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

Day 12 summary video

Pico: DONE!!

Oh my goodness what a day!! 

It's currently 8pm, and the boys are still at least an hour away from the hotel. The started riding at 7am, and will have riden just over 110 miles when they eventually arrive :( those poor boys. The cumulative fatigue is really starting to wear thin - they are all absolutely shattered. 

There haven't been enough hours in the day for our boys to even get enough sleep, never mind having any down time to switch off from the task at hand. Literally every waking moment for them is cycling. As Jake said, it's the only part of his body that is being used. James and I went out for dinner at 10.30pm last night, and the other poor buggers made do with some bread and pate. 

It was definitely adrenaline today that got the boys through and kept them alert. Tomorrow's ride is a measley 65 miles. It takes us to Malaga. Regardless of tomorrow's challenge, we all need a good night's sleep and some rest. Luckily our hotel has a restaurant, so we will no doubt just be grabbing a bit here and hitting the hay. Shame as this town is quite pretty, but we just need sleep!! I doubt anyone will be suggesting a 6am start tomorrow...!!! 

Anyway... On a more up beat note - wow! Pico! That was actually amazing! I'm sure those of you who are reading this will have probably been following the live time updates this afternoon as I kept track of their progress lol!! James also did a go pro recording of the down hill bit, so hopefully that will be uploaded to my YouTube profile this evening, I'll let you know. 

So they boys set off at 7am, and arrived near the base of the mountain at around 9.30 ish, I don't remember. We had a quick coffee, and then the boys set off on staggered starts. 

Jake was without navigation, and because there were a few options and turnings, I attempted to meet him at every junction to point in the direction. This meant every so often I could go on ahead and meet all the boys in case they wanted a drink or an energy burst of something from the car. It seemed to work fairly well, as id noted all the junctions along with their distance from the base yesterday. But I missed one... Poor Jake. Luckily he hadn't gone too far round the corner when I clicked him and shouted "turn round!! Sorry!!!" Poor bugger. 

 

Then a few minutes later, there was another cross road, about a mile from the final barrier. I completely had no idea which way it was. I had no choice but to pick a direction and go as far and as fast as I could to make sure for definite which was the right or wrong way. It was the right way, so I turned round and drove back to meet Jake. My fears had been realised, and he had met the junction before I managed to get back to him in time. Fortunately, he had gone the right way. He later explained that he saw me steam off into the distance and just thought I had finished navigating him and that was it - follow me up here, I'm off to the finish to chill out with the others and I'll see you later. 

Meanwhile, Steve had stormed up the mountain at an impressive pace. He did really well and made really good progress. After about 2000m altitude he said the air was notably thinner and it was getting more difficult. 

 

James had a good ride too, and was more interested in just chilling out and having a good time, saving energy for the Unknown tough bit, past the barrier. 

 

All our boys made it to the top with less than 2.5 hrs from first rider setting off to last one arriving. That's 18 miles of relentless climbing at around 7%. Wowsers!!

 

About another half a mile or mile up, past the barrier, there is a little wigwam monument with a statue of Our Lady on it. This marks the end of the bike track, and is the official marker of the point that is "Europes highest road". The boys rode this bit together, and I walked up to meet them. 

 

 

 

 

The view was absolutely breathtaking, and a little overwhelming to be honest!! I've never seen anything like it. It was a little hazy and a little cloudy which was a shame. 

 

The rest of the ascent, to the actual peak, involved a further 6.5 miles of cycling and almost another 1000m of altitude. You could already feel how thin the air was. There was no path, only gravel and the Unknown. As I said yesterday, most riders just go back the same way, finishing the challenge where they started. Our boys had intended to go over and down the other side. It was weird to see something in the distance sticking out even higher, almost completely covered in snow, and cloud. After seeing it up close, there was just no chance in hell that it was even worth considering and discussing - reaching the peak and going down the other side was an impossible task. We achieved what we set out to, and reached the end of the highest paved climb. 

 

This picture above isn't even Pico proper - it's a foot hill in front of it!!

Instead, the boys decided to go back down the same way, and cycle round the mountain. This has added an extra 30 miles on to their day. 

I'm so proud of the boys of what they have achieved today. Just three more days of cycling left now!!

click here to donate!

Day 12: Pico de Veleta

You may be forgiven if you think today is all about Pico. But they boys have got 93 miles to cycle today. And knowing my track record I bet the hotel is 5 miles further and up a hill too...

Today they boys will start at Guadix and cycle to Velez de Benaudalla, with the matter of getting over Pico in the middle. It's 30 miles of climbing, just to get to its base. 

We all feel a lot better, having done the test drive yesterday, and being reassured that it is a good maintained road for the first 18miles. After that it's a little unknown. 

According to the route plan, the boys will ascend the mountain from the Granada side, then head back down its southern side to continue their journey. There aren't really any documented accounts of the south side. We think this is because most people who tackle Veleta start and end in Granada, so going back down the same way. Presumably after a good rest and preparation. 

I have reached a small hamlet of Pinos Genil, which is at the base of Pico proper. The boys should be here in about twenty mins I think. 

Here's the planned route of Plan A. 

 

Plan B is to get to the top and go back the way they came. This add about twenty miles on the their day so it's not ideal. 

I will post again here, and on Facebook, as soon as each rider reaches the barrier at 18 miles, and when they leave, and when I hear from them again as to whether we do plan a or plan b

Wish them luck!! 

Here's some photos from our stake out

 

 

It seems the biggest hazard ongoing up Pico is all the animals!! And not just wild goats, cows, Bulls and sheep, but also pet dogs! We saw two jump out on us on the way up there!! Crazy

Day 11 summary video

Including Pico stake out in the afternoon

Tomorrow: Pico day!!

Ok people. This. Is. It. 

Plan A, to cycle to the top of Pico de Veleta is ON!!!!

It was a very sensible decision, to eat in to James' rest time this evening and to drive up there with me in the passenger seat. Until that decision there were just too many unknowns and we were speculating, trying to plan for every possibility. What is the road surface like? Is the route we've mapped the correct one? Is the road even passable?! How far into the ride is the barrier and what height is it all? What if the car can't make it? What if there is no phone signal? Will we feel the effects of high altitude just stood there?! 

So going up in the car first was the obvious choice. The main question we needed answering: Are we mad? Can we actually DO this?!

So James and I set off this evening, and drove the 30km to the barrier where the road stops. It was 9pm when we got there, there just wasn't enough time to hang around, though james did some press ups to check.  

The drive was fine. The road is wide enough for regular two way road, and it was well maintained.

We got out at the 30km mark, which is 8000 ft up, and stayed there for about ten minutes - it felt fine. No different in fact. And the road surface that some had described as "like riding through a quarry" looked like just a bit of gravel from what we could see. 

James and are confident that this is a safe challenge to take on. I trust James literally more than I trust myself, and if he says it's ok, then it's ok. 

The only problem the boys may have is that it's quite cold up there. We need a photo of the three of them at the summit. To avoid someone waiting up there too long, we decided to time lag the start instead, so they should all arrive at a similar time. 

This is very exciting!!

My phone signal was fine the whole time and I had 4G!!

Day 10 summary video

Forgot to post this earlier!!

 Sorry for the whine-iest voice you've ever heard at the end... 

Day 11: Castillejar to Guadix

So the cave house was literally the best thing ever!! It was actually cold in the rooms lol. Amazing!!

 

 

The village itself was very pretty. But we were tired and I was a little unwell (I have a cold, lol) so we stayed in and had a BBQ and ate at a regular British evening meal time.

 

 

 

 

We were all in bed by 10.30 to get started at 6am today. 

I'm currently in Baul, a tiny hamlet in the middle of actual nowhere, up a big hill. I'm currently about 4000 ft above sea level, poor boys... I met them for petrol station ice cream about an hour ago, and so they should be here any minute. 

The drives are getting pretty again, as we get nearer to the hills. We will arrive at Guardix later on today, and once showered and changed James and I will do a test drive up Pico, ready for tomorrow. 

What we think might be Pico started to come in to view yesterday, and even at this distance it looks impressive. James and I will drive up to the barrier, which is about 30km of the total 43km. This is the limit that I can reach tomorrow as the road runs out. I also shouldn't really above 8000ft because of my lungs, so I need to figure out where that vertical barrier is in relation to the route. 

James and I will make the judgement call, to decide which route all four of us take tomorrow. One option is cycle to the top and over, that's plan A. Plan B is cycle to the barrier, back down the same side then push on. But that's a lot of extra miles. Plan C avoids Pico all together. 

I'll report back later on...

Here's today's route though:

And

click here to check it out online. 

The drive was pretty, check this out

 

 

It's also a lot colder, now that we're higher, and now that the heat wave has ended. The car reads 17!! I'm actually really cold!!!!

Day 10: Mortalla to Castillejar

Ok. So the last blog about Pico might have scared a few readers. That's because it is genuinely scary!! At this moment I think I'm more scared about driving it than the boys are cycling! At the moment it is just an unknown thing. We will know more tomorrow afternoon when James and I drive up it as a practice and scout out. Until then, it is sensible to assume it will be the hardest thing any of them have ever done. 

Back to more lighthearted musings from the support car...

So today we reached double figures in our trip!! Looking at the map of Spain it's incredible to think how far we've come already! 

 

The past two nights we have stayed in hotels, due to the actual Spanish heat wave. Today is the last day of way above normal temperatures and it should start to feel just regular Spain hot again today or tomorrow. In fact even now, fine it's only 12, but I've got a cardigan on!! Im a bit odd though and always cold but there we go. 

Here's today's route:

 

Hmmm. Sideways. Sorry...

And for those who like to follow along, 

click here to check it out online. 

As you can see the boys are up hill al the way to lunch. Ra about 80 miles today, I am meeting them at 50 in a town called Puebla de Don Federique or something like that!! 

As today is a little cooler we had decided we would go back to camping tonight, to keep costs down. However, when I was doing a bit of looking around, it seems Castillejar is meant to be dead beautiful, and most of the traditional houses there are cave dwellings. The cave houses have a steadily temperature of around 18-22, keeping you warm in the winter and cool in the summer. I found a company that rent them out as "holiday-caves" so we have a two bedroom cave for the night!! I peuruaded the boys that's a cave house is a good idea... So if it's awful it's on me!! Hahaha. I'm literally so excited to be spending the night in a cave house! It has a little kitchen, a terrace (we've bought a disposable BBQ for tea tonight) and a washing machine so that's good. 

It's starting to grate that restaurants don't open until 9pm. We need early nights if we're getting up so early. Camp site and the cave will be fine, we can cook for ourselves. But the night before Pico we will be staying in a hotel and can't be going out for dinner at 9pm! We want to be asleep then!!

The boys are due here in about 25 minutes. I think the ride is quite relentless here. Just barren landscape, up hill, no variation. I stopped for them at 30 miles in to give their water a top up. This afternoon I will go in search of some electrolytes for them as I failed this morning. 

Thanks for reading!!

Day 9 summary video

There's the summary video for yesterday. I told you about the faff with the hotels didn't I? Yes I did. Not really much else to write about!!!

All eyes on Friday...

So I didn't write a post last night, and the summary vid is a little thin on the ground. This town is pretty run down and my phone battery was low, so there wasn't much point...

This blog post focuses on the biggest challenge during our trip. This Friday, 17 June 2016, the boys take on Pico de Veleta: Europe's highest paved climb. It is 43km of riding from base to summit, with an elevation of almost 12,000ft above sea level at the top. Attention has very much turned to that challenge, and the days of riding before that have been phased into almost insignificance, their importance now only considered as to how it will impact Friday and give them the best start on Day 12: Pico Day. 

Pico isn't really a "thing". It's not just a big hill to cycle up, it's so much more than that and isn't really a well travelled route. We managed to find only a handful of rider accounts of the journey up there, and what we are likely to expect. From what we can gather, the  the last 10km is impassable by car, and is marked by a barrier of some sorts and perhaps an unused military site. There may even be a research station. The last 10km, by accounts, is apparently only achievable on a mountain bike and not a road bike. A little way on from that, and it will become so steep, and so gravelly, they will have to get off and push their bikes. The last 10m of ascent they won't even be able to do that, they will have to carry their bikes. 

The summit is 12,000 ft above sea level. Not only will the car not make it because of the lack of road, the barrier being a clear end point for the car's journey, but personally I am not able to get to that height. Due to my medical history of suffering with pulmonary embolism a number of years ago, my lungs suffered infarction and as a result it is not recommended that I go to that height without proper high altitude training and a medical examination. 

8,000 ft is considered the start point at which you can define something as high altitude. The air will start to become thin and our boys will become short of breath, just standing. Some rider accounts talk about high altitude hallucinations. Obviously our boys have not done any altitude training. 

This is not just a Big Hill. It is a 43km climb of tremendous steepness, the AVERAGE gradient being 6.5%. This will be the hardest thing, physically, that each of them will have faced in their lives. They will reach the base of the mountain after having riden 40 miles already. 

So what's our strategy?

The plan is to set off very early on Friday morning and arrive at the bottom by around 8am. I will wait with the car at the base, and set the boys off on delayed starts, so that hopefully they will arrive at the top at similar times to each other. Jake will start first, then Steve after about 30 minutes, then James another 30 minutes after that. Once all three have set off, I will drive to catch up with the front rider, which will likely be about 15 or so km up. I will then wait there, giving water to the other two as they pass, and so on, until I reach the barrier and can go no further. I will wait until I see all three riders pass the barrier, then I will drive back down and drive around to the other side. And wait. 

While it is great if I can give updates to the boys as to how the others are doing, and time checks, we are fully expecting the phone signal to run out at some point. Also, it may take me a long time even driving up, I may not catch the front rider at all, given their head start. So they may be completely unsupported, and without any means of communication. 

The ascent will take around 5 hours, we think. It is unclear as to what the state of the descent on the other side is like, as there aren't really any accounts. If it's gravel surface with 10% incline, they ain't cycling that. There will be times when they will have to get off the bike and walk. It may even start to get dark before they've finished cycling for the day. I will wait at a designated meet point at the bottom of Pico around the other side. 

In order to prepare for it as best we can, the day before we plan on cycling early too. In the afternoon James and I will do a scout drive, in the car together as high as we can, hopefully to the barrier, to make an assessment and a judgement call. We will also drop bottles of water and food at check points where we can. We are expecting little in the way of traffic or other cyclists. Like I say, this isn't really a "thing" that's on a road biker's bucket list, it is a ridiculous challenge of ginormous proportions. And let's not over exaggerate here - the boys have also drafted alternative routes in case it is not possible. 

We are currently in the middle of a genuine Spanish heat wave, with an air temperature of 37C. To give some perspective of how high they are going, one of my weather forecaster colleagues said that the temperature at the top is around 1C. It will also be incredible windy up there. There may even be snow still. Looking at webcams a couple of weeks ago there was still snow. There is a ski resort is about 3/4 of the way up. 

The next two days of riding are simply just obstacles, scheduled in as best as possible to prepare for Friday.

If you haven't donated yet, hopefully reading this will encourage you to do so. The boys are riding to raise awareness of an awful, incurable disease, multiple sclerosis which my mum has had for around 25 years. Please donate if you are able to spare anything. Thank you. https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/cyclismoespana 

Summary so far: Jake's perspective

Jake’s roundup so far

Day1 San Seb to Pamps

The first day of riding started out much like the first moments of something like this do, rammed in the back of an over-packed car with no room to move at all sat next to the bloke that broke my satnav. Looking at northern Spain it’s not the rolling countryside I imagined but more like something from Apocalypse Now. A solid saddle was a bad choice as was a campsite on top of a hill to finish the day.

Day2 Pamps to Jaca

Heading towards the Pyrenees is a daunting task as snow covered mountains come into view. 

Day3 The Pyrenees,  Jaca to Ainsa

Absolutely ridiculous. Who thought this was a good idea?! With a perfectly good flat valley to the south we turn north, out of our way, into a massive mountain range. Needless to say the competition for which bit hurts most is a close run thing between legs, back, knees, feet, hands, lungs and the ever present perineum pain.

Day4 Ainsa to Fraga

So by this point I’m in a significant amount of pain just about everywhere. The ideal way for me to spend this pain was by watching James and Steve cruising away from me over “Devon flat” ground, known to everyone else as hills. Loads and loads of hills over and over again. 80 miles of it was about enough.

Day5 Fraga to Peniscola

With a long day planned the mood was a little somber in the morning but after 111 miles things could have been much worse. We’ve ridden coast to coast and had no major issues beyond massive fatigue, niggling injuries and a few bits of broken bike. 

Day6 Peniscola to Valencia

It turns out Spain is pretty weird. Today’s 93 miles turned into 107 miles because after the economic crash they just stopped building roads so they lead to nowhere. It’s a really odd feeling to cycle through towns with no one at all in

Day7 Valencia

After a bit of a lie in and some bike faff I had a nice time in Valencia. I could have flown here in 2 hours for 40 quid though.

Day8 Valencia to Bocairent

Hot. Ludicrously hot. With temperatures in the shade in the high 30s and the ambient temperature hitting the mid 40s quite comfortably the heat was the main problem today. I still had air in the lungs and energy in the legs but whenever I pushed the pedals hard my head would throb and pins and needles spread across my body. It was slow painful progress to a much needed hotel.

Day9 Bocairent to Moratalla

Fear of the heat dictated that we set off earlier so with 6am alarms we cruised out and 7am and put the miles down. The afternoon flew by thanks in no small part to the Steve engine, always good to have a ginger desperate to avoid the midday heat leading the peloton. A bit of end of the day faff meant that we ended up staying in Calasparra instead.

Day 9: Calasparra

The boys had finished cycling by 2.30 today, yippee!! Managing to avoid the hottest of the heat. 

I arrived at the hotel, which was 4 miles out of town and therefore 4 miles further than the boys had thought they were cycling. Not ideal. Booking.com and trip advisor have it listed in the wrong place... Nice one. When I got there though, from the little English the reception lady spoke, with my little Spanish, it dawned on me that we weren't going to be staying there that night. I didn't quite understand what the problem was, either they were fully booked or had only booked us one room. 

Most places struggle to understand why one girl has booked two rooms, for four people... My Spanish is bad, but I can muddle my way round saying everything I need correctly, but they always assume I have it wrong and must be mistaken. I drew her a picture to confirm that it was indeed correct, what I had booked was what I wanted. But they didn't have it. Ah well. 

 

She was very nice and helpful, and phoned round the other hotels in the town and found me a "solution" in the form of a much nicer hotel, in the centre of town. The hotel I arrived at was way nicer. And apparently I will only be charged what the first place were going to charge me. 

Unfortunately the boys didn't get my message about the change of address until they had cycled the additional 4 miles out of town the the other hotel... Oops. 

So we have a whole afternoon to do things and have a nice evening. 

I don't know how to say "half past" in terms of time, so we've got breakfast at 6am which is a little early but it's better than 7. Tomorrow is again going to be hot, but it should cool off after that. 

Day 9: Bocairent to Moratalla

Morning!! Ooo that feels better waking up in a cool hotel room. 

The boys got up much earlier today, it was dark when the alarm went off at 6. And because it only took them an hour to get ready, not almost 3, they were on the way just after 7. It actually felt a little chilly stepping out at that time! Hopefully the boys can avoid the heat. 

If you're following to boys journeys each day on line, we're actually chopping off the last 12 miles today and finishing in Calasparra, where we have a hotel booked. It actually makes tomorrow shorter too - we picked Mortalla as it has a campsite and they are few and far between round here. 

Here's the route 

 

And if you're following online:

day 9

See you lovelies in Jumilla for a lunch stop around 10am!

Day 8: afternoon evening and summary video

Tut. I just spent ages writing something and it vanished. Essentially, this afternoon was very hot. The boys had a little sun stroke perhaps. Genuinely dengergous to be out cycling in that heat. A nearby airport reported 37C at around 2pm, and the boy's garmin had 45C as the ambient temperature at one point. Ugh!

I had booked us in to a hotel tonight which was a great shout. Air con, wifi and a comfy bed :)

Tomorrow's forecast is just as hot, as we will again stay in a hotel once more. 

Steve at lunch time

 

 The sky at lunch time

 

An old building in Bocairent

 

View from top of the hill

 

The little town of Bocairent

 

Drinks

And the video: