March 9th: Albufiera to Femkes Garden

Woke up to a dewy morning, there was a bit of rain overnight and the tent was indeed proven to be waterproof.. woo woo! Only sixty kilometres today but it took almost six hours. The first bit of dirt roads and my Salsa Marrakesh, soon to be named “Maria”, did great! As expected… but also a bit slow, crawling along at about ten kms and hour… I may have had something to do with that…

Stole another orange, haven’t eaten it yet. Also first bit of trouble with the bike, niggles with the bearings in one of the pedals and the front derailleur refuses to shift into my granny gear. Trouble… sorted ninety percent of it out with chain lube and hope. My feet were being a bit stuffy so I wore flip flops for the last fifteen kms and am going to do that more, hashtag free the toes! The shoes were much more useful in the offroad bits though! I have to say it’s early in the trip, but flip flops are probably the most underrated piece of gear period! I saw a couple of cyclists going the other way, they were going uphill and I was going down, so didn’t get to stop to say hi, maybe I should have but I want o be a little further on before talking to people. Right now I don’t have much to share. I put in my notes for the day that I was thinking about “Acting from a position of fear”. I don’t know why I was thinking about this but I guess this is what I was working through that day and thought that not stopping and talking to someone was exactly that. Looking back now, I was already having bits and pieces of self realizations on day two.

I stopped at a cafe and the old Protugese lady gave me a slice of honey cake when she heard my story… who knows, the cake might just be the difference maker, first bit of random act of kindness… I gave her a canada magnet in return. Glad I decided to get these last minute mementos to give out.

I got to my first “Warm Showers” host, Femke in the early evening. She was very welcoming and had a little travellers campsite for me to use along with an outdoor kitchen. All in all it was a tough day today. Both knees are hurting and I took the route as fast as possible. I have to start getting better with fuelling my body, I remember this being a big part of my previous tours and it really is a mindset change… food for fuel. It’s the end of the day and happy tog et some rest and do it again tomorrow. I don’t have sleeping arrangements for tomorrow, I will see how it goes, possibly first night of wild camping. Also today was the first ice cream of the trip! A magnum double caramel mmmmm good enough to write about… and also first banana woo woo!

Learning for today in Portugal: a “mix sandwich” is just a massive bun with one slice of cheese and one slice of ham… not the most appetizing but can be consumed with some water to make it go down a bit easier.