The 2nd week - East of Cadiz

25 Jan

Cadiz - worth a visit, but full of bloody tourists!

Quite a boring departure from Cadiz, retracing my steps back to San Fernando but thereafter I took to a bit of off road on the TA trail.....it hadn't rained for a few days and although there were puddles about the track surface had dried out. I later rolled the trailer again coming down a hill and, seriously concerned that I might break the coupling, I took to the tarmac again. Went through Chiclana and the pretty all white town of Conil (de la Frontera), setting up camp next to the beach about 1km out of town. The mosquitoes are a real pain when I'm trying to cook at sunset.....swarms of them. I'll have to get some repellent. I'm itchy enough as it is, I think I'm suffering from hives due to the heat, or exercise...I don't know. I think I pass Cape Trafalgar tomorrow, close to where the great battle was fought, and might get a glimpse of Africa.

Looking back at Conil de la Frontera.......I'm looking for somewhere to camp

.......and here it is, I can hear the surf pounding the shore......nice, but little compensation
the hordes of mosquitos trying to eat me.

26 Jan

One of my favourite shots. I had to wade across this salt water lagoon to start my beach ride.

One of the most enjoyable bits of riding ever.....spectacular!

Fantastic riding today, starting off by pedalling barefoot along the beach. Clear blue sky, perfect white surf....and a tailwind! Some stiff climbs later in the day up and over the headlands between the bays. The mountains in Tunisia were clearly visible today, not really surprising as they are only about 14 km away. I met a nice Dutch couple touring the area and they bought me a coffee. Their bikes (idworx) looked absolutely brand new and sparkly clean but I was assured that they were 5 years-5000km old. He had just cleaned them by hand and then waxed them. "It makes it easier to get the dirt off" he said proudly. What!! I wonder what he thought of my mud and salt-caked specimen. I ended up in the small village of Bolonia camping to the sound of the surf again. I met up with Tomas from Germany and he invited me cook my pasta in his motorhome. I then had to listen to the story of his divorce for 2 hours while I struggled to keep my eyes open. I declined the offer of a whiskey after he had poured himself a tumbler as I could see I would end up there all night. The tent was already soaked in dew by the time I arrived back 'home'.

I took so many beach shots.....just so impressed with how unspoilt they were......

......probably because they were inaccessible! Tough riding, lots of steep ups and downs

I'm in sherry country. It would be nice just to sit here in the sun and have a tasting,  but I'd be out like a light. Another time.......

Half of the nice Dutch couple that bought me a coffee. The bike has done about 15,000 km. Zoom in and see how shiny his chain sprocket is.......a bit of  OCD behaviour methinks!

27 Jan

Another perfect morning after a starry, chilly night but a little late getting away as I chatted to Tomas, inspected his Topeak 'bob-type' bike trailer and waited for the sun to dry off the tent a bit. I note that I've used 500ml of petrol for the cooker so far and used up all my porridge stocks. Now it's jam or banana sandwiches for breakfast. Jam AND banana sandwiches on Sundays only : )

It was a tarmac climb out of Bolonia on my way to Tarifa. On the descent I was annoyed by my back brake pads rubbing on the rim. I'd had a broken spoke replaced by the bike shop in Tui before I left home and I thought the spokes probably needed a bit more tweaking. When I had a closer look I found another broken spoke. Now this is a first for me but fortunately I had some spare spokes and within the hour the job was done without even removing the back wheel (a bit of a PITA with a Rohloff hub). I was so chuffed with my success that I treated myself to a coffee, and then, the icing on the cake I found running water in a barbecue area and managed to shampoo my hair and wash my socks and T shirt. Ah, the joys of camping! I could have happily washed more but there is limited space to hang it on the move.

Spoke replacement time...at least the sun is shining.

I had lost most of the day but was happy to be cruising along silently again. I gave Tarifa (a kitesurfing Mecca) a quick once-over, stocked up with food and water for the night and headed for the hills, again missing out single track and rocky sections of the TA but rejoining it on the do-able bits. I'm now camped around 300m and it's 7 deg C in the tent. Goodnight!

A nice spot in the hills

28 Jan

In the morning my first flat tyre delays my departure.

Still smiling.....almost

I decided my tent slippers were not earning their keep
so I left them, probably to be found by
 some bemused goatherd

I'm slogging my way up to Castella castle in the rain, bottom gear, walking pace
 for an hour........

.........only to be told that the track down the other side had washed away, so I had to back-track all the way down again : \
In the 60s and 70s this place was famous as a hippy hang-out and there are still a few aged specimens hanging about.
I had a coffee and brandy to console myself and chatted to one vintage hippy from Liverpool - nice guy.