AFD's Travel

Day 13 – Portbou to Girona

I had to two nights in the hostel in Portbou as I’d given myself my first rest day. Today I didn’t have the luxury of a lie-in and needed to get going. Ok… maybe a little lie-in So I check out about 10ish and load up the bike with all the gubbins. I roll over a couple of streets to get some supplies from the local supermarket and on my way through the checkout I meet another couple of Brit cyclists. They rode from Normandy! But I think, as with any other normal person, they weren’t carrying a vast proportion of their life on the back. 100 miles they said they’d ridden. That’s pretty impressive. They wished me well on my trip and went their own way. Back to the peddling. First I have to climb out of Portbou on those windy roads. I’m pretty certain I have an under-inflated rear tyre that’s making just about any type of momentum slow or non-existent. Going to have to fix that before leaving tomorrow. Just hope I don’t over inflate it and bag myself yet another puncture. Aside from the slightly low rear tyre things were ok. I would climb for a while and then drop again on the awesome bends accompanied by equally awesome views. See the gallery below for a glance of what I was looking at. The first 5-10kms were great. Back on my favourite roads and the weather was dazzling. My rest day’s relaxation had given me a little boost in energy or maybe just enthusiasm for getting back in to it – either way I was starting off strong. There was a bit more headwind after those initial 10km. Commence swearing at (quite literally) thin air. I swear the traffic coming the other way think I’m mentally unstable. Oh, just remembered something from 10-20km outside of Portbou… I was climbing a hill (relatively low gear) and my water bottle dropped out of it’s holder thing and to the side of the road. I stop, check behind me and think I can probably just back up a bit and grab it without having to get off the bike. Nothing behind me so off I roll… and start to brake when I get close… and it’s the wrong brake (the back one) and all the weight is on the back I begin to topple backwards with the weight off all the bags (and part of myself) all over the back wheel and eventually just stop resisting and end up a little like an over-turned wheeled tortoise. I think I *just* managed to get back to my feet by the time the next car came round the bend behind me. If not it’s just another Spaniard who thinks I’m crazy loco. Bottle saved I carry on. My knees hurt. Specifically the right one. I am guessing it has to do with the weight I’m trying to tug up the hills and the fact that I usually sit down for 12hrs a day and my legs do sweet FA. This paired with the headwinds being back are what make the majority of the day tough. I consider going to Roses which is only 30-35km from Portbou but as I’ve set off and get back in the swing it just feels like too little and I have the urge to carry on. I decide by the time I hit the turning for Roses that Girona is easily possible and I don’t even stop to think. Headwinds, sore knees and low rear tyre are all the obstacles in my way. Achieving the extra distance is just a matter of when, not if. Every time I see a sign showing the distance to Barcelona now I get a bit excited. Most of the signs to Girona mention the distance to Barcelona as well so I am happy to see them both counting down. At 20km from Girona it started raining. This was not what I wanted at all. The wind is bearable although annoying but the rain on top of it is tough to beat mentally. I hide under a bridge after 10mins of it first starting. I’m damp but not soaked… the cloud seems to have moved and left the immediate road ahead so I carry on. More rain 200m down the road. Quickly find and hide under another bridge. This went on for the last hour of the ride and for much of it there were no bridges left to hide under. Just as I roll in to Girona it stops. The place looks cleansed and quite dashing – as if freshly showered for a night out. Maybe it always looks this good – I’ve not much to go off. I now smell like I’ve tried to shower in clothes than have taken me 200km, basically because they have. Time to find another hostel (shared room but reasonable @17e a night) and shower properly. Only 100km to go till Barcelona. I can almost taste it! Pics: