I returned to Sevillia for the night and set course for Portugal the next morning.

I almost didn’t notice crossing the border as there is only a little sign telling you that you are now entering a different country. However what I did notice was that the roads instantly got bad. Not only the quality of the tarmac but traffic in general. I was genuinely stunned to experience how traffic can be so dangerous – in Europe.

Not only were there countles potholes on the roads and generally bad pavement that had already been fixed hundreds of times with bumpy patches everywhere, also the traffic lights throughout were not confidence inspiring. Many of them were so dim that you could not tell if they were on or not. The street markings on the ground were often either non existent or so dirty with tire wear particles that they were completely invisible. Often I was riding on what seemed like a 15 meters wide single lane which in fact was supposed to be either two or three lanes. There was no way to tell. What makes this a problem is that you don’t know if this means that the rules change. Are you supposed to drive in the middle? Or on the far right? How do you overtake and get overtaken? If this was India then you know the rules don’t matter but in Europe you would assume you still have to drive according to the rules of traffic.

Often there were road layouts where it was simply impossible to be safe. In one instance I was riding on a street with two lanes in my direction and one in the opposite direction. The speed limit was around 70km/h. At one point my (right) lane was ending so I had to merge to the left one which I did and I was now next to the oncoming traffic. The warning that my lane was ending was just a few meters before it did end so I moved to the other lane as soon as I noticed it. This was dangerous enough at 70km/h but at that very moment I had switched lanes a car from the opposite direction came at me – on my lane a few meters away from me. There was no solid line in the middle preventing overtaking in this dangerous spot. Vehicles were allowed to overtake in that exact same spot where a driver would not know that somebody like me would be forced to merge to a lane which he thinks is empty and safe to use for overtaking. Luckily I managed to avoid a collision. Nobody bothers to use the blinkers in Portugal either. For a while I genuinely wondered if there was a proper reason why nobody used them.

Too many times I saw people in front of me driving extremely slowly (40km/h in a 100km/h zone) and wide zig-zag lines not staying in their lane at all. I had been told before by Spanish people that in Portugal driving drunk is scarily common.

What bothered me most though was that 90% of all drivers where extremely impatient and held a safety distance of often no more than two meters even at speeds of 100km/h and more. On a motorcycle this feels particularly uncomfortable. I often gestured to the drivers behind me to keep their distance but it rarely made a difference. Everybody who drives a vehicle knows that unfortunately there isn’t anything you can do in such a situation. I tried slowing down, signaling them to overtake and speeding up but neither worked. Most of the time I intuitively sped up because I wanted to get away from them and still they wanted me to go faster by the looks of it. So I tried a different approach that was showing them why safety distance mattered. I braked as much as it was safe to do so. That usually worked and they left more space. Doing this felt safer than being followed so closely. I felt it was better to slow down when I am in control of the situation than having to quickly compensate for the sudden stupidity of others in a split second for example if they suddenly hit me from the back or if I had to suddenly break quickly because of an obstruction in front of me.

Driving in Portugal was really just as bad as in Morocco only that in Morocco you expect something to happen at any second. But in Europe you just don’t expect this sort of behavior. I am not exaggerating when I am saying there was a dangerous situation of some sort ever 500 meters. In Spain I had a dangerous situation every 1000 kilometers or less. It was really baffling. There are lots of places in the world a lot worse than Portugal in terms of traffic safety but Europe can do better I would hope.

Anyway my goal for the day was Faro. A city on the southern coast of Portugal.

 

I was told that Portugal was supposed to be a cheap country for tourists but I did not notice that myself. Petrol was actually much more expensive. Food at the supermarket and restaurants cost the same as in Spain. The only thing cheaper was alcohol.

Overall I was a bit disappointed with my first impression of Portugal. To be fair I had been warned by almost all my Spanish friends that Portugal overall might not be as interesting as Spain.

When I arrived in Faro I checked in at a hostel and went straight to the beach to eat my dinner. Not for the first time it consisted of a can of fish and bread. It was very good nonetheless.

I was exhausted and stayed at the beach until sunset before I returned to my hostel.

The next morning I continued to Lagos. Another city on the southern coast close to Faro. It had been recommended to me by fellow travelers. What seemed like another disappointment at first turned out to be a real highlight.

The hostel there was one of the most expensive ones I had stayed at, yet at the same time the cheapest looking one. So as soon as I had checked in I left again going for the beach. This time the coast looked completely different.

What was still the same though was these unusual types of little trees which were growing all along the southern coast of Spain and Portugal. They seem to like the heat.

I didn’t so I went for a swim in the refreshing water which took some getting used to after having enjoyed the perfectly tempered Mediterranean Sea.

The water was very clear but contrary to Spain it was also “cold”. The water here was not from the Mediterranean sea but from the wide open Atlantic ocean where it didn’t heat up like south of Spain. For the first time since entering Spain I also noticed clouds in the evening sky.

Back at the hostel I met some great people with whom I spent the rest of the night talking about the most random topics and making plans to go kayaking along the coast the next day. I had actually wanted to leave Lagos early in the morning but my new friends convinced me to stay.

When we got the tickets for the kayaking tour the person selling them wanted to rip us off asking for 25 Euros each. We told him our friends had taken the tour the other day for 15 Euros (which was true) and he immediately changed the price. Roman (standing behind me) quick-wittedly told the guy that “other friends” of ours had taken the tour for 5 Euros but unfortunately it didn’t work.

Unfortunately I hadn’t noticed my GoPro camera’s lens being foggy before we started the tour because the scenery was breathtaking.

We passed underneath natural rock bridges and explored caves in the cliffs.

We probably paddled down the coast for over an hour before we landed at a little beach where we paused for a few minutes which gave us time to rest and the opportunity to go snorkeling.

Just a few meters into the water I saw sea cucumbers and lots sea urchins. Had I not decided to snorkel I might have stepped on one because the water was very shallow and they were everywhere.

It was a great tour and it would have been worth the 25 Euros – but don’t tell the guy.

After we had returned back to where we started I still wanted to push on to the west and eventually north of Portugal the same day so I said goodbye to my fellow travelers in the afternoon and set course for Sagres, the most South-Western point of mainland Europe.