What do you get...

... When you load up two bikes, two trailers ,  grab 2 adults, 3 kids and throw in 50km? An epic Cycle Camping Week ;)

Last week end it was my eldest's  birthday and we asked him what he wanted to do.

"CAMPING!!!" came the energetic reply after we had put up the old tent in the living room to see if it was still worthy....

So Ligia and I looked at each other... 

"Sounds like a plan!" we both said with a smile...

Our little 3 man tent... to serve us 5?!

This was the "bag space" we had, minus the trailer spaces.

As our plans got underway we  got all our gear and started sorting it, and trying to find the best way to load up 2 bikes, 2 trailers and  5 people...

We realised that we didn't quite have all the right gear... actually a lot of it was outdated (some items over 20 years old!)

The tent was a large 3 man that was 7 years old, the sleeping mats were over 20 years old, the sleeping bags were nearly 10 years old each... there were only a couple of items that were "new" less than 1 year old - but this is frugal living right!?

Food and kitchen stock for the trip...

Auxiliary camping gear from the Bug Out Bag kits... a slimming down was needed!

Front handlebar rack with essentials...

Anyway, it took us TWO DAYS just to organise our stuff! Then we had the task of loading it all up on the trailers, something we had never done! 

We had all been out  on the bikes,  but never loaded with gear...  we were getting nervous... and questions were swirling in our minds:
Would we be able to pull the weight? 
Would it break the trailers?  
Will we pass out from exhaustion? 

Etc etc...

Ultimately came the time to load up...

My Tandem Loaded up...

The Weehoo Trailer loaded with cargo...

Our girl Loaded on the Weehoo ready to go... :)

Stopping for a Break...

Setting up the smaller tent to put the trailers in...

We got to the camp ground and  started setting up our camp. 

We then realised we forgot the kid's toys!

But thankfully kids are more resilient than we give them credit: Pine cones, stones and a brush each and they were brush racing with pine cones! (for literally HOURS....)

Sticks and stones, pinecones and brushes... what more could you want?

Setting up the inside of the tent...

We found the famous "Eco-Via" which  spans the coast of the Algarve. Following it was  amazing! 

The Trip was useful as we learned a few lessons (Another blog post soon to come!). 

We learned about some limits we have, but we broke all our barriers at the same time!

The Dream is ever closer. Its going to happen.... and we are so happy we could burst!

Peace all!