18 - 22 April 2017

Yes, it's true. When I bought my bike, the people in the shop told me that I could cycle to China without having a flat tyre. But that's not completely true.

On Tuesday, when I wanted to leave the dunes were is had spent the night, I found out that I had a flat tyre. So I removed my bags and turned my bike upside down. And of course it started to drizzle. I couldn't find the gap, so I decided to pump my tyre up, because maybe the valve wasn't closed the right way. I cycled further and after a while it felt like I was cycling through thick syrup, so I pumped my tyre up again. When I arrived at the ferry in Setúbal my tyre was completely flat. On the other side of the water I put my bike upside down again and again I tried to find the gap. Nothing to see, so I changed the tyre with my spare one. After cycling on and no more problems, I found a nice spot in the dunes to pitch my tent. Instead of cooking I ate some bread, because there were a lot of mosquitoes and I didn't want to be eaten again.

Because of the trouble of yesterday, I woke up early and started cycling. It was a pretty warm day today and I cooked the meal of yesterday at the natural water source in Melide. It was very relaxing and quiet. After Melide, I found a lot of hills, but also nice parts to go down. I like that. The road was less nice, because of the cars, but the last part was a quiet sandy road. And for dinner I cooked scrambled eggs, because the warmshower Sylvain had an appointment.

Very nice to sleep in a bed again. For breakfast I ate some bread with vlokken. Delicious! Thursday was a day with a lot of wind and a hot sun. In combination with a terible sandy road, I was longing for Daan's company. The cycling took a long time and it seemed to never stop. Finally I found the valley of Michelle and Eric. They try to live as ecofriendly as possible. After a while Marilou came home and she learned me a cardgame called 'Marpliche'. That was fun! And after dinner I spent the night in a small caravan. That's something else as I'm used to ;p.

After breakfast, the next day, I had packed everything pretty fast and after saying goodbye to Michelle and Eric I did hit the road again. The wind was so strong this Friday that I even had to cycle to go down the hills instead of being blown back again. Despite the wind I arrived in time at Gerald's house. He had to leave early and I was home for two nights with his dog Vodka. I did some planning, read my book and watched some series.

On Saturday I could sleep longer. After breakfast I walked to Bensafrim for a supermarket. That sounds easy, but when I was close to the village, the path suddenly the path went down very steep, but I didn't mind and took the path anyway. My sweater was covered in small grass and stuff, but I had survived! On my way back, I took the normal road. When I was back, I tried to find the gap in my tyre. It wasn't easy,but with the help of a sink full with water, I found the tiniest gap there can be in a tyre. And of course, I patched the tyre. Let's hope I can cycle on now for a longer while!