Cycling home from the end of the world.
A version of the southern half of the European Divide Trail taking in more towns, culture and history. Portugal to Copenhagen divided into two-week adventures.
Description
After completing the Via Francigena in 2022 I wanted another challenge that aligned with my principles of adventure cycling. I wanted to take in some countries I’d not cycled in and also revisit France because that was my favourite part of the Via Francigena.
I like the direction of the European Divide Trail (EDT) and the amount of off-road it has. Still, the baseline route doesn’t include nearly enough opportunities for stops in towns and cities with significant historical and cultural impact. I wanted to be closer to the people of the land as well as the outdoor life that is implicit in adventure bike touring.
To this end, I’ve greatly altered the route (or at least expect to) so that it only follows the rough diagonal across Europe that is carved by the EDT.
Trip 1. Sagres to Cordoba
In ancient times the end of the European world was at Cape St Vincent, the most southwestern point of mainland Europe. It was a sacred and mystical location separating the known from the unknown, where tales of sea creatures and mythical beings could easily seem real.
It is an ideal location for starting/ending a long-distance trip, a few of which either start or pass through (EuroVelo 1, European Divide Trail, Fishermans’ Trail, Via Algarviana).
This initial 12-day trip revolves around several existing trails, some of which are well documented and some of which are more dubiously maintained. The four sections are:
Via Algarviana (days 1 to 5)
The first part of the trip (250km) traverses the Algarve mountains on the Via Algarviana / GR13. A really hard route on a mountain bike, anything other than that will be even harder.
The smugglers path between Portugal and Spain (days 6 to 8)
The next part (150km) joins the Algarve to the Sierra de Aracena in Spain. This is an odd-ball collection of routes to get me across the border to Spain via the iconic town of Mértola. There’s side shoots of the Via Alarviana and bits of the European Divide Trail but the best part was simply stumbled upon looking for gravel tracks between Martinlongo and Mértola.
Traversal of the Sierra Morena (days 8 to 11)
The 3rd act is the 230km traversal of the Sierra de Aracena and the Sierra Morena as far as Hornachuelos. Much of this follows the TransAndalus mountain bike route and the GR48 long-distance path.
Into Córdoba (days 11 and 12)
Finally, there is the flatter 50km route along the side of the valley of the Guadalquivir into Córdoba.
Statistics
Distance 676km, 12 days
Climb 13,533m, 20m/km (hard)
Difficulty and type of bike
I thought this would be quite an easy trip… “a nice gentle few days to ease myself into things”. I was very very wrong.
Especially days 2, 3, 4 and 5 were crazy steep and hilly. In total 5 out of the 12 days were at the Bikepacking.com (who cater to hardcore bikepackers as a default) highest difficulty of “Very strenuous”.
With a number of 20° slopes and loose downhill sections, this route is best with a mountain bike. Full suspension or hardtail. I did it on an adventure bike, with a Kinekt suspension stem and Pinion gears. I’d recommend a minimum of 50mm tyres: if you do this on less than that then be sure you have comprehensive health insurance.
