Day 55: Tui to Vila Chã | 116km
26 July 2026
I made for an early start from the hostel around 7:45, and minutes into the ride I crossed a bridge and entered Portugal, the tenth country on this trip and another one I’d tackle from top to bottom. Since all the supermarkets were closed for festivities yesterday, I didn’t have any food for breakfast, so I decided to just pedal until something came up. I didn’t find anything until 35km into the ride. The time was set back one hour when I crossed the bridge, meaning it was very early in Portugal and the villages I passed had not yet woken up.
As I’ve mentioned, I don’t really feel sore anymore. My body and bike feel tuned for whatever challenge comes their way, but as I rode with the sun slowly rising on my side, I couldn’t stop thinking, “I’m done.” Not because I feel tired, but I just wondered if there’s anything else for me to prove to myself, and I think I’m also longing for life after this adventure. I’ve been out riding every day for two months now, and even this big adventure has gotten a bit mundane.
I don’t wish for more harsh challenges. In fact, I just hope to be able to relish and soak up the final stretch of the journey, but it feels difficult. I don’t listen to much music anymore. I don’t feel I need the same comfort of familiarity as I did at the beginning of this long journey. Instead, I let my mind drift, but often I think about nothing and just pedal along. In a way, I guess that’s been a big point of doing this, to quiet the mind.
In everyday life, I, and most people, get so many dopamine hits in a day that we constantly crave more. In the last two months, my screen time has been almost nothing besides planning routes. I’ve barely read or listened to any news besides weather forecasts for wherever I was headed, and perhaps because of that, I don’t crave as much entertainment anymore. I’m sitting alone on a dune watching my first sunset in Portugal, and normally, I’d probably want to listen to music, but today, the sound of the ocean, the breeze and the chatter of strangers on the beach provides enough of a soundscape.
My motivation to go on feels very low today, but at the same time, I want to see the journey through till the end. Hopefully there’s something more for me to find on this journey in the coming thousand kilometres. It will be tough, or at least boring, to fight this lack of motivation for too many days, so I also hope I’ll find the joy in riding through Portugal, which so far looks beautiful.
The only downside about riding along the coast all day today was the endless cobblestones, which pained my arms and rattled my bike for about 40km.