The Map of Pedro Rocha

     From Guimaraes we made it to the coast in a few hours setting up camp in a private campground near Conde de Vila. Clube Nacional de Montanhismo had everything a traveling cyclist could desire from hot showers to Super Bock to free internet.

The cyclist's campground.

      Shortly after we arrived we were joined by another traveling cyclist, Rolf. Rolf started in Germany and have traveled through France and Spain and was now entering Portugal with a final destination of Morocco before returning to Germany. While we were holed up in Guimaraes Rolf had been caught out in the big storm and was still in the process of drying out.
    As all cyclists and maybe especially touring cyclists, we like to compare and talk about our equipment. Some of the items that we liked of Rolf's were the Ortlieb add-ons. Small add on bags that connect to the ends of your panniers. These small mini pannier's were the perfect size to stash your rain jacket or pants and even have a locking mechanism and gave you quick access.
    Rolf also took a dry box with a clear lid, applied attachments and created a handlebar box with a clear flip-up lid for maps. But we had something that Rolf really liked and really needed. The Map of Pedro Rocha.
    You might remember that we had met Pedro and his family while we were having lunch in Furodouro at the beginning of our trip. Pedro had not only been kind enough to sort out a problem with our lunch order but had brought in several maps for us to look at. One of which had excellent details of small roads and the larger cities of Portugal and Pedro gave it to us as a gift.

Pedro Rocha and Family

     Pedro's map had become the favorite piece of equipment for our trip and we were quite attached to it. It had guided us on our entire trip through Portugal and had taken us to the most magical places on our trips and past the most beautiful sites and places of Portugal.
     In fact our favorite photo and one of the most beautiful wild places in Portugal, Cabo Montego and it's hidden coast, would have been missed without The Map of Pedro Rocha.

 And now it was time to pass it on. And so our greatest possession in Portugal was given to a delighted Rolf who was charged with a mission. As Rolf traveled on his trip he was to pass "The Map of Pedro Rocha" on to the next cyclist coming through Portugal to guide them and to tell the map's new owner that they were to do the same when they were finished. Our only regret was that we didn't write an email address on the map so we could track the Map's journeys with future cyclists. Again, our thanks to Pedro and his family, for the kindness and generosity that changed our trip to Portugal. And best of luck to our Map and it's future travels!