We visited the largest hill in the Algarve to cycle up, Foia is just up the road from the town of Montchique and further along the valley is the little town of Alferce, where we parked up.
We picked a windy day for our cycle, so had to hold onto our bikes at the top!
The area is an interesting one to visit – especially at the moment with the Australia fires in the news. They had devastating fires here in 2018. The area is dense with eucalyptus trees, replanted after a previous fire and before a planting ban in January 2018. The gum trees are prolific here, a highly flammable material, when the fires started it spread rapidly – taking out over 28,000 hectares and threatening the local villages. The charred landscape surrounds the town – image shows burnt cork trees on the edge of the village. It makes it even harder trying to imagine the sheer scale of the Australian fires.
It felt like we were able to play a small part in putting money back into the community by staying at the little village and spending money in their shops and cafes.