I was very excited setting off again on that lovely deserted road the N 261 again, my excitement died rapidly at the first roundabout where our lovely new ,wide empty road disappeared.So it was some challenging cycling for the next 13kms on the narrow road and the hills returned.We turned off to Melides a very traditional portugese town, with all the buildings in blue and white including the church.Coffee and tea fortified us to return to the road.Today I was sedately riding behind Tim as his fluoro rain jacket was too warm so I was the reflective gear with a fluoro gilet plus Tim’s bike is sick (wheel wobble still, electrics, tyre going down etc)so if he broke down completely I didn’t want to pedal 10kms back to find him. My mode of cycling is to pedal as fast as possible up hills Tim pedals steadily up, then I fly down hills so I can get up the next one whilst Tim stops pedalling completely going downhill.This means I eventually have to stop and wait for Tim to catch up.Today I stayed quietly behind Tim which probably saved a few broken bones as without any warning the road going downhill was totally broken up with loose bitumen on top and huge potholes.If I’d hit that at 45kms an hour……

The scenery was quite attractive with pine forests both sides quite open at first and then more dense.Yes and lo and behold there were definitely forests of Australian gum trees, eucalyptus trees.They were apparently introduced in the 19th century and these form the largest area of eucalyptus in any country in the world proportionate to its size.The eucalyptus trees are used for timber, paper,construction and essential oils.There are increasing concerns re the fire danger of eucalyptus trees, the lack of biodiversity and lack of food for native birds and fauna.Still we have seen plenty of birdlife and storks everywhere and the frogs are also so vocal it’s great to hear.One frog the glass frog actually sounds like a bird, we surprised some bushes as we cycled past and realised afterwards it must have been a frog making the noise.

We took another detour into Carvalhal, again a very portugese town but with more of a beach feel and then rejoined the road further up.Traffic was thinning out now as this road leads to a point and the only way forwards is on a car ferry to Setubal.There were 2 groups of touring cyclists coming towards us, the groups were having their luggage sent on as no sign of big panniers and then there was a sole female cyclist with her bicycle so overladen I could sense a lot of things would be sent home very shortly.

The vegetation was thinning out now revealing sandy hills and on both sides glimpses of the sea.We were now on the Peninsular of Troia.We saw the turn off to famous Roman ruins the largest Roman fish factory ever found in Europe.Work is still on going there so it is only open for a few months from June.We were heading to Troia to stay as across the water in Setubal is a cheese and wine festival so we were struggling to find anywhere to stay with a garage, store room or underground garage for the ebikes.So tomorrow we will be on the ferry to Setubal. I imagined Troia would be a tiny town on the end of the peninsular with a small hotel.As we approached I realised I had got things horribly wrong. We were surrounded by huge resort style concrete high rise hotels!

We found the marina and a restaurant with a menu of the day for lunch at 10 euros which was good as the first restaurant we looked at had main dishes for 90euros! Where had we come to , who pays over 90euros for lunch? We checked into our hotel which had been heavily discounted on booking.com.It was called the Design Hotel so we were confronted with mirrors and glass and coloured lined carpets, you wouldn’t want to stay here with vertigo. Hard to tell what’s real..Our room is incredible with an amazing view from our balcony, a free standing bath graces our bathroom, pity we are only here for one night but I think you need to arrive by car with a supply of drinks and snacks or go broke.The design hotel includes art work everywhere and this work of Cinderellas shoe made out of saucepans!

Apparently 100s of optometrists are arriving here tonight for a conference.This gave us a good reason to head to the steam room and jet pool straight away.We had it all to ourselves the steam room was huge like a big turkish steam room. The jet pool was as big as a swimming pool and the jets fantastic so muscles were thoroughly massaged.

There is pedestrian catamaran from this marina but it doesn’t take bicycles, so we have to cycle back 5kms to the main ferry.E-bikes cost more than normal bikes…in fact double the price, time to abandon the battery.