Another bright morning here, there was no need of any persuasion at all to go for a ride. There was, however, a need to decide where to go on the bike. Down the hill, ‘cos the road goes no higher than here. But after that?
The choice was south. An easy start to the ride by taking the flattest direction, along the bike path that borders the beach. It is a good, wide, bike path. As a Renault driver demonstrated, coming straight towards me before I had travelled fifty yards along the track. There was room enough on the path, but there was much more unfilled space between his ears. Pillock.
Not going to allow one of those to spoil a bike ride, on I pedalled. Past bridges old and new, the overflow bus park and along to the T junction, where I turned right towards Jose Mendes. Which is a place, not a bloke. Even streets here are named after people, along with their qualifications or social position. Not such a bad idea, really. A friend once lived on Kentmere Approach, ( Leeds ) or street or whichever. We once walked the Kentmere Round together, Lakes, just because of his address, eighty miles east. Anyway, ride through the place, under the tunnel roads and bear right onto a road that leads to Costeira do Pirajube. Online translate returns no sensible answer, and our lass ain’t here so I cannot tell anyone what the name might mean. But here is a bit of the approach road.
What it meant for the ride was time to turn around. A vague idea to explore further south of the island was forgotten, the traffic on the road I had intended to ride was at a standstill. After a munch and a drink standstill was still the word, so I headed home. Unfamiliar roads are great! On the way out I was thinking my speed was pretty good. Then I had to climb the little inclines that had produced that velocity. Ah well.
All the way back, a welcome breeze, views across the water and indeed all around. Oh! Almost forgot. There are more bikes with knobbly tyres here than I have seen anywhere else on tarmac. Most of them wear super wide handlebars that do not look comfortable, but maybe they are. A rider today had super wide bars, vertical bar extensions ( if that’s what they are called ) and what I think are known as TT bars bolted on to the whole lot. Those bars where you rest your forearms in a pair of lengths of guttering. He certainly had a choice of hand positions. The smile lasted all the way home, twenty two miles after starting.
And the map, which has shown a potential circular route . . .