{"id":29488,"date":"2019-05-26T09:50:32","date_gmt":"2019-05-26T09:50:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/snailpacecycling.co.uk\/?p=29488"},"modified":"2019-05-26T09:50:32","modified_gmt":"2019-05-26T09:50:32","slug":"day-552-linhares-to-barro-do-riacho","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/snailpacecycling.co.uk\/wordpress\/2019\/05\/day-552-linhares-to-barro-do-riacho\/","title":{"rendered":"Day 552 – Linhares to Barro do Riacho"},"content":{"rendered":"

Day 552                                                            23rd January 2018
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

46 miles (<\/span>Linhares to Barro do Riacho) Average speed 10 mph Top speed 23 mph<\/p>\n

One of my toughest days.
\nI got up at 8 for a good brekkie of ham and cheese rolls, juice, coffee, melon and cake. I left at 10 and went in search of a bank. The first wouldn\u2019t accept my card but I got some money at the second attempt. Opposite the bank I spotted the same company that had not done a very good job of repairing my phone and as it\u2019s under warranty, I asked the man to look at it. He was about to fix the camera but couldn\u2019t undo one of the screws. He gave me the driver to show me and see if I could do it, but I think either the head or the thread is broken and with my lack of Portugu\u00eas, there wasn\u2019t much I could do. As I was leaving I spotted a bike shop and treated myself to a new pair of gloves which were expensive but a necessity as mine won\u2019t last much longer.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Leaving Linhares<\/p><\/div>\n

I eventually left and found the turn-off I needed and it felt great to be off the main road for a change. I didn\u2019t realise how much stress and concentration takes out of you. I was so relieved to be riding through country lanes and farmland. I then joined the e 440 and all seemed to be going so well until two dogs chased me. Then things really did take a turn for the worse in a big way. Suddenly without warning the road turned into sand and I was really struggling to keep the bike upright as I was either going sideways or going over massive ruts caused by the large lorries which passed regularly enveloping me in a cloud of dust.<\/p>\n

\"\"

The road surface changed without any warning<\/p><\/div>\n

I carried on in the hope that the e 110 I was about to turn right onto might get better, even though it was a smaller road on the map. It was 11 gruelling miles to get to that turning and I considered getting a taxi or thumbing a lift if it didn\u2019t improve. I turned onto it and it seemed much better, it was narrower, better quality, without so many lorries cutting it up. With the wind behind me now I was going at a much better pace, even though I had to watch out for occasional ruts and deep sand.<\/p>\n

I had lunch on a log in the shade by the roadside and then pushed on, but as soon as I was out of the woods it got worse again.  At times I was only just holding it together and I had to push a couple of times as my front wheel kept sliding away from me and the ruts were driving me crazy. I did spot a couple of owls and some very big butterflies but this was only when I stopped long enough to take my eyes off the track. I was now also running low on water and having to ration it. It was warm anyway so not exactly refreshing. The last 4 miles were painful in many ways, mentally very difficult, physically demanding, the ruts were ridiculous and the soft sand hopeless. I did push the bike through the sand a few times as I couldn\u2019t get any traction and the sand was just too deep. It was impossible to find a line as time went on. Eventually I made it to a cement works and one of the lorry drivers could probably see from my face how desperate I was and told me that there was cold water and a toilet for the use of the drivers, so I pushed the bike back through the even heavier sand and drank lots of ice cold water and washed my face. It felt great but I still had a way to go.<\/p>\n

I made it to a bridge from which I could see tarmac.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Another mirage?<\/p><\/div>\n

It wasn\u2019t the first time as I\u2019d seen mirages earlier but this was the real thing. I had spent a total of 4 hours and 11 minutes trekking through the sand, covering 25 miles. I was so happy that I stopped at a supermarket and bought a bottle of guarana. There were no signs of pousada here so I sped along on the tarmac to the next town and found a hotel. The price was good at 40 reais and the food was delicious and a massive portion with salad and a drink for just 18 reais.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Fantastic food<\/p><\/div>\n

The governor was wearing a cycling shirt and him and his wife really looked after me. I met Pedro outside and he wanted to take photos of me and the bike and me and him. He was very keen to hear my story and to connect on Facebook. Nice enough chap but all I really needed was a shower. After dinner I went walking and found that I was right next to a river and could see the sea beyond.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Boats on the river<\/p><\/div>\n

I didn\u2019t even realise I was so close. In bed by 9 to get ready for another episode tomorrow!!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Hotel 6 brothers 40 reais<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Day 552                                                            23rd January 2018 46 miles (Linhares to Barro do Riacho) Average speed 10 mph Top speed 23 mph One of my toughest days. I got up at 8 for a good brekkie of ham and cheese rolls, juice, coffee, melon and cake. I left at 10 and went in search of a bank. … [Read more…]<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[1674,1673,1672],"class_list":["entry","post","publish","author-ermintrude","post-29488","format-standard","category-spc_blog","post_tag-barro-do-riacho","post_tag-day-552","post_tag-linhares"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/snailpacecycling.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29488","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/snailpacecycling.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/snailpacecycling.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/snailpacecycling.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/snailpacecycling.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29488"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/snailpacecycling.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29488\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29530,"href":"https:\/\/snailpacecycling.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29488\/revisions\/29530"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/snailpacecycling.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29488"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/snailpacecycling.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29488"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/snailpacecycling.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29488"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}