Garry McGivern’s Spanish and Portuguese bike ride Tuesday 5th-May-2015 Bay of Biscay to Villarcayo. 62 miles. Well, I’ve made it to Spain, although there was a time last night when I did wonder. After spending the evening in the bar, which was completely out of character!! I went back to my birth and soon dozed off.
I got woken up at about three o’clock. I’m not sure if it was the boat rolling heavily from side to side or the car alarms going off on the decks below. But whatever, I was awake and couldn’t get back to sleep. If I lay on my side, I wouldn’t stay there. I’d either get rolled onto my back or onto my front. And laying on my back was just too uncomfortable. It was definitely a rough patch of sea.
After docking in Santurtzi, I returned to the car decks with a bit of trepidation. After the rough seas, I was a little worried about my bike. I hope they did tie it down! Thankfully though, they had tied it down, and everything was okay. After putting my bags back on my bike, I was off the boat and on land just after eight o’clock. And for once, I was the first off the ferry. After getting through passport control, I had the usual problem of trying to find my way out of Santurtzi and Bilbao. Even though I’ve been here several times before, it never gets any easier.
Back On The Road
It was good to be moving again after a day at sea yesterday. Spain has lived up to my expectations and memories of being very hilly. I’ve had two reasonably big climbs, both over 700 metres, and there’s been snow on the higher peaks. At the moment, though, the big hills are good. I need this tour to either kill or cure me of my bad back! At the moment, it’s kill! And the last twelve miles of the day were tough going. I’d picked up a strong headwind.
I surprised myself at the end of the day by finding a campsite. I was expecting to have to stay in hotels until I reached the coast. Mind you. I am the only one here. I’m not going to do the one thing which is what I’d done the last time I’d cycled across Spain in 2009. And that’s to camp wild, not unless I’m completely stuck and have to.
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