The Sausage butty run

An early start this morning wasn't early enough to succesfully fit Nick's newly arrived pannier rack to his bike so the day before the tour commences we still have untried hardware.

Today was the Sunday edition of the thrice weekly ex pat ride from the Zurgena and Arboleas areas to the small town of Cantoria further up the Almanzora valley.

Although only a 20 mile return trip by the shortest route it was a good and final opportunity to trial our newly repaired and serviced bikes.

The trial soon proved necessary as my brakes were rubbing and my gears seemed to have been upgraded to automatic as highlighted by frequent unrequested gear changes. A few minor tweeks seemed to rectify these issues.

Nick however would have gladly exchanged his mechanical shortcomings with mine as his gears proved to have the functionality of a bag of shite!

Several stops later and after much theorising as to the cause of the problem, our arrival at the usual hostelry in Cantoria was somewhat delayed.  We thought the most likely issue was the indexing of the rear derailleur, a theory agreed by John, the local velo guru at the bar in Cantoria.

The noisy banter of the ex pat peloton at the bar was interrupted only for the important business of the day, the ordering of cafe con leches all round and of course the local Andalusian delicacy of bocadillo salchichas (sausage butties).

Nick's gears seemed better on the way back to Zurgena but with the benefit of hindsight (we are now on day 2 of the tour) our confidence in Nick's mechanics were misplaced.

Tomorrow is day 1 of the Sierra tour and this evenings weather is a little ominous although the forecast seems good.

                                             Just after an evening thunder storm:

Final preparations

On the Last Minute!

Almost ready for our little adventure now. My brother Nick has been helpfully sorting out my bike with some much needed TLC, I'd sent parts over from Ireland and Germany and after some frantic tracking and a few phone calls my bike now has a host of new parts fitted and after a detailed checkover I've declared it fit for purpose and ready for the Sierra tour.

Were it not for the fact that Nick hasn't yet received the pannier rack he ordered from China a month ago we would be good to go. Oh, and the fact that his bike is broken!

Assuming we get Nick sorted out we'll set off on the 1st leg on Monday 27th.  

Today we visited the local market in Zurgena, a colourful but uninspiring cocktail of fruit and veg, cheap sunglasses and cheap clothes although I didn't find a replacement for my airport trampled shirt.

The local Goatherd doing his early evening rounds outside my brothers place.

A picture from Aguillas, the whole staircase was an intricate tiling mosaic.

A lazy day on the coast

Chilling in Calabardina and Aguillas:

5 days until the tour starts so taking it easy.  We're enjoying a 2 night stay at the peaceful Hotel Mayari in Calabardina. We are the only guests and we were treated to a personal tour of the hotel's very own museum of north African antiquities.

Our day started with a light breakfast of muesli, yogurt, banana, strawberries, orange juice, toast, rye bread, croissants, jam, tomatoes, cucumber, salami, ham, cheese washed down with 2 cups of excellent cafe con leche, no lunch required!

We took a stroll/spin along the deserted promenade in Calabardina.

I left Claire to rest on the promenade for half an hour whilst I joined in with the beach aerobics 'Little Britain' style! 😄

We drove to the area's main resort, Aguillas.  

  
                                                       Aguillas port:

This is the chairman of the local BOSG (Body Odour Support Group) enjoying a day on the beach at Aguillas

Hornillo Pier

The old pier which is a remnant of the railway built by British engineers in the late 19th century to load the locally mined iron ore on to ships.

Tomorrow we head to Zurgena where I will be reunited with my trusty steed so that I can check her servicability for the upcoming tour. Roll on Monday.

Sierra Nevada tour - Shaky start

What could possibly go wrong!

After months of meticulous planning and just 2 days before departure for Spain for my bike tour our beloved devil cat decides to go walkabout and disappear off the face of the earth. Not happy that we'd arranged an all-inclusive boutique feline hotel stay for her she opts instead to cause maximum stress by playing hide and seek for a day and a half.  Only after allowing us to suffer repeated humiliation with the neighbours by standing outside making ridiculous noises to tempt her back in did she condescend to return. Needless to say she was then held under house arrest until she could be unceremoniously thrown into the cat basket and despatched to the cattery.

We arrived at the airport with much time to spare and me questioning why we were so early.  Claire said 'You never know what could go wrong?'
My father-in-law had kindly dropped us off and as I gathered the dismantled wheelchair and cases together amoungst the crowd at the drop-off point I put the shirt I'd been carrying on the roof of the car along with my phone. Immediately I thought, that's not a great idea so I put the phone in my pocket but left the shirt on the the roof saying to Claire 'don't let me forget that'!
I set about putting my wheelchair together. 'Did you pick your shirt up'? Claire said.
Oh shit!  The car was gone, along with my shirt.
Now with the amount of money I spend on clothes the loss of the shirt was of little consequence, the loss of the wallet in the shirt pocket with a couple of hundred euros and a credit card was a little more worrying.  It was my 'backup' wallet, as a seasoned traveller I generally split my worldly goods between 2 wallets.  As a seasoned idiot I left 1 on the roof of the car!

'Quick, phone your dad' I said in the panicked tone that a miser adopts when parted from his cash.  I thought for a second, there was little chance the shirt had stayed on the roof of the car for long so I despatched Claire up the road to look for it whilst I stood by helplessly in quiet mourning.

My resignation increased for 15 minutes and when my mobile rang I suspected the inevitable. 'I've got it'!  Unbelievably Claire had spotted a sorry looking rag off in the distance and against all expectations it was my shirt.  She took her life in to her hands and ventured out on to the busy airport road where numerous cars had mangled my shirt completely oblivious to the contents of the pocket.  A happy reunion soon followed and the wallet was found intact, the only damage being a set of shattered buttons and a well and truly non functional pair of headphones which I'd forgotten were in the other pocket. Claire, you're a star, happy days.

So, we made it to Spain without further mishap other than the misfortune of travelling with Ryanair "we're sorry but we don't have any tea, coffee or hot food on the flight this evening"!

Finally, I opened the shutter in our hotel room this morning and was promptly reminded of my 2012 road trip and my photographic essay on 'Classic views from Spanish hotel rooms'  Enjoy!

On the road again

On the road again, in Southern Spain:

In a week or so and after too long a gap the wheels and the walking stick will be back on the road and back in Andalusia.  The plan is to cycle from Almeria province and do a full circumnavigation of the Sierra Nevada massif, a route of some 600km and around 35,000 ft of ascent.

This time I won't have the luxury of riding at my own lazy pace as I will be accompanied by my brother Nick, a resident of southern Spain and someone who unfortunately and very much unlike me has the build and weight of a proper cyclist.  

I don't expect an easy trip!