OFF the grid and off the beaten track, Portugal’s Alentejo region ticks a lot of boxes when it comes to the road less travelled, with the added bonus of some serious green credentials. Recent record temperatures across the globe are a stark reminder that every aspect of our lives has a direct bearing on climate change, which in turn is already having a very real effect on our lives. So when I got a chance to visit Alentejo as part of an initiative to showcase the region as a travel destination and to marry that with the other great love in my life — motorcycles — I jumped at the chance. The Rout-E project, an initiative of Visit Portugal, is all about sustainable tourism. The idea is that you fly into Lisbon, Porto or Faro, rent an electric car or motorcycle, and choose from one of five routes — Porto and the north, the centre of Portugal, Lisbon, Alentejo or the Algarve — along which are dotted places of interest to visit and stay. All of the suggested hotels and many of the stop-off points have charging points, leaving range-anxiety firmly at the back of your mind, but more about range later. Anyone familiar with Portugal will already know that the country represents just about the best value in this region of Europe for eating out, accommodation and transport. Having caught a late flight into Lisbon, we take a two-hour transfer to the Tróia peninsula, on the Sado River estuary, and spend a comfortable night in the Aqualuz Troia Lagoa hotel. Under normal circumstances, you pick up your bike (or car) at a Hertz depot at the airport, but seeing as I’m a guest, the nice people at Visit Portugal have arranged for our bikes to be waiting for us outside the hotel the morning after our arrival. My steed for the next few days is a Zero DSR fully-electric motorcycle. To the uninitiated, it’s an electric equivalent of a mid-sized motorcycle, with a top speed just shy of 200kph and a maximum torque figure of 190Nm. In other words, it goes like a hot snot but handles a hell of a lot better. The manufacturer claims a range of somewhere in the region of 350km from a fully charged battery. And they’re not wrong — if I left the bike in ‘eco’ mode, rode very gently with a slight tailwind, and had no ascents along the way, I could conceivably achieve this distance between charges. Except that nobody really rides or drives in eco mode, you generally don’t have a tailwind for your entire journey, and most roads I travel tend to have both ups and downs. In fairness to the people at Zero, they do precisely what every other electric vehicle manufacturer does when it comes to range estimates — they quote the maximum achievable figure. But in real-world riding, you’re really looking at half that range. This is no bad thing when you’re on a holiday that’s all about sustainable travel — it makes you slow down and absorb your surroundings, rather than riding or driving through them simply to get to your destination. We ride south along the peninsula and stop and Praia da Comporta, a long beach that sits on the south of the Sado Estuary Nature Reserve. After considering a quick dip, we opt instead for a coffee before heading west through roads that traverse the famous fields of Comporta. We stop to take a look at the curious village of Carrasqueira, situated on the mouth of the Sado River and essentially sitting on stilts and housing the traditional huts of the local fishermen. Pousadas are state-run historic hotels — often former convents or abbeys — that were taken over and refurbished by the Pestana hotel group in a public-private partnership. The result? Architecturally striking hotels at bargain prices throughout Portugal. We stop for a lunch of pork cheeks at Pousada Castelo Alcácer do Sal, a stunning Baroque building where you can get a double room for a very respectable €120 for two sharing, with breakfast. Back on the road and we stop for a walk around Santa Susana village, a typical Alentejo village, where we go in search of snails to eat at the O Coelho bar. One of our companions has told us the village is famous for the delicacy. Alas, they don’t have them on the menu today, but at least we now know it’s not just the French who like to nibble on these little morsels.