Day 149
The Bici Fruit Man
Just 65 miles to go, then a bed and a shower, a kettle, real chairs and a table! Niall and Suna had kindly offered Stephane a bed for the night so he decided to stick with us for another day. Not to our surprise the EV8 was uncompleted but we had a road option this time. After 10 miles we headed for the hills. Stephane shot to the top, despite me shouting that we had missed our turning. He finally got the message and cycled back down. A local was busy explaining that our route was on private land, through orange groves, was totally unsuitable to cycle on and we should go away and find a road. We waited until he had gone and headed into the oranges. I had to push at one point but it was fine, except when we came to the end the way was barred by 10 foot high metal gates. Fortunately not locked, we were through and back on tarmac! This was fun. A few miles later, trying to navigate through a village we were shouted at by a market stall holder. Did we want some fruit? One very large melon, a dozen bananas, several oranges, and a few pounds of grapes were soon in our bags. This was even more fun! For a while we were joined by a local man, Fran. He had toured himself and was busy saving up for his next adventure. He offered us the chance to pop back to his, get water, have a drink and rest. Another day we would have said yes but we still had 30 miles to go, so on we went.
Time went quickly but the miles didn’t. My hopeful 5pm ETA came and went. Finally at two minutes past my revised 6pm ETA we pulled into Niall’s driveway. There was a fire burning outside, we drank a much needed cup of tea, then showered before a wonderful evening eating better than we had in weeks. They welcomed Stephane into their home and spent the evening insisting he stay longer. Hopefully he will!
