Stage 1: Valença- Vila Praia de Âncora

Getting to the start meant a train from Porto to Valença.

Bikes on Portuguese trains means no advance tickets: you show up and hope there's room. There was. What we didn't expect was a packed carriage full of people heading to a religious celebration in Viana do Castelo, or the fact that you can only pay the conductor in cash. I jumped off at a random station to find an ATM, made it back just in time, and spent the rest of the journey standing in a different carriage.

Once on the bikes, things settled. Riverside paths, a long lunch stop, easy pace. Then a major road. Something spooked Hafu, a car horn, maybe a wasp, we still don't know, and he threw himself out of the basket, through the bars, onto the road with cars going past.

He ran to the side, sat down, and waited for me.

We spent the next twenty minutes improvising with whatever we had to make the basket more secure. He didn't try again. We finished the day at an Airbnb, tired and quiet, everyone in one piece.