Faro Portugal April 23 to 26

After finally arriving in Faro at the end of a long and tiring trip from Australia, how good was it to see Bob and Betty waiting for me when I exited from Customs loaded up with my bike and luggage at Faro Airport.
Bob and Betty are the parents of my good neighbour Jackie from back on the Gold Coast and as luck would have it they have retired to Portugal from the UK.
When told that I was starting my trip from Faro they insisted that I spend whatever time I wanted with them to recover from my flight and to generally get prepared.
They own a unique villa just a few kms outside of Faro complete with rooftop barbecue, swimming pool and magnificent views and they love the laid-back Portuguese lifestyle.
And what a great few days we have had together. After an early night on Friday on my arrival, I was keen to put my bike back together on Saturday morning.
Fortunately the bike arrived unscathed from the flight and with the help of Bob we successfully worked our way through the jigsaw of bike bits, however became stumped on the reassembly of the front brakes.
After fiddling with it for some time, the decision was made to track down the local bike shop to complete the job and generally give the bike a final going-over.
Fortunately the bike shop staff spoke English and completed the job in no time at all to have the bike in tip top condition for the start of the journey.
The remainder of the weekend was spent sightseeing around the Faro and Loule areas with Bob and Betty, eating and generally listening to Bob’s stories.
One of life’s characters, Bob is a Pom and a consummate wheeler and dealer who I am sure could cut a deal to sell sand to the Arabs.
In fact, I think he was quite chuffed when I told him I reckoned he was a dead ringer for Arthur ‘Arfur’ Daley from the English TV series The Minder.
Anyway, as you can imagine, Bob has a personality larger than life and loves telling a story … mostly about his colourful past.
But as much as I would love to stay longer and to hear more stories, eat more of Betty’s wonderful food and to see more of the Faro area, the time has come to finally put all my preparations into practice and to start pedalling.
While I still think I have too much weight to carry, I have decided to work out what I can jettison along the way and will head out somewhat nervously later this morning.
The area inland from Faro is extremely hilly, so I will be doing some hard core hill climbing straight out of the blocks which promises to be interesting!!!!
Not to worry, that is what I have been training for, so Amsterdam here I come!!