It's been a strange day!
After a while you start to do strange things, the thing is, strange things seem normal, perhaps they are?
Today I had a conversation with my beautiful lunch companion, Lucinda she was called. She didn't say much but I was taken by her green breast and bright red face.
More worryingly, when cooking my camp dinner tonight I was so enamoured by my dancing sausages that I felt compelled to make a short video on my camera. Please don't spend a minute of your life watching it, it's just a pointless diversion on my bizarre voyage.
By the way I'm sat in my tent on a camp site in the back of beyond whilst I upload a video from my camera to the Internet which I find more bizarre than anything!
Today has been wonderful. Challenging, varied and with a frisson of excitement and uncertainty. The day started with a good soaking in Avila. I was already late getting started due to the heavy rain and as I left the delightful hotel behind the petrol station I immediately had to take shelter under the canopy of the car wash.
The rain didn't look like letting up so I set off into Avila to have a look around. It was cold and I reflected on 'The law of Sod' having sent some of my kit home yesterday, I could have done with my full finger cycling gloves as it was wet, windy and cold.
I didn't see Avila in a good light or a good mood so I didn't really justify the detour from my journey from Segovia to Toledo. I took a few pictures but didn't get a feel for the place and was keen to press on knowing the poor weather forecast and that I had some big hills to get over.
Once the city limit was cleared I started climbing, the climbing continued, continued and continued.
I stopped towards the top of the climb to check my altimeter:
4700ft
Shortly after I crossed the pass at the high point and the weather turned nasty. All the time the weather had been worsening until at just about the highest point
of my trip so far there were very strong winds and driving rain. I was in shorts, fingerless gloves and the cheapest/lightest 'waterproof' jacket I have. The descent was long, very long and I prayed for it to end. My eyes were stinging with the wind blasted rain, I'd given up with sun glasses as they were unusable in the conditions. I thought about stopping and putting more gear on but I thought I'd chill down more hanging around so I just descended as fast as I dare which isn't very fast for me, eventually I levelled out and entered a village. My fingers, face, legs and toes were frozen, I stopped at the first bar. It became apparent how bad I was when I got off the bike and tried to walk the 5 metres to the bar. My legs wouldn't work and I was dizzy, my head throbbing with the cold.
I warmed up in the bar for half an hour over a coffee, put more clothes on and continued on my way.
Now at a much lower level having descended a couple of thousand feet the weather improved. I stopped for lunch at a reservoir (where I met Lucinda) and sat in the relative warmth reflecting on how an hour before I was in the early stages of hypothermia!
Embalse de Burguillo:
The rest of the day was much easier going and I rolled into the camp site from hell around 5pm.
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