Day 148
Stephane
We tried in vain to escape the line. Two dead end roads later we were back on it! Fortunately the really difficult surface didn’t last too long and we managed to ride along at a fair pace. We were hoping to ride at least 65 miles, leaving us with the same again tomorrow to our friends Niall and Suna's. Could we do it? A few miles in and disaster, a mini bridge of death. Tom went ahead to check it out and declared it safe to cross on foot. Foolishly I was a half mile back when he did this so didn’t hear the steel plates flex under his feet. “Just follow me and keep left” he shouted and over we went. As I neared the middle of the bridge it suddenly felt so unsafe, I gritted my teeth and carried on. Tom was buzzing with adrenaline when we both made the other side, I was shattered and weepy. We had made it, but never again?
As it was we were still stuck as the line had disappeared, and the only road we could use was washed away by the river. Were we really still in Spain? Nothing for it but to ride along the dried up river bed below the bridge we had just crossed, that was then I realised the cars drove across that way, bypassing the bridge!
Somehow we found a road, crossed another dried up river bed (they only get about three weeks of rain a year around here so we felt reasonably safe) and on we went.
We were making our way to a cycling Greenway, part of EV8. It would start at the village of Huercal Overa, we re-christened it Hercule Poirot. Hopefully it would actually be ready to ride on. As we started up yet another hill we spotted a touring cyclist sat beside the road munching on a very large sandwich. This was Stephane, a 26 year old cyclist from Switzerland. He had been on the road nearly as long as us but had had quite a few adventures. First his Garmin had been stolen so he used his iPhone to navigate, then that broke so he decided to manage without it. Then life got tough and his wallet, containing his credit card, money and ID was stolen. He spent a few minutes in distress but then decided to carry on with his trip. He had been inspired by a couple of cycle tourers he had met who were managing on one Euro a day. Surely he could manage on nothing? He wrote out a letter explaining his predicament, and along with a note from the police he simply popped into local restaurants and asked for food. The Spanish people did the rest ensuring he was well fed, one restaurant even insisted he sat down to a three-course meal. After a quick chat he decided to join us for the rest of the day. The Greenway turned out to be perfect and we neared our mileage target. Being Sunday everything was shut, but we were very lucky to find a mini supermarket at a petrol station. I bought food for three, Stephane got yet another sandwich from the cafe next door and we hit the track looking for home for the night.
At this point the EV8 was running beside a real railway line. Underneath it were many storm drainage tunnels. We found one that was just high enough for Tom to stand up. Apart from a lot of concrete dust it was clean and dry. We were home. Just the inner of the tents needed for the night, we cooked spaghetti bolognese, played cards for the first time on the trip, and Stephane and I danced around the tunnel with our head torches on whilst Tom took photos. It was one of those nights!
