It’s 10:30pm and I’m too tired to write all that happened today… it felt like 5 days in one… so in point form a reminder of today:

• frustrating leaky tube all day, stopped to pump five or six times before it became too much… v frustrating flat tire to change… knew it befor I started and it was as expected… bled everywhere
• Ride with the wind was so grateful… so many climbs I wouldn’t have made it without the wind
• Albergue, I’m the only one here, it’s a bit awkward to be the only one here but so it is
• Riding by the ocean today… as imagined… love it
• Little off-road today, was a good balance between road and dirt
• Asked someone to take my picture, something I couldn’t do yesterday… growth…
• Accidentally spent $100 downloading music… atleast I have music for the rest of the trip now…
• Cold and windy, it is going to rain tomorrow
• Big dinner, was nice… played with dog, was nice…

Notes from 2 years later: I wish I had written more about this places. The Albergue is a converted house (as most of them are), with the attic stacked with bunk beds. There is a couple that lives here, they had a lot of fun making fun of me. They also have a girl who stays with them and helps run the place. Her name is Flo… she is from France, and she is very nice, in a playful way, in a way that suggest that she is searching for a life irregular, maybe not irregular, maybe unconventional. She has a dog named Patch. Patch ran off from the house so we went to find him at the neighbour’s. Flo and I and Patch went for a walk in the evening. The weather was terrible, windy and cold and I’ve never seen a dog poo so much in my life haha… Flo wanted to show me a hidden spot on the ridge that she liked to come to, to be more alone than she was already in this town. What are you hiding from Flo!

I Was keen to get on the road this morning, and the ride out of town was awesome! The day started with quiet country roads, there was a trail through a walking park for like 3 kms, then more country roads, one lane wide… a little bit of climbing, and then the first sight of the Ocean!

I could smell it before I could see it, and the temperature dipped, and even though it wasn’t a milestone at the beginning of the trip, I was really looking forward to seeing a coast and water… it felt great… I took the more difficult hiking trail to stay closer to the coast for a while, before I met some hikers that said I should get on the road for the next bit… lucky that they did because I bumped into a couple of people waiting outside an Albergue, I was tired and I stopped to chat with them and decided to stay here for the night, 15 euros and some people to hang about with… another Canadian amongst them as well!

Almost forgot to write today… well because I’m still here at my warm showers hosts house in Lugones… It’s my first day off on the trip and it feels very strange… I remember this feeling from my other bike trip of being angsty about not moving forward… jolted to a stop, feeling pent up energy and not having anything to do in the day. Getting on the bike and riding is an easy choice… once you’re on, it’s a thing that you are doing and that occupies you, physically, mentally and you don’t have time to worry about anything else. I’ve mentioned this before about just sitting with myself on the bike, I guess that there’s practice to be done to be just sitting with myself off the bike as well…

Was happy to wake up knowing that today was the descent out of the pass, I had till 6pm to get to my destination about 65kms away so I was ambling about in the morning, had 2 coffees, oats and peanut butter blah blah… chit chat with the other hikers getting ready to depart… then on the road!

The descent was pretty awesome, but also a bit scary! I covered the first ten kilometres in about seventeen minutes… made my first stop just under an hour after starting, at a fancy grocery store where I got a hot sandwich and a cold coffee… weather was great again today… it’s back to being pretty hot now, should’ve realized that mountains have a pretty strong influence on weather conditions… or maybe it’s just a hot day…. Anyway it suits me and hope for it to continue to be hot so that I can camp for the next week on the coastline

It was an early start today, but I had to hang about to exchange some money in the city… even with that, it took me almost 2 hours to get out of the city. The morning included a nice little off-road section. But Maria was struggling… the chain kept slipping and I ended up having to push her up a few kms… but the trail was nice and I didn’t mind the slow pace of the walk in the morning.

Last night was great, the couple that runs the Albergue made soup and pasta for me and another hiker… dinner was a family affair and even though there was much chatter in Spanish, I was able to paricipate in bits and pieces and it we all survived… the same really uneasy feeling I had going through Portugal is totally non existent here… I got stopped by the cops today for not wearing my helmet and having headphones in… I “Si, si, si…” my way through the entire conversation and even was able to answer where I was going and where I came from… and it was yet another interaction that left me with with another spoonful of hopefulness…

Today I was going to make a short ride to Zamora about 30kms away from where I spent the night… I woke up feeling very tired and was being rushed out of the place by the manager… I kind of wanted to get out of there as well so I packed up as quick as possible and rushed onto the road and stopped at a gas station with a cafe a kilometre or so out of the town… feeling a little calmer, I decided on a plan of action…

Woke up at a luxurious 9am today, my nose was blocked and I was afraid I was snoring all night at Arián’s place… she was too kind to mention it… got some licks from Kiss the greyhound in the morning… she thought it time for me to get up as well… side note, more people need greyhounds in their lives… what a great little pup! There was another one too but she was terrified of me and my masculine nature as much as I tried to befriend her… Winning over a dog that doesn’t like men is like the absolute victory, maybe the next time I am in Salamanca we will be friends…

Went to bed past midnight and was very sore in the morning… had a shower just to take extra advantage of the hotel room and packed up and headed down for some hotel breakfast… which was just toast with some ham and cheese and a coffee…

Got on the road around 9:30am and I knew it would be a pretty chill day today… I was able to download the Dune audiobook overnight so put that on and cruised on some farm roads and then a very quiet country road… I had a stronnnng tailwind and flat or descending roads… I still managed to walk my bike on some long 4-5km steady inclines… I just didn’t want to fight the road or my bike today… I had time so I just walked… walking is nice too sometimes…

Soooooo much happened today… let’s start at the end…

It’s 9:25pm and I just got off my bike about 15 minutes ago… I had planned to stop riding about 20kms ago, but the Albergue that I had on my map was in a deserted little town… I tried to figure it out but there was absolutely nobody around in this whole place… the local bar was no help either as they had no idea who run the Albergue or where they were… that was at about 5pm. I had just climbed the longest climb of the trip so far and drenched in sweat, I decided to keep biking to the next place… stopped at a tourist lodge type thing on the main road and the guy didn’t let me in, said it was closed and directed me to the next town where he said there was another Albergue… another ghost town… a few people, nobody was any help… at least the road was more downhill now than it had been all day….

Had a hearty breakfast and had a goal in mind for the day… I wanted to camp today. So I am off the Camino and came to explore a national park… not much exploring to do as there’s some sort of construction going on here but anyway, I tried… 

Today was another good day on the bike, did my first 100kms as the roads were nice and got some climbing in as well as looooong downhills on smooth open road… stopped in Caceres for my pilgrim stamp and then again in a place called Canaveral for lunch… I had spaghetti that was cooked in what I can only guess was ketchup… served me right for picking the most basic thing on the menu… anyway it was cheap and a well timed stop… I stopped again about an hour after that at a gas station and inhaled 2 ice creams and a can of the Spanish Pocari Sweat… 

Today was many days lived in one… first I got my culture on and did a tour of the old Merida… saw some old stuff and statues of dead people and read something about stuff that happened that I guess is important… there was some Roman stuff and some Islamic stuff too but I don’t know how those overlapped exactly, anyway they really liked plays so the Romans built a massive amphitheater and a gladiator ring next to it as well… was cool!

Today was the easiest day by far on the bike… I had the wind with me and a paved road the whole way, oh and it was at a slight decline as well… I guess when you get, you get….

Started out the day having breakfast with Sabine from Germany at the hostel… she gave me a ton of suggestions for places to go in the north… it was a lot but I think it helped a little… we said our goodbyes as she rode south and I went north… 

Flashback to the end of yesterday…. It’s about 4pm, I’m cycling towards the end of stage 2 which is a town called Santa Olalla… I cycle through a place called Cala about 10kms away and thought I’d check out a place to stay, well it was on the map anyway… I went there and nobody around, the neighbours were having a smoke outside and once engaged with me were throttled into action… the guy started calling all the people he knew that ran hotels or hostels in the area… the cheapest one was 100 euros… while he did that, I also tried to help the cause and checked out bookings.com on my phone… not much, but there was a hostel in a town north of Santa Olalla, about 25kms, and it was 36 euros… I had a solid 3 hours of sunlight and was feeling good so decided to go for it!

Today was a good day on the bike, headed out lazily from Guillermo’s place and had a companion puppy dog with me for the first 3kms… until I got a bit concerned that she was not turning around… then I walked her back a bit and she seemed to know what was going on and went back the way we came…

The morning started out with a bit of hike a bike on an actual hiking trail that really you couldn’t ride on, but I was feeling strong and relaxed and just took it… it didn’t last as long as the torture last week and the rest of the morning was a downhill cruise on a beautiful dust track…

Started out the day with a decent breakfast and a little extra sleep since the sun rises an hour later now… the day was mostly uneventful, apart from the actual event of riding in the hills and some great views… stopped many times to eat and drink and enjoy it…

Wanted to get to Galaroza today so took the highway for the last twenty kms, and it was fairly busy which wasn’t fun to deal with and the twenty six kms took me nearly two and a half hours because it was very uphill for most of it… but then I did get about three kms of downhill fun as well!

All in all yesterday was a shit day… today in contrast, was great! Only did fifty odd kms but still managed to climb 900m… didn’t feel totally destroyed as it was a more gradual grade on better roads… I think I pushed my bike once today! Crossed the border in the middle of nowhere over a stream on a stone bridge about 2 feet high.. Rui, my host from yesterday said that this used to be an old illegal border crossing but now not so illegal… Viva EU! I did see a car parked under a tree a few hundred metres away, other than that I was the only one around for miles and miles! 

Today was a bit of a mixed emotions day. I stayed in bed a little later than usual and then had a coffee with my warm showers host Rui. To my delight, he came over to my refuge with a coffee machine under his arm! He gave me some tips about the next day which I really appreciated and he kept saying “Good choice” which was also nice… Rui also looked at my bike and exhaled “Too. Heavy!”. I found it hilarious that he summed up my absolute torture so succinctly.

Got up decently early and glad I didn’t have to pack the tent. It was chilly in the morning and I needed the winter jacket for the first hour of riding… everything is wet in the morning, the due is very heavy and my tent is still soaking wet when packed away. It will survive, I hope.

Rode out on some country trails for the first ten kilometres, and managed it in a swift forty four minutes! It was only nine am so feeling good about today! Then I entered the logging roads and man was there some climbing today… I feel like yesterday was worse but Strava said I climbed three hundred more metres today…. And also biked twenty kilometres more… so not sure how that works… 

I Started the day out late, sorted the bags out a little and looked for my Buddha and Pegasus keepsakes… both gone and guessing casualties of the first day when I turned my bike upside down to change flats…

Today was tough, only managed 38ish kms but I also started the day late. It was hot today and was the first day I was afraid to run out of water. Towards the end of the day I found a stream and tried out my life straw, it didn’t taste quite right, we shall wait for the repercussions tomorrow… I think it’ll be ok.

Woke up to a foggy 6am, nobody would have seen me even if they tried! Packed up relatively quick, can’t find a bunch of things on my bike today, I feel like I’ve left many things behind in my wake already… most likely from turning the bike upside down to change flats

Only had one flat today and knew it immediately when I hit a pothole… didn’t even check, just stopped and got off the bike and went about it… that’s my last spare tube, while I put on the tube, I also patched the one I took off… I have never successfully patched a tube, hoping that if I need it tomorrow…. It will work

First 30km to Sagres was amazing! Stopped to have a coffee, got snacks, went to see the light house… after that, all went sideways… the very first turn I took was about fifty metres off the start… it was not a road at all… tried to drag Maria (my bike) through but didn’t work… flat front tire and I really did drag Maria through some very insensible terrain… tried desperately to save her and b line back to the road… changed the flat in like 10 mins and started off again, about 5 mins later, another flat after hitting a big rock in the middle of the trail…. I knew immediately too… spent another half hour changing another tire, was very stubborn to come on this time… atleast I was in an open field as opposed to the first time where I was in thorny rocky bush and bleeding down my shins…. We were about an hour and a half in and I had done a grand total of about 5kms… I’m at the part where I’m doing the tough thing that I’ve been talking about being a tough thing to do for the past month… and it’s tough…

Today is May 22nd, 2025. On the 7th of March, 2023 I left my home in Toronto for Faro, Protugal. This blog is the story of my trip.

Bike packed up in a box, gear meticulously curated over hours and hours of packing, unpacking, repacking and imagining the time i’ll need a Life Straw, or a parachord or a glass bottle of perfume. Spoiler… I didn’t need any of that stuff… The plan for day 1 was simple. Land in Faro at 10:30am, put my bike together and cycle to Albufiera campground about 50kms away for the night. Let’s do it!

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…