Garry McGivern’s Spanish and Portuguese bike ride Tuesday 19th-May-2015 La Chullera to Tarifa. 61 miles. At least I managed to stay dry last night, not waking up to my water bed again. Although I didn’t sleep that well, I was paranoid that the sprinkler would go off in my tent, and I’d end up swimming again! I had put a great big rock on the tent wall to make sure the sprinkler stayed on the outside last night. And at 4 am, right on cue, the sprinklers went off. After double-checking, just to make sure the sound of water was on the outside and not on the inside. I soon dozed off for an hour before my alarm woke me up!
I went on a bit of a detour today and took a ride around Gibraltar. For no other reason than to say that I’d been there. It was very hectic at the border, with long queues at passport control. I just cycled down the side of the queuing traffic and went straight across without being asked for my passport. On the rock, I just cycled a quick circuit around the island’s perimeter. I didn’t go up to the top to see the monkeys. But I did see one at a scrapyard, but I quickly rode on as I didn’t want to attract his attention just in case he started to pull bits off my bike!
Getting back onto mainland Spain wasn’t as easy as coming out. I came across some right old grumpy sod of a border guard. Firstly he told me off for being in the wrong lane. That’s despite there being no other traffic apart from me. Then he demanded to see my passport and took ages to check it. Bloody jobsworth!
It’s been a tough day’s ride today, which may have been due to my lack of sleep. Or that there has been a strong gusting wind, which has been blowing me all over the road. And it’s not exactly been the quietest of roads today, it made for a fraught ride today, and I was glad to finish.
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Photo; Gibraltar.
