Africa approaching
I had hoped to write a longer post here, but for now it will have to wait. This time tomorrow I´ll be in Tangier, Morocco. The Big Africa Cycle is finally leaving the conveniences of Europe for the adventures of Africa.  For the next two weeks I´m fortunate to have a good friend joining me on the road. For now here are some photos from the last week, one in which I clocked the longest daily distance of this trip so far (155km), the fastest speed (69km/hr), met an Englishman who has cycled over 160,000km, was attacked by

The guided ride south: Sintra – Tavira
There was little need for a map when I finally departed Sintra. Martin, whom I’d met when I first arrived in the town, and whose house I’d been staying in for the previous week, had the route planned out for us. He’d cycled most of it before as a tour guide, or had at least visited many of the places at some point during his childhood. At first I was a little hesitant when he expressed an interest in joining me for a week. Despite being fluent in Portuguese, well informed about the history and culture of the country and altogether one of the funniest characters I’m likely to meet on the road, he was also used to a style of cycle touring where b

Trade fairs and trail rides
I’m surrounded by bikes and big names from the bicycle world; Cannondale, Trek, Specialised, Scott, Giant, Shimano…. The names are familiar but the context is new. The models in front of me here are fresh off the production line; shiny creations of carbon fibre and titanium with suspension forks that would look more at home on a motorbike. The four-figure price-tags  would equally be more familiar to someone buying a new motorbike, in some cases a car. Touring bikes aren’t popular in Portugal, at least if this trade fair is anything to go by. Mountain biking on the other hand is.

Talk time: Tomar – Sintra
“Whereas the tourist generally hurries back home at the end of a few weeks or months, the traveler, belonging no more to one place than to the next, moves slowly, over periods of years, from one part of the earth to another.” - Paul Bowles Sounds very much like the story of my life, I remarked to my hosts as I read the quote written across the living room wall of their apartment. “It was done by one of our students,” explained Nate, Principal of the American International School here in Sintra. I’d cont

Figging out: Porto – Tomar
I almost had company on the road out of Porto. Her name was Kim and she was from Belgium. I’d wondered whose bicycle it was I’d seen locked under the stairs when checking-in to the Youth Hostel. It was obvious who its owner was when I later saw a young woman holding a drinking bottle and some maps. She was also clutching two bottles of beer and looking for a drinking partner. I was easily persuaded. We got talking, or rather I took the opportunity to recount tales of cycling through Asia and the Middle East. I explained my plans to cycle up the Douro River valley from Porto rather than head south along what I guessed would be busy coastal roads. I asked her how long she was on