Douro Valley Overnight · part 2

Waypoint introductions and full write-ups

1. 1. Photo stop near Alenquer

   Planning note

   Photo stop near Alenquer is where the day begins. Next is Lisbon / Portugal return.

2. 2. Lisbon / Portugal return

   Alcácer do Sal sits on the Sado river, about twenty kilometres south of this point, and it takes its name from salt: the Romans called the town Salacia, and the Arabs later gave it the name that stuck. For centuries the marshes around it have been worked for salt, which was shipped from the river to the northern ports and across Europe.

   Read the complete Lisbon / Portugal return write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Lisbon / Portugal return comes up about 102 km into the recorded legs. Next is Food stop in Comporta.

3. 3. Food stop in Comporta

   Rice is not what most people expect in southern Portugal, but here at Comporta the land flattens into wide green paddies laid out along the Sado estuary, with herons and white storks standing in the water and the smell of mud and salt on the wind. Comporta is a small village of whitewashed houses and reed-thatched cottages on the edge of these fields, set between the estuary to the east and a huge Atlantic beach to the west, on the long sandy peninsula that runs south from Tróia.

   Read the complete Comporta write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   A break here. Next is Back to Douro Valley.

4. 4. Back to Douro Valley Overnight

   Planning note

   Back to Douro Valley closes the day.