Spain: DONE!!!

 

We did it!!!! Well, the end was a little anti-climatic as the boys got to the top of the rock at least a half hour before me and I insisted they wait for me to hike up there before they were allowed to post a team photo!!

Getting into Gibraltar was an absolute nightmare. I arrived and the queue to get the car in was frantic. I had heard, and seen myself a few years ago when I came to Gibraltar, that driving around and parking in Gibraltar is a bit hellish. When I saw the queue I thought the best option was to park up on the Spanish side, walk through the border, and find a car park near the hotel. 

All in al it took me about 3.5 hours to move the car about half a mile over the border and nearer to our hotel. This meant that the boys had already made it to the top of the rock and had to wait for me. It's the first time ever in the 15 days that I hadn't arrived at the meeting point first so I was quite upset about this. I was also sad because I had hoped to have been in Gibraltar early enough to get sorted, find the hotel, park, and meet a friend for lunch. But there just wasn't time 😞

Anyway, it took me about 45 minutes to climb up the hill to the top. I recorded it on strava:

 

It was incredibly steep. James said it was "full gas" from bottom to top, and steeper for longer than anything they'd gone up in the two weeks. 

Here's a few photos of my hike up

 

 

 

 

The view from the top was awesome, you could see Spain and Africa. Very weird seeing as we were in Britain!

 

 

I'm so proud of the boys, they have achieved something really special. Undoubtably, the cycling was tough. The average door to door time between destinations was about 10 hours, with about 6-8 of that actually on the bike. They've put themselves through an unbelievable physically demanding task. As the trip was self planned, it didn't just stop at the physical challenge. They were always having to route plan, and look at accommodations sn food options, and everything just too so LONG! Of course I was there to carry their things and book hotels, which helped a little. 

You've helped us to raise just under £3,000 for the Multiple Sclerosis Society, which is absolutely phenomenal. Thank you so much, the charity are so grateful and this will go a long way. 

For completeness, here's the final video. Sadly I was too busy and too stressed out to take lots of clips!! And in the heat of it I didn't even get any at the finish line!! 

Day 14 summary video

Malaga to Ronda

Day 13 summary video

Day 15: Ronda to Gibraltar

Good morning everyone!! It's the last day today!! Goodness me I can't quite believe it! It's gone both fast and slow all at the same time. I don't think we've ever felt as tired for a sustained period of time. Last night I was nodding off at dinner and couldn't understand simple things at all! Ronda is beautiful, the boys enjoyed the sights too, and their two lunches. 

Here's some photos of them enjoying Ronda

 

 

And a rare moment captured by Steve:

 

I doubt James will allow that on to Facebook, but he probably won't look here. 

 

And the famous bridge. 

Wow so today the boys are cycling the last bit - the Gibraltar. 

I've been to Gibraltar before, and I remember then that the border crossing can take forever. Also parking and driving in general is pretty tough. I am going to head straight for Gib and meet the boys there. Rather than finish at Euorpa Point, the most southerly bit, they want to finish at the top of the rock...! I can't take the car up there, and once I've been lucky enough to park I ain't budging the car anyway. So I will need to walk up, which will likely take and hour from the hotel according to google. 

I have a friend in Gib, so hopefully I can catch up with him for an hour is so before the boys arrive, if I get time. 

Here's the route for the day:

 

And here's the route if you're following online. 

Ronda

Well this is nice!

Im in Ronda waiting for the boys. If you're planning a trip to southern Spain this town is definitely worth a day trip. I've only been wandering (wander in Ronda...) for about ten minutes and have seen lots of pretty things. 

The boys are only 8 miles away 😍😍 yippee!!

Here's some snaps:

The first two are from a park near the bull fighting ring. Ronda is the birth town of bull fighting. There's an old stadium type thing we can visit, if the boys would like. Though it's Sunday so probably closed. 

 

 

This is the view off the edge of a 100m chasm. There's a nice 18th century bridge further down that I want to find that spans it. It's the famous one that comes up on google when you search for Ronda 

 

Picture doesn't really show the drop, but it's 100m apparently! I took some on the SLR so hopefully that will look good 

 

And the other side

 

That's all for now, I'm going to grab some stuff from the car to save the boys having to carry everything. 

We should be able to have an actual evening off and enjoy Ronda properly!

Last day tomorrow eeeeek!!! 🚴🚴🚴🚕

Day 14: Malaga to Ronda

So yesterday, after having lunch with the boys at around 3pm, I carried on to our campsite on the western side of Malaga. This added miles into their journey yesterday, but will give them a shorter ride today. 

Ronda is meant to be dead nice, so it made sense to push on through yesterday, have an "easier" day today and get to Ronda earlier to have an actual evening of actually getting out and seeing some stuff. 

Again, last night the boys had finished cycling by 8pm. Once all our jobs were done (tents, laundry, showers, route admin) it was 5 to 10, and the on site restaurant stops serving at 10. We felt bad but essentially pleased with him until he agreed to not actually shut up, but to stay open and cook us some dinner. Oops. We ordered 4 of anything, and ate what we were given. 

Alarms went off at 6am today, and I could hear some russling around my tent. It was a cat family with 4 kittens!! We've become used to being woken by either bird scaring cannons, or dogs barking, so that way quite nice. 

The boys have decided to change the route that James had planned. Instead of 60 miles of relatively flat, they have chosen a slightly shorter, more direct route, of 50 miles with a ginormous hill in it, giving 1000 miles of extra climbing. James had spent quite of lot of time and effort months in advance looking at routes and making sure the roads are able to be riden on, so last minute changes are always a little risky as you don't know if it's just a gravel track. In theory, with the new route they should save apparently about 40 minutes of riding. Although it seemed to take about 40 minutes of faff to change the route on both bike sat navs so I don't really see what they've gained there, other than having to ride up a big hill...?! They also have chosen to not have a lunch stop and just do the 50 miles all at once. 

After having quite a lot of spare time to myself yesterday (hoorah!) I now have a good four hours or so to find a hotel in Ronda, drive over there and find it, go to the shops on my way for petrol and water, and then do some site seeing. Lucky me!!! Ronda is meant to be dead pretty so I'm looking forward to it. I'm just waiting for the sun to come up a little more then I can put the laundry away and get going. 

So this isn't actually our route today at all, but here's a photo anyway. It's now more or less a straight line

 

Day 13: Venezuela de Benaudalla to Malaga

It's Saturday!!! And with Pico done, the finish line is now in sight. Just three days left of cycling!! 

It's 70 miles to Malaga, and tomorrow about 65 to Ronda. However we don't really want to go in to Malaga proper this evening, so I've picked a campsite on the western side which will add between 5 and 10 miles to today's journey. Hopefully it should subtract a few tomorrow. 

Here's the route:

 

And here's the route online 

The hotel we stayed at last night was so weird. It was like an old castle thing, but all the decor and even some of the infrastructure was pretty much fake and very gimmick like. Some of the beams and things were hollow and the boys had this weird fake brick head board thing...?!?! I'll be writing a fairly strong review on trip advisor, given that the hotel manager who showed me the rooms (bare in mind I am a lone female at this point!!) insisted on coming in to my room and showing me a magic trick which involved some how magically putting a handkerchief inside my bra then asking if he could go in and get it when I said I couldn't find it in there.... It was light hearted and he was just having a laugh, but I don't really think that was an appropriate way to greet a guest!!

Breakfast was included, which was a bit of a baguette with some olive oil and salt... 

Anyway, back to today. I've arrived at the lunch stop,- small resort town called Torre Del Mar to the east of Malaga. It's nice! Less chavvy than Peniscola, and a bit more going on than the deserted restore towns further north and east that we went through last week. 

This is the view right in front of me:

 

Actually, saying that, it's 11.30 and it's really quiet. I imagine Sidmouth on a Saturday morning in June and it would be rammed? I'm sure in an hour or two the obligatory loud euro-pop will be pumped out full blast across the beach. 

The boys are about 15 miles into their morning ride and have already had two punctures between the three of them. They're taking a fairly coastal route, and it takes them up and down plenty of short, sharp peaks. So it's by no means an easy day. I assume they're on some tough terrain too, given the mechanical issues. 

Alarms didn't go off until 8am today, so we had a good 9 hours of sleep. Honestly we all looked so tired at dinner last night. With things being so busy, the last couple of nights we have just had dinner at the hotel and haven't had at opportunity for exploring the local areas, so it's felt far from being on holiday! No one is that fussed about seeing Malaga this evening though. I went on holiday once to Torrremolenos about ten years ago with a uni friend (Shout out to Charlie!!) and as lovely as it was in my early twenties, I have no desire to visit it this evening. So the campsite is out of town. 

Tomorrow we're headed for Ronda. It's been the most popular destination ahead of this trip that people have said "you must go to..." With everyone saying how beautiful it is. We will try and stay somewhere central tomorrow night and get out exploring hopefully in the evening. Even if the boys have to ride in the heat this afternoon, the lie in was absolutely essential to give them some rest.

So today the boys are rested and are in good form, and are putting in a stellar effort. Not long to go now! And we've raised almost £3000! It would be great to hit 3 grand wouldn't it... Please share and spread the word!!

A little bit closer to home, and my mum is hosting her annual "Cake Break" for MS. It's in her local village hall, and every year she organises it and people bring cakes and put a bit of money in the pot towards the MS society. I've asked her to put up photos of us and a copy of some of the blog extracts in the hope that more people will get their money out! 

That's all for now xx