Devon TRF Group Forum

ACT day 5 (final day) - Moura to Cacela Velha

The day began this time with a lovely breakfast at the Hotel De Moura which was a lovely old building in the heart of the town.

We loaded up the bikes amd were off by 9:45, the skies looked a bit ominous and it was a cool 16 degrees but as days before we needn't have worried as the sun came out and it was mid 20's all day which was perfect, not too hot

Our first stop was in Pias to meet Jules's cousin Darren and his Portugese mate Ricardo. They had ridden up from our end destination where they live to ride the route with us. Darren was on a World Raid T7 and Ricardo was on a standard Rally T7. We said our hello's then hit the trail. On our comms chat someone said Ricardo had never ridden off-road before and given the pace we'd been cracking on at this was a bit of a worry to me and then someone else voiced that same opinion/concern. Jules replied and said, "you never know, he may take to it like a duck to water". We rode for a few kilometres on the trail then all stopped for a wee and a chin wag. Ricardo got off his bike and Jules wanted his photo taken with Ricardo. I didn't have a clue what was going on but it transpired that Ricardo wasn't Ricardo at all, he was in fact Ryan who was one of the Welsh guys mates (Julians cousin in fact). Jules had schemed with Darren for Ryan to be there and surprise the rest of the gang, and it worked an absolute treat!! Brilliant (and it certainly wasn't the case that Ricardo hadn't even ridden off-road before as Ryan was apparently a Welsh Enduro champion so could handle the T7 with ease!!)

We continued riding until we got to Mertola - about half way - where we stopped for a lovely lunch, a proper feast of traditional black pork and Migas (you'll have to google that dish). 

With very full bellies we continued on and there was thankfully a fair bit of road miles immediately after lunch to help settle the feast we'd just eaten ....... although it didn't really and Taffs saying of "I feel like a busted slug" really did ring true!

We shortly hit the disused copper mines. A weird landscape this was, like a film set out of Star Wars or something like that. A bright orange shallow river running through it.

Onwards we pressed taking in the miles along trail after trail that descended into then rose up out of the valleys. This day was supposed to be 60% road but in Portugal these were roads with proper road signs at some of the junctions/ intersections but they were certainly not tarmac roads and demanded a significant level of focus and attention when riding them, especially at 60-70kph!! I felt like a rally bike rider pressing on whilst navigating. Great fun!! (Although almost overcooking on some bends )

At the end of a particular trail - 9 miles long it was which is hard going stood up and travelling at pace! - Darren and Ryan decided to peel off and take a road burn back to Tavira where Darren lives. We said our goodbyes until we'd see them again later at our hotel for a beer. We continued wanting to finish the days route but that this point we were all very tired and weary and wanted to get to the end. We could now see the sea but it just didn't seem to get any closer. The trails (well, their gravel roads) continued, one after another but we just wanted it to end tbh ..... and eventually we hit a main tarmac road and saw the sign we all wanted to see 'Cacela Velha', the end was nearly here. We followed the road and the chequered flag appeared on my SatNav. We turned a corner and parked in front of the small Chapel that I recognised from the ACT film ...... we'd made it, Awesome!! What a day, what an amazing 5 days riding!! We all congratulated each other and started taking photos of the bikes and the beach in the background.

There was a restaurant with many people eating outside and one Dutch lady came over to ask where we were from. She seemed quite amazed at how far we'd travelled, 1708.7km for me, from my house (1061 miles).

We saddled up and headed for our hotel for some well deserved beers. Darren and Ryan joined us and we drank and chatted well into the wee small hours before hittig the hay for some much needed kip!! 

To summerise the ACT Portugal route, it was an amazing ride with fantastic scenery, the route planners really have done a great job but we all agreed this ..... it's not easy, not by any means! Some sections had some pretty tough bits that were most certainly a challenge and we all agreed that there was NO WAY that the organisers who'd filmed this did this whole route in the 5-Days like we'd just done, absolutely no way!!! And they possibly didn't even ride some of the tougher sections cos unless you're a riding God there's no way they'd have got up those mountain passes with fully pannier-loaded BMW GS and/or covered the daily milage given the pace we were travelling at to complete the days, sometimes finishing at 7-8pm, and that's was without lengthy lunch stops and scenic stops as you often saw in the ACT film. 

Either way, an absolutely amazing journey down through Portugal and what an achievement to complete this route.

I'll keep you all posted on our travels back up to Northern Spain and our planned TET adventures but for now I'm off to resty wearly body and aching hands/fingers.