Zamora to Porto

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I spent one evening in Zamora before setting off in the direction of Porto. The sun was shining as I left town after a sumptuous buffet breakfast. As I crossed the Rio Douro there was a lovely view of the old town from the bridge. It was beautifully reflected in the river.

I stopped for about thirty minutes at the pedestrian bridge a little further on. There was a lot of bird life on the water and in the trees and bushes lining the shore. Flocks of pigeons wheeled in and out of the arches and landed in the shallows for a bathe and a drink. Jackdaws called from the trees and a couple of cormorants dived for fish, one either side of the bridge. People walked, jogged or cycling past me as I stood and watched what was going earound me.

Some chiffchaffs were singing in the trees and even more interestingly I noticed a tree sparrow carrying nesting material into a gap in the stonework of the bridge. Maybe it was bedding material rather than nesting material?

From Zamara the road was undulating. It was either uphill or downhill, no in-between. That combined with a steady headwind made my progress slow. I was surrounded by huge arable fields, now either in stubble or ploughed ready for the next crop.

Mid-afternoon the vista opened up as I reached the edge of the plateau and I enjoyed a rapid descent to Fermoselle. In the plaza, the hands of the clock on the tower of the town hall were missing. Some places are just so laid back that they've abolished time altogether.

As I spend on downhill I saw large lakes filling the valleys. Eventually I reached the level of the lakes and there's only one way to go from there. Back up again.

However first I had the pleasure of crossing the Bemposta dam which created the lakes I'd seen earlier. It's a massive feat of engine, 87m high, 397m across and completed in 1964.

I stopped to peer over the vertiginous cliff of concrete. I was surprised to see sand martin-like birds flying along the dam and landing, or rather cling to the near vertical surface.

I knew there was a chance of crag Martin's here so I took loads of photos to check properly later against the Collins guide. When I did, it turned out they were indeed crag martins. Another life tick for me. The clincher was the little white windows in their tail, which sand martins don't have.

Next day I only made it as far as Mogadouro. It started lashing rain about an hour after I set of. I took a cafe con leche break to decide what to do. I checked the weather radar. It wasn't good for the rest of the day. I checked accommodation. The hotel 100m away had a room. It was only midday. Decision time. I checked the rain radar again, it looked like it was to get worse if anything. So I checked into the hotel.

The hotel was reasonably priced and very, very comfortable. So I had an easy day of reading and catching up with some of the news on the news channels. The rain grew absolutely torrential outside, so I did make a good choice.

It eased off for a while in late afternoon so I explored some if the little tracks around the village . Best bird I clocked up was Sardinian warbler. There was a fox in a far off field as well. I took a little video,in the hope that it could turn out to be a wolf. I'm pretty sure it's "only" a fox though. But it is much darker than the foxes back home.

The weather was much better next morning so I set off from the cobbled streets of Mogadouro onto the tarmac of the open road.

On a hillside a little before Meirinhos I stopped to watch five griffon vultures soaring around a white hilltop cross. I considered playing dead to see if they'd come down closer and I'd get the perfect vulture photo. But I feared that I might not have the strength to fight them off again after getting the snap.

One of the aids to navigation I use is Google maps. Today it was directing me to the IC5. I thought this was fine until I got to it and amongst the prohibitions was no cycling. Normally there is a smaller road parallel or very close to such roads. However in this case there was none.

On Outdoor Active I could see tracks marked so I decided to try them. They turned out to be a brilliant off road cycle. I dropped about 300m to the lake and then ride along the short on gravel tracks, very rough in places.

I could see the IC5 much of the time and it was virtually devoid of traffic. The back roads I generally stuck to were busier! I stopped for lunch under the only bridge for miles.

After lunch on the far side of the lake I had an extremely tough afternoon of hauling, pushing and shoving the bike up some very rough and very steep tracks to avoid the IC5 before enjoying a well earned and long descent on a proper road. The sting in the tail however was a 10km climb to Vila Flor, albeit on a good road with gradients I could actually cycle.

As you can imagine slept very soundly after those 64km.

When I'm battling gravity to get up a hill I tell myself it's like money in the bank. What goes up must come down and somewhere will get payback with a relaxing freewheel downhill.

Sounds good in theory, but in practice it doesnt always quite work out. For example if there's a headwind and you have to force the pedals round to go downhill, or you have a large gradual climb and a short steep descent.

I had convinced myself I was "owed"a 10km descent. Vila Flor seemed to be the top of the mountain as well. So I was amazed that next morning I had to climb another 10km or so before I got my payback.

But I did get my payback and had a brilliant 20km downhill spin to Tua. I was delighted. Rain holding off, exhilarating cycling even with luggage. I was sure I'd be on Pinhão by mid-afternoon.

The Rio Duro came into view and an impressive site it was as it wound its way between steep sided mountains riding to 600m and more. The slopes were terraced and planted with vineyards. Productive agricultural country.

A river cruise ship sailed upstream as I sped downhill. A slightly incongruous sight in the mountains.

With only 12km to Pinhão I was delighted with myself. However as they say, pride before a fall. Fortunately my fall was metaphoric only.

You would imagine, or I did anyway, that following a river should be relatively straightforward. Even easier if you are following it downstream to the sea. The strange thing about the Rio Douro is that to follow it's course by bicycle you have to climb and descend some pretty high hills.

From Tua there was a route to Pinhão via Alijo on a proper road. However Google maps offered me an alternative route via Castedo. It looked several kilometres shorter. I knew it would be a steeper climb in places but thought I'd go for it as it was closer to the river. You'd think I'd have learnt my lesson. I need to make it clear at this point that I selected the cycling option on Google maps.

Well, you can see were this is going better than I did at the time. Short cuts make for long delays. I spent the next couple of hours dragging me and the bike up about 500m in 6km. Bad enough, but it turned out that the tracks were cobbled in places and impossible to cycle on at all.

As I eventually got to enjoy my 6km downhill the rain finally came on so I was drenched by the time I got to the Douro Backpackers Hostel in Pinhão.

The welcome at the hostel was superb. A glass of wine as you check-in soon makes you forget any little difficulties you experienced on the journey.

The hostel was friendly and spotlessly clean. I felt bad dragging in so much rainwater. Lovely conversations with fellow travelers a couple of beers in a local cafe watching the Porto v Benfica match passed the evening. For the record, Porto (considered the local team here) lost 1-0.

So I've finally made it to Porto. I intended to complete the last section in two days. However within minutes of me setting out the rain poured down again. I was making good time, 20km/hour, as from Pinhão the road does mostly follow the river. I soon reached Régua. I went to the cafe at the train station. A coffee, weather check and consideration.

The rain began to ease off, but there was a second band of rain at least as bad just behind it. Much of my gear is already wet now, so I took the easy option. The train to Porto.

For a while the sun came out, so I thought maybe I'd given up to easily. However by the time we reached Porto it was lashing again and has continued on and off like that since.

I plan to explore Porto properly tomorrow. From what I've seen this evening it is a beautiful city.

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Photos

crag martin.
The white windows in the tail are characteristic

fox
Or is it a wol