Cabo da Roca, a real stroll down memory lane on what has been a great few days since leaving Jerez and all the excitement of MotoGP.

The reason I was at Cabo da Roca was one of three reasons for visiting Portugal.

Since early High School days I had corressponded with the Portugese Embasy seeking tourism and historical information which they always supplied. The interest in a viisit to Portugal may have had to wait some 4 decades but when the opportunity arose I eagerly accepted and began some planning.

Portugal is one of those so often forgotten "superpowers"that once laid claim to vast amounts of the known world. It is a country rich in history and the arts but poor in agriculture. It also has had a massive maritime presence in the past.

I had three items of a "must see nature"The town of Sintra, which had two special buildings the Royal Palace with its white conical chimneys and the Moorish castle that overlooks not only Sintra but Lisbon.

Therefore this trip saw us doing a considerable back track heading again North and Westerly in direction passing on the highly developed road network which is often six lanes of divided roads where mountains & valleys are mere staging points for very long bridges and tunnels often clinging to the mountainside. They do however come at a cost-Tolls are frequent and reasonably expensive.

The value of the rich fertile plains and riverine valleys is evident in cropping and vegetable growing as well as the more expected oranges and olive grove.

Lisbon held another two special "firsts"for my much travelled red Triumph. On the way into Lisbon it crossed one of the longest bridges in the world. I thought some 12kms in length but the official length is 17kms. However Wikipedia gives the Vasco de Gama Bridge a length of 12.345kms.The difference being to count or not to count the 4.8kms of dedicated access roads.

This cable stayed bridge is flanked by viaducts as it spans the Tagus River in Parque das Nacoes in Lisbon. Those who are savy or just plan poor I would suggest you cross in a Southbound ie away from Lisbon as there are no tolls but Northbound traffic pays a toll of 2.70 (moto class 1) up to 11.60euro for trucks and buses. It was finished in March 1998 but still ranks as an artitectural and engineering feat of the modern times.

It was opened in time for Expo 98 at Lisbon and remains a permanent tribute to that event like the Eiffel Tower in Paris,,the Ernest Morial Convention Centre in New Orleans and Southbank in Brisbane all legacies of World Expo's.

On our way out of Lisbon we travelled over another unique "singing"bridge" called the 25th April bridge which is in the style and magnitude of the Golden Gate bridge in the USA. To hear the bridge sing go to Wikipedia and type in Pont 25 Abril Bridge Portugal.

Lisbon at the time of my visit also held nother first. It was the host to Eurovision Song competition 2018, so a visit to the Eurovision Village was taken and I returned that night for a free concert.

Our accommodation was for two nights near to the city centre in an apartment. It was located well within some 90m fairly easily but a very steep cobblestone road was the access so the bikes were left a street above and the luggage carried down. The apartment offered good amenties and the ability to walk to the old city square where a Yellow Bus tour was undertaken to many of the various old and newer points of interest. The accompaning photo album shows far better then words the various styles of buildings and what the city has to offer.

As we left Lisbon after our visit to Sintra and it's fairtail castles mixed with the medievil Moorish castle we chose to cross the other great bridge 25 de Abril bridge or as we would say 25th April bridge. Why cross it? It's ranked No 1 in suspension bridges in Europe and the 20th longest in the world as it too crosses the Tagus River but at its narrowest point. It is only 2.27764kms long and also has a Northbound only toll of 1.80euro. It's longest span is 1.012.88m as it links Lisbon to Almada on the left bank (southernside) of the Tagus. this bridge built by a US company was finished in 1966 as the Salazar bridge after the countries then Dictator.

Its roots lie with the Golden Gate bridge as part of the US tender was Morrison-Knudsen, who had previously been associated in the construction of the Golden Gate bridge and the design work was from Tudor Engineering a San Francisco based company.

In 1974 soon after the Carnation revolution saw the fall of the Dictator Salazar the bridge was renamed 25 de Abril the date the revolution began. A special feature of this bridge is the associated hum created by the traffic flow. This stems from expansion works in 1998 that saw two additional lanes created with an asphalt base as opposed to the original metallic structure of the original retained laneways.

However Sintra was a "must see"desination and like the photo's show well worth a visit , as long as you like walking on the traditional cobblestones and uphill;. We took a Hop On Hop off bus Route 378 to get to the Moorish castle and after walking some of it we decided a Tuk Tuk at 2.50Euro each was a good investiment to get to the bus stop and home for some of us.

Why only some of us? I had my third "must do"to accomplish. It was a natural feature that joins together my Geograhica cardinal points.

Some readers will recall in 2011 I covered the Southern most point of the UK Land's End to the most Northerly point John O'Groats (Scotland). Followed up by a visit to Lowestoft Ness (Suffolk)the most Easterly point and Rockall (Scotland) as the most Westerly point,all mainland UK.

In my 2015 travels on the Triumph I reached the Black Sea recognised as the most Eastern point of Europe and this trip the Triumph travelled to the Southern tip of mainland Greece commonly recognised, bar Islands, as the southern extent of Europe. Those wishing to debate I have been to The Province of Cadiz and the autonomous community of Andalusia which also lays claim to being the Southern most point.

After travelling some 25kms Tom Tom suddenly had me do a hairpin turn and head down backlanes of a village, but trusting Tom Tom and also the street signage which cleared showed that turn as being the way to Cabo da Roca I obeyed despite the track turning to dirt and bad dirt at that. It kind of added to the spirit of adventure and exploration I revel in and was similiar to my 2015 trek by motorcycle to the Mull of Kintyre.

However my heart was in my mouth when only 700m from my final destination while assending a very steep washed out section of the track,the back wheel spun in the loose gravel and stalled the engine before I could pull the clutch in. Finding grip well sort of with my boots I then could not lift one up to find neutral but a deft hand on the clutch lever another holding the front brake and a thumb that just reached the starter button saw the motor fire up and with a little clutch slip I was again making forward progress.

With the GPS showing only 200m to the final destination I looked slightly to my left and what appeared to be a tourist coach seemed to be beside me? As I assended the final 30m the coach passed me on a two lane paved road. Tom Tom has these dummy spits every now and again in a quest to find the shorest route. Naturally the return journey followed the paved road and yes Tom Tom showed it as the preferred route.

So having arrived at this Westernmost point (9o29'56.44W) what is there to see. A lighthouse that has stood guardian for shipping. A cafe where they were too busy chatting to friends to serve customers and when they did serve me they lied! There are no stickers depicting this point. So I had one more thing to do get a certificate to say I had made it. Next to the Restaurant come tourist trap is the Government Tourism office where they too welcome trapped tourists by charging to use the only public toilets. They had the certficate and yes, stickers, for the Triumph.

Leaving the Sintra area we returned to Albufeira Portugal where we had been three days before. It is a little slice of Great Britain in Portugal with fly in holidays at the beach or weekend Hen & Buck's parties. It is best not to go into detail but the dress or rather the lack of dress gave hooligan's a whole new dimension of party animal behaviour and burnt red skin as the British found sunshine and sat in it for 8 hours. It was however for us öldies"a sense of entertainment as we ate dinner.

We knew how welcome we are at Albufeira as I came around one of the many roundabouts a white gloved hand waved. The only problem was the hand came from a Green & White car with GNF on it. GNF is the Military Police or as when I stopped the officer explained like the US Highway patrol and proudly lifted his leg displaying motorcycle boots.

Greg was also hauled in and an officer was talking to him also. I told my Officer I came from Australia and pointed to one of the numerous Australian stickers on the bike.that done he repeated "land of Kangaroos"and became my bestist friend. That carried out to Greg's Officer and while we have no real idea why they pulled us over nothing but friendship plus a display of lights & a blast on their sirens as they drove off and we continued our journey.

As we left we passed under numerous electronic toll gathering cameras safe in the knowledge tucked away in our must keep documents is the official receipt when we entered Portugal as a foreign vehicle and they photographed the front number plate. (Incase you are lost motorbikes have no front plate).

The Spanish roads despite the tolls are a delight in most cases as they carve their way from mountain to mountain at 120km with either 2 or 3 lanes each way. Traffic is well regulated with, it seems, no one hogging the fast lane. Potholes are none existent save a few rough patches.

So our new home for three nights is Algeciras, gateway to both Gilbralter & Morroco.