting whatsoever.
It was a though YesTrip of 45kms and 544vms. They took me 8h47 of which I only cycled 5h26. So I had rested 💤 a full 3+ hours ... Those 544vms are rather extreme if you consider this was supposed to be a track following a river and railway.
What will Coimbra bring me ? I had high hopes since the tourist infos are all very positive. Let's find out in the next days.