My Special Occasion.
My 60th birthday present was a day out with my daughter Clare and Paul Beesley at Muddy Cogs on Saturday the 20th December. To begin with I was more than a little concerned that I would not be up to it and would let myself down. After collecting our mountain bikes from the Bikeland shop near Quarteira and meeting Paul to choose a suitable route we set off towards Loulé and on into the hills.
Thinking back now it must have seemed strange to see Clare and I wobbling our way round the car park, frantically trying to remember how to ride a bike! Let alone the 21 gears. The last time I rode a bike was probably ten years ago and then the bike had 10 gears (two at the front and five at the back) not to mention the click to change instead of two levers. When we arrived at our starting point and Paul suggested that on the short steep sections we should be in the lowest gears (1 and 1) I began to question my sanity. This was made worse when Paul pointed into the distance to where we would be going.
To calm our nerves the first few kilometres were relatively flat. Kilometres are shorter than miles so it sounds better to say that we eventually cycled about 20 km. The interesting thing is that we rode up and along and all in short, slow bursts of effort followed by rests to admire the view and catch our breath. At about two thirds of the way round we cycled up to Querença and stopped for a coffee and to admire the view and enjoy the peace and quiet. (Well worth a visit by car!)
Querença looks as if it has recently been renovated and is beautiful. It was a shame to leave but we were reminded that as the sun starts to disappear the temperature noticeably drops and a jumper might be needed.
The journey down the hill from the church was exciting and scarey, both brakes were necessary, and we were both glad to be down on level ground; by 'both' I mean Clare and I because Paul seemed to take it all in his stride (but he is the expert!).
We were then taken to the source of the local river, a 'fonte' (or natural bubbling spring), which for me was more impressive for the stepping stones used to cross the stream than the font itself. I would not have wanted to fall in as the water looked cold and deep!
After our river crossing, there were again short slow bursts of effort to climb and white knuckle braking at various speeds from a crawl to wind rushing though my receeding hair line before rejoining the main road to cruise and free wheel back to the starting point and a short car drive to Bikeland. It is worth saying that some of the paths were quite narrow and the drops to a lower level, impressive! (But don't worry, Paul does not put any of his 'patrons' in danger and he does have insurance!).
To conclude I had a brilliant time and I would like to thank Paul for his leadership and selection of the route which was perfect! I know it is a blatant plug but the day was worth every euro and I hope I will be able to do it again soon.
Thank you to Clare, Pete and Sarah (my "children") for choosing this present and thanks to Paul of www.activityalgarve.com
PS. It took three days for the pain in my seat area to go away (and that was with wearing padded leggings!).
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to everybody
Richard