3 Sept, morning

I left Vila Nova de Foz Coa about an hour after the other 2, and found it´s very differrent cycling alone, you get all kinds of attention- at least in Portugal I can say I´m not interested, I´ll just have to cycle on in Spain and France.

When I caught them up in Sampaio we stopped for a bit, but I felt I needed more rest in the shade when we started moving again, so I found a lovely orange tree to rest and stretch under, and fell asleep for a good hour!

It still hadn´t cooled down when I woke up, gorged myself on bulging juicy yellow (!) figs off a nearby tree, and set off after my friends.

The road quickly started climbing. And climbing , and climbing. I had beautiful views of vineyards, the Rio Sabor (River of Flavour?) and deep forested valleys fanning out to my right, and plenty of time to look at them as a dawdled sweating and panting round the many corners in granny gear.

I found Hannah and Nick in a layby near when I stopped to fill my bottle from a spring, looking sorry nd eyeing up a pickup who had stopped for the same reason.

Hannah wasn´t feeling well (same tummy bug as me, probably :( and they´re in a hurry now, needing to get to Santander for the 9th, so I asked the driver if we could have a ride.

We chucked all the bikes and ourselves in the spacious back, with sacks of corn to cuddle up to, and had a lift for about 10k of uphill- the wind in our faces fresh and fast as the views whistled by at an unfamiliarly quick rate :)

1more lift and we´re in Macedo de Cavaleiros.

Last night we pitched up on a little island on the lake just out of the town; that´s where I am now scribbling away with the fresh morning sun drying the night´s dew and warming our bones for another hard day.

I may be continuing alone, as I don´t want to hitch more (another adventure for another day) and the others are going to have to. It´s going to be hard when they get picked up not getting in with them, and harder still adjusting to travelling alone.

I´ve got so used to their company, stories, laughter that I fear I may have tken it for granted. Let´s see what today brings. x