The other day I was bragging in my blog about stumbling upon a hidden medieval village that nobody knew about. I forgot to mention in yesterday’s blog that, as we were sitting there in the morning having a cup of coffee, Mike spotted five coaches driving up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As we drove away, we saw they were from Emerald Cruises, the same cruise Lynda is doing with Chrissy! So people do know about it; we were just lucky enough to be there when nobody else was around.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Anyway, back to today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There is a cycle trail near here that I want to do. It’s the one thing I actually researched before we arrived. But with temperatures forecast to hit 38 degrees, we figured we’d tackle it first thing in the morning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Unfortunately, this morning we weren’t organised enough. Instead, we went to the library to upload a video, then headed to the midpoint of the trail. The plan was to ride one direction and backtrack, then ride the other direction the next day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But when we arrived in Tondela, the midpoint, it was too fricking hot to even think about a short ride. So we sat in the shade for a while until the shade disappeared.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We didn’t really like the town we were in, so I navigated to a smaller village where we could also pick up the cycle trail.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The start of the trail was down a very steep hill, and I’m starting to get a bit nervous every time we head down one of these narrow, steep roads. What if there’s nowhere to turn around?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Thankfully, at the bottom there was a little grassy car park right beside the trail.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Then we made a decision we probably should never have made.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We were here, the cycle trail was there, so why not go for a bike ride in the middle of the day?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And it really was the hottest part of the day. The van was showing 40 degrees!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But off we went anyway.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Thankfully, the breeze you get on a bike certainly helps, and there were plenty of shaded sections. It was such a nice trail, extremely smooth, with beautiful views over the D\u00e3o River. We were cruising downhill at 18 km\/h without even trying. I\u2019d forgotten I much I love riding a bike.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But it was hot, and it would be uphill on the way back. So we turned around at the 6 km mark, not wanting to overdo it, and slogged our way back up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
By the time we got back to the van, we were properly heat-stressed. We dumped the bikes on the ground, climbed inside, and blasted the air conditioning until we’d cooled down enough to put the bikes back on the van.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Then we headed 2 km back to the village where we thought we could spend the night. It was a beautiful little spot with just a few houses, a church, and a river running through it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There was a little bit of shade in the carpark, and a tap which I dunked my head under like a duck. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
It wasn’t an official place to stay overnight, but we thought we could probably get away with it, so we lay down for a while.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But then the sun shifted and the van was no longer in the shade. I couldn’t bear the heat any longer. Despite drinking plenty of water throughout the day, I had a terrible headache.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There was an official motorhome parking area in the next town, about 20 minutes away, complete with toilets. So we headed there, enjoying the air conditioning along the way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But when we arrived, it was an ugly town and the toilets were locked. By this point it was already 8:30 pm.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So we headed back to the little village we’d just left. The sun would be gone soon, and hopefully it would start to cool down.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
By 10 pm, the temperature had dropped to 27 degrees inside the van, cool enough to sleep.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It’s forecast to be even hotter tomorrow, so we might not get the big bike ride in after all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Typical.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The other day I was bragging in my blog about stumbling upon a hidden medieval village that nobody knew about. I forgot to mention in yesterday’s blog that, as we were sitting there in the morning having a cup of … Continue reading