Portugal's Highest Motorcycle Roads On Our R1250 GSA #motorcycletravel #R1250

We are here in Porto, Portugal. And last night we stayed at this hotel just behind me called the Ribeiras of Porto. And yesterday we spent the day exploring the city and taking a little bit of a rest day from riding on the motorcycle. But today we're rested, we're ready, we're prepared and we're going to be heading south-east towards a place called Miradouro dos Pinoros. Sounds about right. But we're going to be heading for a little ride through Porto first. And it's getting very busy. We're going to navigate the small tight streets of Porto and then get out onto the open road. We're looking forward to getting out of the city and back onto those open roads. Some really fresh air and some great rides this afternoon. So come and join us as we head south-east. Yeah, south-east. We're going to a pass that's been nicknamed the Stelvio Pass of Portugal. Apparently people have called it that. Okay, well let's go check it out. We'll be the judge if it's very good. We've not long jumped off the motorway and immediately we're in this dense forest. It smells lovely and it's great to have some fresh air for a change to get out of the city. And look at these roads, they're empty. I think we've got another hour and a half, two hours to the start of the really good roads. The really twisty ones that go up to the mountains. But it's going to be a nice hour and a half ride through the forest. I think we can see straight ahead the mountains that we're aiming for. Is it time to put some music on, Em? Yeah, let's put some music on and get these twisty roads. Let's do it. First stop of the day. Yeah, it's about two o'clock now. A few hours under our belt and there's a lovely little cafe just perched on the edge of a town, a little village. Yeah, a lovely sleepy little village, kids playing around, cobbled streets, so we thought we'd just stop and have a rest for a minute, grab a couple coffees, a couple drinks. How much were the coffees? I don't know yet. We'll let you know on that one. But I think the going rate for an espresso is like a euro, is it, when you're a 50? Something like that. But the roads so far have been wonderful. Yeah, they've been epic, haven't they? Big, wide flowing curves and the forest, great smiles. So I think we're about to gain a lot of altitude soon as we get up into the mountains. It's still warm though. I'm excited. So far, Portugal has been really wonderful. It's a beautiful place, isn't it? You can really relax and take your time in Portugal. If you want to go to the city, they've got them. If you want to go to the beach, yeah, we're really impressed with Portugal. We probably should have gone a lot sooner. We just pulled over to check our route and I think we've got it in. We've got 20 minutes now of, I think, pure twists. Right, Sean? Yeah, that's right. We just stopped at a town called Ceia, S-E-I-A. And that's pretty much the good starting point for this road. And we've got 19 minutes and that's going to take us to the base of the super twisty bits. But it looks great from here on. I'm not sure what this little town's like. It looks nice. But we're not stopping here today. This town is lovely. It is. We're heading Covilha. Direction Covilha. Something like that. We'll basically head up and you can't go wrong. It's the N N339 is what we're on at the moment. We're already starting to gain the altitude really quickly on these. Big time, yeah. Lots of cars coming down which means that it is open. So yeah, the pass is open. First bike. Within the first 2-3 minutes of being on this road, you've gained major altitude. You can see all of the rolling hills of Portugal behind us and we still are climbing. I think you're going to have to overtake the Peugeot. Okay, a lot of permission. I thought she was a police woman then. I did as well. We're about to go through another little village. These are kind of like the rocks we saw a couple days ago in the north of Portugal. Oh yeah, the round rocks. Gigantic pebbles. Gigantic, yeah. Just look like they've been thrown at the mountain. Little cafe here in the village. And a restaurant. It's Sunday as well, so they're open, which is good. Good to know. It's one of the first villages I've seen people. I think this is about to get pretty twisty, Sean, on a really steep incline. There was some sort of warning there in Spanish or Portuguese even. I don't know what it meant. I think it said something about it being a fun road. Well, it's open because there's the gate we're just passing now. Is this an AMG? The tyres don't look very wide. I think it might be an AMG sticker kit. Overtake successful. Time to put it in dynamic mode. Dynamic. Dynamic mode, not just because it's time to go fast, but it makes the throttle a lot more responsive, which is kind of what you want on these switchbacks. You don't want any delay in the throttle feedback. You can really feel that cold chill in the air. Oh, yeah. Yeah, it's dropped a few degrees. Wow, look at these rocks here. Oh, wow. Just passing the lake. Small, but beautiful. Not quite hot enough to have a dick in today, I don't think. No. Would be a cool place for some camping, though. It's nice, yeah. There's quite a few bikes ahead of us. It is, isn't it? This must be the road. It's like the world's straightest alpine pass road ever. Yeah, it is. We miss all the other curves here. I think it just passed a sign that said we're at an altitude of 1700 metres. That's far. We're getting higher quite quick. Considering we were basically at sea level this morning, weren't we, in Porto? Pretty low, yeah, exactly. That wind is well cold! It is 15 degrees, though. I'm going to be turning my heated seats on in a minute. Road conditions have been spot on. Yeah, fair do to them. They had a few snow sign warnings, so they must get a little bit of harsh weather. I should think so. In the wintertime, this is all snowed up. Especially these altitudes. Still on the N339. There is literally infinite combinations of roads you can take here. There are so many cool roads in this area. We're just passing through today, but if you had more time and you wanted to concentrate on this area, then I think you would have no shortage of new routes you could take every day. It really does remind us of Switzerland here. Some of the high mountain passes. Yeah, with the little pools of water everywhere. No trees in sight. It's just like rock and sky. Yeah, quite like the Gotthard Pass or even the top of the Susten Pass. It's very similar. We still have some ways to go to get to the top. So our current altitude is 1950m and we're not quite at the top yet. Nearly though. Let's go up to the top then, eh? Yeah. I think there's an observatory or something. Something snazzy is up there. I can see it cliffing in the distance. It certainly is. It's actually a ski area here. There's some ski lifts. Are they running? They're running. I don't know what people are using them for. Maybe mountain biking. That's cool. I think it would be a good area for mountain biking. Mountain biking and hiking. Motorcycle riding. All of the extreme sports. Do you want to have a look inside, Em? Yeah. They look so beautiful from far away. Up close they're not looking like they've... I don't know where the top bit is. Somewhere up here should we park? Yeah, sounds good. Park next to that bike maybe? Or right in front of the observatory down there. It has to have been an observatory, right? I don't know what else that shape could be. It's usually what it is, isn't it? Park next to the bike. Get off. Take some photos. That is so intense. The smell in here. It's quite a smell, that. Wow. OK, I'll try it. Yeah, it's lovely. It's nice. My favourite Portuguese drink. Ginger. We have no space on the bike. That's great. Thank you. Yes, that's everything. Thank you. Everyone wants to give you something to try here. Do you like a knife? Yeah, they're really nice, aren't they? Look at that. All been carved in with the name of the road. Oh wow, there's more. There's infinite. This place is like a hidden gem. It is, isn't it? I need to oil these boots. Yeah, they're pretty... I don't think they're designed for shopping. Wow, look down here. You can see why this place is so popular. It's got a great little shopping centre in there with loads of local produce. It is, isn't it? Great place. You can get your ginger and cheese. It's like a reward for driving up here. Alright, that was a nice little stop to have back on the road. You got another route planned? We're going to head further south now. I think the road's still pretty cool down there. I'm going to drop down to somewhere called Farrow. And then we're going to head back to the coast and probably spend the night in Nazar or something like that. It's where the gigantic waves are where the surfers go. Sounds like a plan. We've been being serenaded for the past 20 minutes by this guy over my shoulder, but you only think he knows one note. I don't even know if that's a note. Let's take his rhythm. He's got style though. I'll give him that. He's rocking the green hat. Come back in a year. Let's see if he's got a tune on. Okay, so this is us. We're leaving the highest point in Portugal. It's all going to be downhill from here. Quite literally downhill from here. Only physically downhill. It's still going to be enjoyable though. We've put a downer on the day. Alright, let's go. Can she mount smoothly? Can I mount while having the GoPro in my hand? Let's see. That's quite a good one. She did it. You get a seven for that one. Seven. Oh my goodness. That guitar is bellowing in my ears. I'm going to get one. I think he's inspired me to get a guitar. It sure is hazy. You can't see so much. Which way are we heading? A25 or the A23? A23. I can see why these roads are so popular. They are epic. Look at what we're coming up to now. We're about to drive through the rock. Awesome is that? It's cool, isn't it? Look at these hairpins that are coming up. We are just driving down the mountain on the backside now. We passed through the little ski village with a few hotels in. The landscape here is really raw and rugged. You can see behind me, it's like this green and beige colour. The roads have just been fantastic. We've had so much fun riding them. I think you could have a lot of fun here. For more than just the day, there's loads of other alternate passes to take, even some gravel tracks. I even think you can do excursions on a 4x4 here. Or if you just come for the day like we have and take in these incredible roads, it'll definitely be worth adding to your itinerary when you travel to Portugal. Just by the time you've recovered from one, it's time to flip the bike over for the next. This is awesome. There's like three S-bends in a row and another one. Okay, we're just at an altitude of 1000m and we're still on the N339, if you want to look that one up. Right, we're down to an altitude of about 500m now, so that's probably the mountain pass pretty much over. Most people think of coming to Portugal for a motorcycle tour, they think mostly of the coast roads, but it's definitely worth heading inland to some of these mountain passes because they're absolutely fantastic. We really enjoyed that. We're just passing through some towns now and we're going to be making our way back down to the coast. I'm not sure how far we're going to get tonight. Shaun, how long have we got until we get to the coast? We've got about three hours until we reach where we plan to be tonight. What? What time is it? It's just about 7 o'clock in the evening. Yeah, I'm not going to make it. I'm not going to make it to the coast then. Yeah, that's a bit of an ask. Yeah, 10 o'clock arrive and we haven't had anything to eat yet. Fair enough. Do you think I should start looking for a campsite then, somewhere nearby in this forest? If you can find one, that'd be great. We've got a couple of hours of daylight left. You can get the tent set up and have dinner on. Have a look, see if you can find anything, let me know. Alright, I'll have a look. While Shaun is navigating these epic Portuguese woodland roads, I'm having a look on a few apps to see if I can find a camping spot and I've found one not so far from here. It's actually only a 30 minute ride and it's in the National Park so it should be another great place. So let's head there and get some food, get the tent up and then have the evening in the National Park. That sounds good, doesn't it? That sounds better than another four hour drive. Yeah, I'd agree with you there. Fair enough, sounds good. Sounds good. This is so beautiful. This is a lovely time of the day to be riding as well. We are here at the campsite, the tent's already set, Em's got dinner on the go and we're ready to get settled in for the night. It's an absolutely beautiful location right in the middle of the National Park here, we're surrounded by trees, there's a river down there, hope there's not too many mosquitoes but I should be okay for tonight. I think I've got some repellent in the bag as well so we should be okay, I've got some with us. I think the campsite was an absolute bargain. It was €3.60 per person and then I think another €4 or €5 for the tent. I think in total it only came to like €12 for us, Shadow and the tent to camp here for the night and as Sean said there is a lake, a beautiful lake and river just here. We've got our own table, basically living in luxury. Yeah, this is a great campsite showers, toilets, power in there so we've got stuff on charge for tomorrow. There's even a little bar around the corner there that's open until 10pm. And it's not that cold yet. No, we've got a beer some coke, crisps and it came for like €4 or something like that. It's a fantastic location. I'm making a pasta dish this evening, another one this time it's with some plant-based meat, tomato sauce and we're also going to try these from Aldi. Aldi special. Aldi special veggie burgers with quinoa, so we'll pop them on in a minute as well but I'm calm and relaxed. And that's just a reminder that's why we always carry enough food for a couple of days for emergency as we had planned to go and stay in a hotel on the beach tonight but as we ran out of time it's great we had everything we need with us. Yeah, it gives another level of flexibility another level of freedom and it just makes everything a little bit less stressful. It's like, okay, we didn't make it to the sea, we'll sleep in the mountains, not a problem. But the sun is going down, we're going to eat this, maybe play a couple games of cards do you fancy? Yeah, why not? And then head for straight to bed. And then tomorrow I think yeah, this is also nice, we have extra time not to rush this national park because the roads here were also amazing and the scenery is great. So yeah, we're going to have dinner now and we'll catch you again in the morning.