Author: Garry

Garry McGivern’s Spanish bike ride Friday 15th-April-2011 Benicasim to Cambrils. 98 miles. There was a bit of a chill in the air this morning. And it was really cold on the downhills.

I met a couple of Australian cyclists today. They weren’t a happy couple. Actually, they weren’t even a couple as such. He was on a charity cycle ride around Spain. And she just came along for the adventure. Gary was a lycra-clad cyclist who just wanted to pump out the miles, a real keeno. And I’m sure he shaved his legs! He would quite often just cycle off and leave her to plod along at her own pace, which I didn’t think was that slow. But then I’m not exactly fast myself! Tamara was a personal trainer (whatever that means and entails?). She was also into bodybuilding. Best not upset her then!

We kept passing each other all day, and I would cycle with each one individually and sometimes when they were together. That’s how I knew they weren’t happy bunnies. I got both their views. He wanted to push on to Barcelona the last time I saw them. That’s a whole day’s ride for me. Tamara didn’t look so keen on the idea!

What Is The Matter With These Campsites

I had a bit of trouble finding a campsite tonight. The first campsite I came across was a minimum stay of two nights. The second wouldn’t let me leave before eight o’clock tomorrow. And the third was like a building site! The one I eventually found is huge. It’s like a Haven campsite back home, but the showers were lovely, and it’s nice to be camping on grass rather than gravel!

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Garry McGivern’s Spanish bike ride Thursday 14th-April-2011 Daimus to Benicasim. 102 miles. I started the day off cycling through orange groves. It made a pleasant change from all the polytunnels I’ve seen so far.

While cycling along today, I started to think (don’t worry, I don’t think too often!) about last night’s accommodation. The whole of last night had only cost me fifteen euros. That was for my pitch, a three-course meal, with a bottle of wine and three beers to finish the evening off! I’ll be surprised if I beat that on this trip but pleasantly surprised if I do.

I forgot to mention in last night’s blog, or rather I’d fallen asleep after my bottle of wine. My old friends, the prostitutes, are back. Remember them from my 2009 ride through Spain on the road to Denia? Well, I came across them again, and again it was around Denia, which was a real pain, as far as I was concerned!

I was busting for a pee, but every time I came across a bush, a prostitute would be standing nearby, waiting for her next client. It took me ages before I found a bush with no prostitute near. And even when I did, I was nervous that I might find the prostitute busy with her work behind it! Thankfully I didn’t!

I think I’ve had nearly every type of road today. I started off first thing this morning on quiet country roads. Going through Valencia, it was busy city roads, then coming out of Valencia, I ended up on the motorway. And as usual, I couldn’t find the right road. Luckily, I wasn’t on the motorway for long. I finished the day off cycling along a cycle path.

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Garry McGivern’s France bicycle tour, Friday 23rd-July-2010 Herbignac to Camors. 70 miles. Bloody wind, we’ve had a strong headwind for the past three days. It’s now starting to get rather boring. But then that’s the joys of cycling east-west against the prevailing winds.

Somebody thought it was a little chilly when we left camp at six-thirty this morning. And it wasn’t me. I would have thought Katrin would have been used to the cold. Don’t they have a lot of snow in Switzerland?

We decided to stick to the coast today and head to Port Navalo, where there is a ferry to Locmariaquer. Then from Locmariaquer, we turn north. But we were unsure if the ferry took bikes. It was unclear from what we could read in the Lonely Planet guidebook. So we stopped off on route at a tourist information shop. The lady in the shop was very helpful. (It also helps that Katrin speaks fluent French.) She also gave us a timetable and said yes, bikes were allowed on the ferry.

Quick

While looking at the timetable, we suddenly realised that the next ferry left in less than an hour, and there wasn’t another one for three hours. Bloody French and their two-hour lunch breaks! And we still had over twelve miles to cycle against the strong headwind. So it was head down and go for it.

We managed to make the ferry just in the nick of time. And after our dash to the ferry, we were both pretty knackered and only managed to cycle another twenty miles or so today. I guess we’ll just have to make up for the lack of miles cycled today, tomorrow.

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