Algarve Cycle Touring – Fuseta to Quarteira

We seen so much and traveled through such varied terrain today. A real expedition of a bike ride! Starting with peddling straight out into blue skies and some blinding sunshine today!

Only a few minutes out of town, and we’re alone on the trail following through the quiet salt pans that were teeming with bird life.

As we followed the new boardwalks and trails, great excitement came when we stopped by a flock of Pink Flamingos!

The perfect new trails continued through the wetlands until we reached the next little fishing harbour.

The cycle path funding must have run out here, as the trail turned to muddy paths.

And then worse still – deep puddles! We had to peddle through and hope we didn’t get stuck. I almost came off while trying to take a photo, so this is the best photo I got! Our peddles were just above the water level at least.

A few big steps also had to be negotiated.

And then some bumpy sand as we crossed a small bay.

Found some interesting plants along the way…

And beach side boardwalks. Too much to write about really so here are some views…

In a town called Olhão, we stopped for an hour or so at the town was full of hussle and the Saturday market was in full flow. You could buy all kinds of fruit, veg, meat, fish and even an octopus! So much to see! We bought some cookies off the local Scout troop who were also singing songs in the market hall, but managed to forget to buy anything for lunch! Just out of the busyness, we found a good seat to have a sandwich, after Clare had fought here way into the local bakers.

Leaving town meant following a perfectly smooth blue cycle way! Absolutely bliss while it lasted. All 200m of it!! Ha ha!

This house had a cactus growing through the roof!

On we went on a newly developed section of trail, until it abruptly stopped without warning!

On the far side of a wooden bridge, work had stopped and muddy fields lay ahead, completely impassable by bike! We ducked under a fence and crossed a railway, but found ourselves on the wrong side of an uncrossable motorway! We were forced to retrace our steps for a few kilometres to find a better/safer way of progressing. This actually involved about 3km on the hard shoulder of a duel carriage way! But it seemed perfectly acceptable, so we went for it as fast as we could!

All this excitement landed us back in Faro for lunch at the deserted Cathedral Square around 14:00.

More forest and wetlands lay to the west of Faro and provided some stunning cycle terrain. The trails were deep red in colour and just about okay for our bikes. We felt like we were crossing the desert or African savannah.

After a few wrong turns and one steep rocky downhill section in what felt like total wilderness in the Parque Natural da Ria Formosa, we suddenly came across a pristine golf course and then a fantastically wealthy town with some palatial mansions.