It was only 55km so I thought why not, lets hug the coast and break through another border.
Amongst the coastal towns I crused through today were; Port Vendres, Paulilles, Banyuls-sur-Mer, Cerbere & Portbau. I have to say, of the entire trip so far (and I can’t say this about any other) the D914 really is an awesome road. My favourite. I’ve never had a favourite road before but, well… it’s just great to keep turning a corner and seeing the med in all it’s panorama. On a slightly separate note (as all the other video recording attempts failed miserably) here’s me coming in to Port Vendres. It’s the first time I’d seen the sea for a while so was very very happy with it.
Here are the pictures from the day along with a plaque I noticed as I rode in to Spain (Portbou is 1km from the border) describing the Spanish civil war:
Ps. The fresh fish tastes great and motorbikes loooove these roads. Coming out of Vendres there was a crew of 30 or so all riding ancient classics.
As I’ve travelled a sizeable distance in the name of raising Kiva loans and yet have only managed to bring in a whopping $75 more respectable $125 I’m going still on blog-strike.
Yeah, you heard it. I ain’t doing nothing till we hit the $200 mark. I may have plucked this relatively small figure out of thin air but it’s minute considering the money it’s cost me to make this trip, so…
If you want to pressure some people in to making loans you may start with the following (who all have Kiva gift cards I gave them 7 months ago but never used them):
Kim & Denny Burns
Christopher East
George Flett
Garance Monzies
If they all loan the money I’ve already shelled out then the team would only need one more $25 loan and’ I’ll be back posting videos and writing stuff, making bad jokes and generally telling you what’s what along the Mediterranean coast.
I’m due in Barcelona in about 4 days so better make it happen quick before you miss all the hot goss!
If the above named/shamed don’t help out you’ll just have to dig deeper and do it yourselves.
/mydemands
ps. If you still need the link for the team it’s here and if you were named and want me to reissue the card because you can’t find the email tell me.
edit: thanks to one generous team member we are up to the $125 mark. 3 more loans and I post the recent videos / pics
After a sleep in a proper bed, a shower and change of clothes, a decent meal & all the WiFi time I could cram in my hostel stay was over. Best 20euros spent this trip I think.
I was up late last night and so up late-ish for breakfast but I got on the road around 11ish and set off with Les Miramars in mind- a little coastal town slightly nearer than Perpignan. 50km felt like enough for today and I was starting to feel the wrath of 9 days on the trot come to bear also. Well the headwinds were with (or rather against) me again. Here’s another video that sums up my thoughts on that around 15km out of Narbonne:
About 15km plus down the road it was a different story. I was far less zen about the whole wind-in-my-path nonsense by then. I was back to swearing at the elements to get the hell out of my road as it was hell to try to battle against constantly.
There were moments where I envisaged the entire rest of the trip to Barcelona (some 100+ miles still) with these conditions throughout. It honestly crossed my mind that I wouldn’t be able to cope with that. It may be more of a mental thing but the lack of overall speed achievable – even when heading downhill, the minimal momentum that can be eliminated completely when a large gust hits you straight on and the fact that I very nearly had the front wheel (much lighter than the back obviously) almost get blown from under me while on a dual carriageway… it was just too much. Another 100 miles of this I could not take. Still, rather than check the weather and decide it can’t be done I’ll just get back on the bike each morning and hope that the conditions are better. If necessary I make take an extra day or so to make the going easier.
On top of the wind I had an extra little hiccup today. If you look at the map you’ll see that between Narbonne and Les Miramars it is necessary to take a turning off the A9/D6009 towards Leucate. If you don’t then you have to head back against yourself once you get the opportunity. Call me stubborn or whatever but I’m not going back the way I came at any point on this trip. I don’t care if it’s a 10min u-turn or an hour of retreating – if it feels like going backwards I’m not having it. So as I think you can tell, I missed the turning and noticed about 20-30mins later. The amount of wind going around, the less than sunny day we were experiencing and the fact that I would have to retreat added up to a big fat no fucking way and so I changed my destination to Perpignan.
Perpignan by the way is nowhere near as nice looking as Narbonne. Probably not as nice as Les Miramars either but I won’t (didn’t) go there.
Still – I’m closer to Barcelona than I would have been and still have time to make a beach visit tomorrow I think.
Till next time… why haven’t you made a Kiva loan yet? (I’m seriously considering stopping any blog posts until we reach $200 as a team)
Three words – headwinds, roadkill, prostitutes. They all littered the roads I used today.
Here’s my video of frustrations:
I was told the night before that these are described as “Autumn winds” and they are obviously not expected at this time of year (I was under the impression it was just due to being so close to the coast). Well whatever reason they’re there it made today slightly annoying to say the least. I swore again and again at the wind as for every bit of effort I put in the wind would dampen it until it barely ever existed. There were points when I was practically stopped from being able to peddle any further forward if that describes some of the force I was up against.
I’ll not go in to much detail about the other stuff apart from to say that the roadkill was all big and furry and the prostitutes were mainly sprawled out on the roadside and looked slightly devoid of life (I think that’s the right way round).
I cycled through another nice little spot today called Beziers. The picture of the bridge and castle is from there in case you were wondering.
Anywho, I made it to Narbonne against the winds best efforts and am now sat, slightly exhausted, in a juice bar in a quaint little courtyard in the town centre.
EDIT: As it was raining quite heavily I booked myself in to a hostel which, although overrun with kids, is meaning I am showered, shaved, with WiFi and not camping in the rain – all for 20 euros and 10 cents. And I’ve uploaded the video now. Enjoy.
Here’s some pictures to finish on & sum everything up:
