On your bike – Portugal 12

Triathlon competitors enjoying a dip in Peniche Harbour

Ericeira’s charms convinced us to linger an extra night, and a quiet beer by the harbour, and discovery of the local internet cafe didn’t do any harm either. I’d spied some great shorts the day before and couldn’t resist dragging Miki along to see them. Needless to say, they ended up on “Clothes-horse” Kev before the day was out.

I got plenty of shots of local doorways, as I’ve decided to do a Flickr presentation of Doors of Portugal when we get home, and Ericeira had its fair share of quaint and quirky ones.

Everyone here seemed so welcoming and friendly, and it was with a wistful glance backwards that we rolled out of Ericeira, relentlessly following the coast North.

The next town to receive our attention was Peniche – chosen purely on an arbitrary basis by Miki, who liked the name. It means “narrowboat” in French apparently. But what a great choice it was.

Shoehorned into a small peninsula, Peniche gives the impression of being surrounded by water, which in fact it very nearly is. The coastline here is spectacular, crumbling layers of porous rock, section by section relinquishing itself to the ceaslessly pounding waves. It makes for some incredibly fascinating natural structures, not to mention a big kids playground for yours truly.

We parked, ostensibly for the night on a stretch of land that was connected to a crumbling chain of three islands by wooden footbridges, and enjoyed a spectacular sunset as we ate our evening meal.

But the evening brought a succession of cars, and although I theorised that it was sexually-surpressed Catholics looking for a bit of extra-curricular nookie, we were a little concerned about a repeat performance of the Moita Juvenile Delinquents Rally, so we retired gracefully and cast about elsewhere for our night time spot.

The old town of Peniche nestles safely within old City walls, and boasts, as nearly every settlement along this coast does, a fort. We found a multitude of Motorhomes parked in a spacious car park on the banks of the estuary that wound its way into the harbour. It was a perfect place for the night, and there we stayed.

The next day, having already seen the great road that wound its way around the peninsula, we decided to take the bikes out and explore. We must have got about halfway round before whistle-blowing policemen started herding us in contrary directions. It seems that the National Portuguese Triathlon Association was running its competition. There followed scenes of pure farce, as top cyclists whizzed by Miki and I, as we tried and tried to find a route through the town that avoided us entering the race. It was very tempting to freewheel across the finish line, arms aloft and claim victory!

We were forced to remain within the confines of the town, purely because of the amount of spectators, and we enjoyed it.  The harbour was full of swimmers, in apparent confusion, but obviously in the race, looling for all the world like a shoal of floundering fish. Then they were off, running the same streets they’d pedallled minutes before. I was exhausted just looking at them.

This entire weekend was the “Sabores do Mar”- Flavours of the Sea Festival which not only celebrated with the Triathlon, but had a three day Pop festival too. The headline band seemed to be called Blasted Mechanism, an English, albeit daft, name for a Portuguese band. That night as we wandered the streets of Peniche soaking up the atmosphere, I heard them soundchecking. They weren’t too bad to be honest. I thought of my daughter at the Download festival in the UK that weekend watching Kiss. I guess she got the bigger spectacle!

Nevertheless, I loved that Peniche threw itself into this thing. Old ladies in doorways shouting cheekily to the Triathletes- it seemed the whole town got a real shot in the arm from this thing, and that’s how it should be.

Peniche warranted another two-nighter, and we spent the last morning exploring inside the old fort. Another jewel on the Portuguese coast, this country has an embarrassment of riches.

Seagull silhouette Sunset above Peniche fort

Kev Moore