Spain and Scotland - Bilbao to Galashiels

Tuesday 21 - Saturday 25 May, Spain and Scotland - Bilbao to Galashiels

Badger came to see me in the hospital at 8.00am on Tuesday morning. He had brought some more of my stuff round and was going to ride my Honda out to the ferry terminal, get a lift back to Bilbao from a couple of Bikers from Galashiels who were staying at his hotel and going back on the same ferry as him. He was then going to ride out to the terminal on his Triumph and attempt to get both bikes back to Portsmouth. I was feeling a lot better and could have probably have got up but the Spanish doctors were insisting on me staying in bed and as I didn't want to create any problems with the insurance I had no choice to but to comply - it was very frustrating. Badger was still very shaken with the whole affair and it was all I could do to reassure him that he was taking by far the most sensible course of action.

Badger's visit was pretty brief as he had a lot to do by 10.00am - so off he went. I had arranged for a letter for him from the hospital to help him get my bike onto the ferry - he also took some snaps of me in my hospital bed as additional proof. He rode my Honda to the ferry terminal - explained the situation to the ferry staff and they agreed he could take both bikes. He then had to get a taxi back to his hotel, which took over 40 minutes and had to rush to get own bike to the terminal, which he managed to do. He kept in touch via my mobile and had a pretty stressful morning. When the ferry sailed at 10.30am he and both bikes were on board.

When he docked in Portsmouth on Wednesday morning they let him get both bikes off, he rode home to Bath on his bike, caught a train back to Portsmouth and rode my bike back to Bath as well - what a hero? He still felt guilty about leaving me and I still kept trying to reassure him that he doing the right thing. While Badger was wending his way home I was busy trying to arrange my own repatriation.

Both Bikes back in Portsmouth

My main worry was that I was covered for medical emergencies, I had purchased the outward ferry tickets on my Visa card and checked with them beforehand that they would provide emergency cover, but this would not be guaranteed and no repatriation could be arranged until they had checked with the hospital in Bilbao and my own doctor in Galashiels. The Spanish side was sorted out that day, but it took until Thursday and quite a few UK calls to sort out my own doctor's report. However as the crutches and brace didn't arrive until Thursday this didn't actually slow things down. I had to pay over 500 euros for the crutches and brace although the insurance people said that this would be refunded. At least I was now allowed out of bed - thank god!.

By the end of play on Thursday the insurance people confirmed that my claim was OK and they were finally able to start arranging my repatriation. To be honest I could have taken a taxi to the airport and got on a scheduled flight back to Edinburgh, but they wouldn't allow that - I had to be accompanied by a nurse on a flight that accepted patients. In the event they arranged to bring me home by air ambulance on Saturday morning - I couldn't wait. The Spanish hospital was fine, but I was bored stupid and to put the cherry on the cake I broke my Kindle luckily I had a couple of books on my mobile otherwise I would have gone truly mad. There was no wi-fi in the hospital and whilst I had my laptop with me - I couldn't do any real work without internet connectivity. It was great to phone home and tell Claire that I would be back on Saturday. My time in hospital was pretty tough on her and she couldn't even come and see me, plus her own shifts as a nurse in Edinburgh meant that there weren't even many times when we could talk on the phone.

Saturday finally came round and at about 10.30 an ambulance man turned up for me. This turned out to be Alfonso, who not only spoke really good English but was a fellow biker. After 5 days of near silence on my own it was great to have someone to talk to - particularly as he had been to North Africa before on his BMW and was keen to hear about the trip to Morocco. Alfonso and his crew took me to Bilbao airport and waited with me until the Air Ambulance turned up having first picked up another patient in Cadiz. I just want to say a huge thank you to Alfonso and his mates - they were great.

Alsfonso and his Mate

The air ambulance turned out to be an 8-seater twin-engined turbo prop - basically a small executive jet. There was a pilot - Ollie, co-pilot - Adrian, doctor - John and nurse - Liz as crew plus another patient George and his wife Patricia. Liz introduced the doctor to me as "Dr John", but didn't get it when I asked where his piano was? The company CEGA who handle patient transfers on behalf of insurers run this Air Ambulance as a sort of sweep-up service - picking up those patients that can't be handled by scheduled airlines. After my time in hospital it felt great to be going home by private plane.

The Air Ambulance at Bilboa Airport

The flight plan was to fly to Biggin Hill, where George, Patricia and Dr John would be taken by ambulance to George's local hospital, they would refuel the plane and take me on to Edinburgh where an ambulance would get me home to Galashiels. When we landed at Biggin Hill it was full of German executive jets that had flown VIPs over for the Champions League Final at Wembley. We saw a few Mercedes Limos turn up to whisk people off to Wembley - how the other half live!

Taking off at Bilboa

Adrian and Ollie

Adrian, Liz , Me and Ollie at Biggin Hill

Once we had refueled the four of us got back on board and headed up to Edinburgh. The weather had been awful the whole time I was in Bilbao - in fact they had had one of the wettest springs for years, but by the time we got to the UK the weather had cleared up and it got better as we headed North. I had an amazing view of Morecambe Bay and then we turned East as we headed for Edinburgh and I had a panoramic view of the whole of the Borders including Galashiels. We got a fantastic view of Edinburgh as we landed at about 5pm. I felt a bit sorry for the crew as all the hotels in Edinburgh were full for the Marathon and they still had to get a taxi to Glasgow, which was the closest place they could get in at!

Landing at Edinburgh

Within 5 minutes of landing the ambulance taking me home turned up and off we went on the final leg of my journey. I knew I was back in the Borders as within a few minutes we had established that the ambulance driver was friendly with a colleague of Claire's and the other crew member - Jo was best friends with an old colleague of mine in Peebles - but that's what the Borders are like! After nearly a month abroad it felt weird but nice to be driving on the left again.

In less than an hour I was back home in Galashiels and Bella - our mad lurcher was running down to meet me. Claire was home as were my daughters Kate and Jess who'd come for the weekend from London and Edinburgh respectively. It was wonderful to be back in the bosom of my family.

Back Home

Jess, Claire and Denzil

Kate, Claire, Denzil and Bella

Afterwards

It only took a week or so to get back on my feet properly again. Within a week of getting back home I'd managed to see my orthopedic consultant, who confirmed that there were no complications arising from the dislocation. It took a few massages to sort out my shoulder and back, but they are fine now. My left elbow is a lot better but still a bit dodgy.

Badger looked after the Honda for a couple of weeks then he drove it up to Preston en route to a family do in Blackburn. Claire and I met up with him and his family at a service station and I drove the bike back to Galashiels. I had to buy a new indicator lens and I also arranged for a service with Willy Stewart before having it MOT'ed at the end of June. It sailed through the MOT although they recommended that I change the front pads and wheel bearings which I arranged for Willy to do. The insurance company refunded me for the crutches and brace and took care of all the other medical bills. It probably cost £10-15K just to fly me back.

It has taken me until September to complete this blog - but it's finally done. Thanks to the first decent summer for years in Scotland I've been out and about quite a bit on the bike discovering bits of the Borders and Northumberland that I've never been to before. In June GV - an old cycling mate from Essex - came up to the North-East on his 1960's Norton Commando, I met up with him in Durham, we rode up to Galashiels and spent a day riding round the Borders. Claire and I are off to Bath to meet up with Badger and Kate this weekend, unfortunately Eddie is away in France so it might be a while before we meet up again. Badger and I are already planning another trip. He still wants to get to that hotel on the edge of the Sahara. However as I might not be able to get medical insurance it might be the Scottish Highlands instead. He seems to have the bug and is even considering getting a BMW 1200 GS. I'm more than happy to stay with the Pan European though I did fit some bar risers that Eddie sent up for me.

I want to say thanks to: -

• Ian Hunter for selling me the Honda and being a nice guy.
• Eddie Stewart for all his assitance and spanner work.
• Ian at Anderson & Wilson for sorting out my hydraulics.
• Chris Billam at TyreFactors.com Ltd for letting me go away for a month.
• Badger (Chris Palmer) for inviting me in the first place and being such a hero in getting the Honda back to me.
• Eddie Lambah-Stoate for putting up with my blethering for two weeks and teaching me some of the basics of riding a motorcycle.
• Alan & Jackie, Duncan & Linzi in Sunderland / Jim, Annette & Brigit in Huddersfield / The Palmer Family in Bath / Sid & Lottie in Montpelier / Jane & Mark, Jame & Johnny in Ayamonte / Hugo and Bianca in Lisbon for all their hospitality.
• All the medical staff, ambulance teams and CEGA flight crew for taking care of me and getting me home again.
• My wife Claire, my daughters Jess and Kate, Philip Munro (Jess's boyfriend) for encouraging me to go and for putting up with me when I got home.

Denzil (Mike Dennison)
04 September 2013
Galashiels
Scotland

Galashiels - from my front door

Spain - Burgos to Bilbao

Day 24 - Monday 20 May, Spain - Burgos to Bilbao

We were up and ready for breakfast by 8.00am on Monday morning. The skies were still overcast, but it wasn't raining, unfortunately it was also quite cool so it looked like another day in waterproofs. After breakfast we settled our bill and loaded up the bikes. I had been worried about where we had parked, but we got under way without problem. Badger - as ever - was navigating and had plotted a route to keep us off major roads wherever possible. As usual I was quite happy to leave it all to him and his multiple maps and took little notice of the actual route.

It didn't take long to clear Burgos and we were soon on a decent single-carriageway road a bit like a minor A road in the UK I suppose. There seemed to be quite a lot of road development going on in and around Burgos and for the first hour or so the going was pretty easy - overtaking the many commercial vehicles kept us on our toes. As we got headed north we started to see mountain ranges in the distance - presumably part of the Picos de Europa range that covers this part of the Basque region. After about an hour's riding Badger turned off the main road and headed us onto a minor road and into the hills.

This made for much more interesting riding, with lots of tight bends and narrow roads through tiny villages in tight valleys. As we headed north we started climbing up as we got properly into the mountains. By about 11 o'clock we reached the summit of the range we were on and began our descent. The road was windy but quite fast and after about half a mile we rounded a long left hand bend and a huge panorama swept into view. The road below us turned into several kilometers of hair pin bend as it descended to the plain below, which was visible for miles in front of us until it reached yet another mountain range in the far distance. Badger pulled in on the first hairpin to get some shots from this amazing viewpoint.

A Panoramic View

I was taking a few snaps and Badger was videoing the scene, there was not a car on the road, our only companion was an eagle or buzzard soaring effortlessly overhead. Badger decided that this would be a great spot to film us on the bikes, so we took turns riding up and down whilst the other recorded them on video - video of me, video of Badger . Whilst we were playing this game a very fit cyclist climbed up past us - he must have been super-fit as it was some climb. Once we had finished clowning about we rode down to the town below and pulled in for the serious business of elevenses.

A Super-Fit Cyclist

After a couple of cafe con leches and a cake each we headed off for the last leg into Bilbao or "Bilbo" as it is known in Basque - honest!. This was about an hour's interesting ride away. Bilbao is not actually on the sea, it's on a river and about 14 kilometers inland. It is also surrounded by steep mountains, which must have made it very easy to defend in medieval times, but a nightmare for road builders. As we approached the sun started to come out and by the time we had made our way to the centre of town it was starting to get warm.

As usual we headed for the station and I stayed with the bikes whilst Badger went to locate the tourist office. This turned out to be situated in the opera house, which is a rather beautiful building on the other side of the river directly opposite the station - so off we went. We found a spot to park behind the opera house in a triangular area behind the tram lines. We parked the bikes and I stayed with them whilst Badger went round the front into the tourist office.

Bilbao Opera House

I took a few snaps and decided to take my waterproofs off as I was starting to get a bit hot and bothered. I couldn't find anywhere to sit down to do this so I put my foot on the Pan's footrest while I bent down to undo the velcro fastenings. This proved to be a very bad move indeed, I felt a twinge in my backside so adjusted my position and tried again and started screaming! I had dislocated my right hip - again - ouch!

Disaster Strikes

For those of you fortunate never to have had this experience, the best way I can describe it is as a world of pain! It really does hurt. I managed to get all my weight onto my left leg and started shouting for help. There were plenty of people about and a few of them realised I was in trouble and came over to assist. It must have looked very odd to them, one minute I was fine - the next I was screaming for no apparent reason. I managed to get someone to phone for an ambulance on my mobile and get an English-speaker on the line. I explained to her that I had dislocated my hip and needed to go to hospital for an operation to put it back in, one of the people assisting me explained my location to the controller. It must have been about 1 or 1.30pm by then.

When Badger came back - he thought I was mucking about until he saw the pain on my face. It seemed to take an age for the ambulance to arrive, but after about 10 minutes or so it finally turned up. Badger of course shot a video. The next few hours were a nightmare. I was given no pain relief whatsoever, the trip to the hospital was hellish and it was about 4 hours before I was finally given some analgesic. They x-rayed my hip and operated at about 7pm that evening, I was given a general anaesthetic and by about 8pm was lying in a bed in a single room feeling a lot better. The hip was sore, but compared to the pain when dislocated this was nothing.

Hospitalised

As I was in hospital poor old Badger had to sort everything else out. He found a hotel directly opposite where I had had my accident. They had underground storage for the bikes. Once he'd got the bikes safely stowed he got some gear together for me - clothes, shaving gear etc and most importantly kindle and USB charger for my phone. He came to visit me after the operation and was in a terrible state. By then the doctors had explained that I would have to stay off my feet for a few days, then I would need crutches and a special brace to protect my hip before they would allow me home. Badger was sure whether he should stay with me or take the ferry and possibly both bikes home on the ferry the next day. He was feeling guilty because he'd asked me to come on the trip in the first place and felt that somehow it was his responsibility. I tried to convince him that it wasn't his responsibility and also that the best thing he could do would be to get the ferry back on Tuesday, taking my bike if possible.

Day Summary

Day -	24
Miles Covered in Day	100 approx.
Miles Covered in Trip	4000 approx.

Portugal and Spain - Celorica da Beira to Burgos

Day 23 - Sunday 19 May, Portugal and Spain - Celorica da Beira to Burgos

Sunday dawned sunny but cool and windy as Badger and I went down for Breakfast, after which I carried out a few emergency repairs on the Pan European with some red electrical tape; basically just taping over the indicator lense cracks and adding some tape to keep the mirror attached to the fairing. By about 9.30 we were on the road headed for Spain. Badger reckoned that we should aim to get to Salamanca by lunch time and then stay overnight at Valladolid - leaving a day's ride on Monday to get to Bilbao and then the ferry back to Portsmouth on Tuesday morning.

We basically just climbed out of the valley in which Celorica da Beira is situated and kept climbing - it was all very dramatic and very picturesque. The road swept dramatically round to the right just before it topped out and - for a few moments - we had an amazing panoramic view of Celorica. We seemed to have left the sunshine behind in Celorica as the skies clouded over but it still made for reasonably pleasant riding conditions. We must have been crossing quite a high region, the road rolled up and down and we crossed a dramatic gorge on what looked like a smaller version of the Millau bridge but there was no obvious major descent. It took about 45 minutes of fairly relaxed riding to reach the Spanish border.

Not long after we had crossed into Spain the road became a motorway - the Autovia de Castilla, which was the only practical route to Valladolid. I don't know if it was the weather or end of holiday blues, but Sunday's ride felt more than a little melancholic. By late morning we were both ready for a coffee break so we got off the motorway at Cuidad Rodrigo and went into the town in search of a cafe. This proved to be a good choice as Cuidad Rodrigo has a beautiful and historic centre with a castle, cathedral and city walls. We found a place to park just outside the cathedral and a cafe that was showing the Moto GP as we enjoyed our coffee and cakes. Badger and I were half inclined to hang around to watch all the races, but we still had quite a few miles still to do.

Cuidad de Rodrigo

After filling up we got back on the motorway and decided to head for Salamanca for lunch. The ride was uneventful, the traffic was pretty light and we took the opportunity to get some fast miles in. At about one o'clock we went into Salamanca and headed for the station to find a lunch-stop. We spent about 20 minutes or so looking for somewhere but nothing was forthcoming and Badger was distinctly underwhelmed by the station. In the end we decided just to get back onto the motorway and stop at the next services. These turned out to be quite a few miles down the road but we eventually found a reasonable truck-stop place and were able to catch the last few laps of the Moto GP whilst eating a very reasonably priced lunch.

Once the GP had finished we got back on to the motorway and pressed on. We got to Valladolid long before 4pm and decided to just keep going. I suggested that we try to get as far as Burgos so that we had a easy morning's ride to Bilbao on Monday, allowing me an afternoon to catch up with the blog and Badger was happy to go along with this. By about 4.30 the skies in the distance were getting very dark and threatening and we could see a heavy rain storm heading our way fast. We were riding without waterproofs and had just passed a service station a few miles back - we ended up in a race to find another service station before we got soaked. We eventually found a garage but not before it had started raining - luckily it was only light so we were only a little damp. We filled up the bikes and had a quick coffee before donning some warm gear and our waterproofs then setting off.

The rain storm turned out to be heavy but brief - the worst was over in about 30 minutes. The Pan European did an excellent job of keeping the worst of the weather off and I was very grateful for the heated grips although the left-hand side wasn't working properly they still did a good job - my cheapo Aldi boots worked too. The rest of the journey to Burgos was a bit of a drag - it was cold, damp and a bit miserable. I was very pleased to arrive at Burgos by about 6.30. We got a bit lost going into the town but were soon heading into the historic centre.

The place seemed to have pretty much closed for the evening and we couldn't find anything that looked decent but cheap in the centre so we drove around for about 10 minutes or so before finding a 2 star place that had some parking bays reasonably close. To be honest I was a bit disappointed by Burgos - I'd only been there once before and had had an excellent evening, but that had been in summer when the town had been en fete and very lively. Our room was fine however and we found a bar that did grub just down the street - it felt like very pub-like and quite cosy. We both felt a lot better once we got on the outside of some pasta and a couple of pints of local beer. We turned in pretty early, we were both tired after the day's ride and wanted to get up early to avoid any hassle over where we had parked the bikes.

Day Summary

Day -	23
Miles Covered in Day	260 approx.
Miles Covered in Trip	3900 approx.

Portugal - Lisbon to Celorica da Beira

Day 22 - Saturday 18 May, Portugal - Lisbon to Celorica da Beira

Despite not getting back to our hotel until about 1pm, I woke early on Saturday morning feeling that it was time to start heading home. Badger and I had discussed our plans the evening before and had decided to get the Tuesday ferry from Bilbao to Portsmouth. It definitely felt like we were on the final leg of the trip. I tried booking the tickets on-line, but the hotel WI-fi was not that good and I wasn't sure whether or not I had managed to book and pay for the tickets. I gave up, we went for breakfast and then phoned Brittany Ferries and managed to definitely book out tickets.

By the time we had sorted out the tickets and loaded up the bikes it was about 10.30 and Lisbon was starting to get busy. Getting out of Lisbon turned out to be quite a tricky and lengthy process and at one stage we got separated when I took a wrong turning, however I managed to find Badger again and by about 11.30 we got onto the Northbound A1/E1 motorway. The sun was shining but the strong Atlantic winds kept the temperature quite low and I was feeling pretty tired and sore. We hadn't got very far at all before I had to stop and ask Badger to rub some Ibuprofen gel on my sore neck and shoulder Video - not for the squeamish.

After our pit-stop we had a quick blast up the motorway to get us on our way then Badger took us off the motorway and we headed towards the Spanish border in a roughly North-East direction. We were traveling on single-carriageway roads and were able to make pretty good time. In the late morning we must have got onto one of the main routes for the Fatima pilgrimage, for about 50k we saw dozens of bands of pilgrims walking in the opposite direction to us. This part of Portugal felt much more developed and densely populated than the South.

The middle part of the journey was fairly uneventful and we stopped for lunch at a road-side restaurant in a town en-route. This turned out to be an excellent choice, but we were both stuffed by the time we set off again and I found the afternoon pretty hard going. We stopped for a coffee at a cafe on a round-about and shortly afterwards got up into some very hilly terrain. This proved to be much more interesting and challenging riding, but felt as though we weren't making much progress and at one stage I thought that we had got completely lost, but Badger's navigation turned out to be correct.

At about tea-time, we pulled into the cafe "Aresole", which on closer inspection turned out to be the "Cafe Are y Sol", but it amused Badger nonetheless and after a stop for coffee and biscuits he was keen to get a picture of me on the bike in front of the cafe but as I moved the bike on the somewhat rough car park I put my foot into a pot-hole, the bike leant over over too far for me to keep it up and over went the bike and me. It was all a bit comical; I short forward like a cork from a pop-gun, tripped over my own feet, failed to keep my balance and ended up with my chin on the deck and glad that I was wearing a full-face helmet and protective bike gear.

I hardly had the energy to stand up - I hadn't realised until then just how tired I was and I ended up being lifted to my feet by some very concerned locals. Luckily the only thing that was hurt was my dignity and a few more scratches on my visor. The same could not be said for the bike, it went down on the same side as in Ayamonte, the left hand mirror had popped off again, the indicator was cracked and the left hand side of the bike was looking a bit tatty. Badger and I were able to lift it back up and pop the mirror back on again and the damage seemed to be purely cosmetic. Badger refrained from videoing me whilst on the deck, but he did record a video of the place shortly before the incident.

Just About to Take a Tumble at the Cafe Are y Sol

We decided to press on but stop at the first decent-looking hotel and by about 6.30 we had arrived at the town of Celorica da Beira, which is pretty much just this side of the Spanish border. We spotted a decent looking hotel as we took the exit for the town from the round-about. This turned out to be a good choice, we booked in and after a quick shower I was ready just to put my feet up. We seemed to be about the only guests - a combination of the recession and lousy spring weather conspired to keep visitor numbers down. Badger went out for a wander round the town whilst I had a nap before dinner. We dined at the hotel and were the only guests in the dining room, which was a shame as supper was excellent. We also caught TV coverage of the previous evenings hill-climb in Lisbon City Centre, which felt slightly weird.

Day Summary

Day -	22
Miles Covered in Day	210 approx.
Miles Covered in Trip	3640 approx.

Spain and Portugal - Ayamonte to Lisbon

Day 21 - Friday 17 May, Ayamonte, Spain to Lisbon, Portugal

I woke up in a right state on Friday morning and struggled to remember where I was and how I got there. Gradually the events of the previous evening came back to me and I really regretted the last few drinks. I managed to get up and get showered but still felt pretty ropy - probably still a bit drunk. Badger and I went down to breakfast at the hotel cafe, the sun was shining but it was pretty breezy and quite chilly and we ate outside as I couldn't face staying indoors. Despite the large quantities of coffee and orange juice I managed to get down, I still didn't feel very good at all.

We had come back earlier than planned from Morocco and had a couple of days in hand so I had phoned an old mate - Hugo, who lives in Lisbon and arranged to meet up with him on Friday evening so we had no choice other than to press on to Lisbon. We loaded up the bikes, paid our bills and checked out of the hotel. I was very, very careful about getting the bike on to the road - Badger gave me a hand again as I was still a bit shaken from the previous day's incident - and pretty hung over. We headed into town to get some more cash before setting off properly. While we were sorting this out it started to rain so we got into our wet gear and then headed for Portugal.

The New Suspension Bridge Over the Guadiana River

This involved heading out of town and crossing the new suspension bridge over the Guadiana river that forms the border with Portugal. As you can see this is a very high and exposed, It was raining hard and very windy, I was severely hung-over, combined with my fear of heights and vertigo it is an understatement to say that I was dreading this crossing. I gritted my teeth and took it very gently and managed to make the crossing without throwing up - mind it was a close-run thing. However we had now crossed into Portugal and were now in the Algarve. We headed West for a few miles on the motorway before getting off to fill up with petrol and stop for a coffee. A mile or so off the motorway was a tiny place that wasn't much more than a garage and a cafe and we were definitely the only visitors present.

We filled up the bikes, then had a quick coffee at the cafe next to the petrol station, which provided us with the chance to learn our first few words of Portuguese. The rain was definitely easing off as we got back on the bikes and I was starting to feel almost human again as we headed North towards Lisbon. As usual Badger was navigating and had picked a non-motorway route starting with the the N122. This proved to be an excellent route, a single carriageway road with hardly any traffic on it. The first half hour or so was pretty hilly with plenty of interesting descents and ascents, long fast straights with tight bends and before we knew it we were going through the town of Azinhal, which is overlooked by a dramatic hill-top castle that must have dominated the entire area in medieval times. This must be a tourist destination as we had to get past a tourist "train" before exiting the town.

The next leg of the journey took us from Azinhal to Mertola and the landscape started to change, flattening out into a much gentler rolling terrain rather the steep ascents and descents around Azinhal. The weather changed too, it stopped raining, the sun came out and a very strong Westerly wind got up that remained constant for the rest of the day. We were able to keep up a pretty decent pace but the wind kept us on our toes with huge gusts on exposed sections. The odd short, sharp shower meant that it was advisable to keep our water-proofs on. We passed though quite a few villages, but hardly saw a soul, it was obvious that this part of Portugal is heavily under-populated. The villages all had radar-controlled lights in them, we had to slow down to about 50K as we approached a village otherwise the lights turned red for a few moments - even though there was never any traffic turning on or off the road. I don't think that we saw a single soul or even a shop outside the main towns.

A highlight of this part of the journey were the cranes. There was several sections of road where a line of telegraph poles ran parallel to the road about 20metres inside the adjacent fields and where every telegraph pole had a huge occupied crane's nest on top. Badger and I stopped to take some pictures and watch these beautiful birds in flight. These majestic white birds with bright blue wing tips and wing edges were real masters of the air and seemed to revel in the strong winds.

Nesting Cranes alongside the Road

By about 1.30 we had reached the town of Beja and decided to stop for lunch. We found a nice cafe, which had a studenty-sort of feel and had a simple lunch there. We timed it well, it chucked it down while we were in the cafe, but the skies cleared by the time we set off and stayed clear for the rest of the day It wasn't that warm so we kept our waterproofs on for the rest of the journey. After lunch we headed west out of Beja on a quiet local road for an hour or so before turning North on the major A road to Lisbon. This gradually got busier and the towns and villages less-sparsely populated the closer we got to Lisbon. After about 2 hours we had a final stop for coffee, ice-lollies and fuel at a service station and shortly afterwards joined the west-bound motorway for the final windy blast into Lisbon.

The Portuguese capital is situated on the North bank of the Tagus estuary and you have to cross this by ferry or bridge when approaching from the South. Badger chose to use the shorter of the two bridges, but this was still a mighty long bridge. Badger seemed to take it in his stride but I found the crossing terrifying. The bridge is several miles long, completely exposed to the elements and the wind was still gusting in from the Atlantic. To make matters worse the outer lane was an iron grid and you could see the water below. I stayed in the middle lane and went as slowly and carefully as the traffic would allow. Even so I had to hang on for grim death at times as the bike got blown about. After what seemed like forever, but was actually only a few minutes we finally got to the other side and I breathed a huge sigh of relief - god only knows what the "longer" crossing would have been like!.

Neither of us had a clue where we should go in Lisbon so we followed our noses in the Friday evening rush hour traffic and ended up in the centre of town at a busy junction right by Saldanha metro station. I stayed with the bikes whilst Badger went off to find a hotel - it turned out that there was an Ibis hotel only a few hundred yards away, which we decided to book into. There was a convenient bike park within 50 yards of the hotel, where we were able to leave the bikes. I called Hugo and we arranged to meet up later for dinner.

By about 8pm Badger and I had managed to navigate the Lisbon metro and got to Restauradores square where we had arranged to meet Hugo. The place was full of TV crews and cyclists - there was a televised city centre hill-climb event taking place up a steep street that had a funicular railway! There was an inflatable arch, stage, DJ and sound system - it was obviously quite a big deal.

City Centre Hill Climb

We had only been there a few minutes when Hugo turned up. It was great to see him again, it had been 4 years since we had worked together in Peebles and whilst we had kept in touch via email and facebook, this was the first time we had met up since then. We went off to meet up with Hugo's wife - Bianca. Bianca and Hugo took us to an amazing place for supper - it was a restaurant within an old Moorish palace. We had a good blether over supper, as well as catching up on the last 4 years Hugo and Bianca explained a bit of the local culture and a little big of the language, which I just couldn't get my head round. After supper we went for a bit of a wander round Lisbon, naturally this had to include the local train station for Badger. I had never been to Lisbon before and from the little bit that we saw it seems like a very beautiful and cosmopolitan city with great architecture; unfortunately it started to rain again so we cut the sight-seeing short and went to a jazz bar for cocktails. We had a couple of drinks and before we knew it, it was time to say our farewells to Hugo and Bianca and head back to our hotel for an early start on Saturday morning.

Hugo

Hugo and Bianca

The Old Moorish Palace

Lisbon at Night

Castle of São Jorge

Day Summary

Day -	21
Miles Covered in Day	200 approx.
Miles Covered in Trip	3330 approx.

Spain - Conil la Frontera to Ayamonte

Day 20 - Thursday 16 May, Conil la Frontera to Ayamonte

Thursday dawned clear and bright if somewhat breezey and we were up for breakfast as soon as the hotel restaurant opened at 8.30am - we seemed to be the only guests. We had about 200 miles to get to Ayamonte, where Badger's in-laws have a holiday place so we decided to have a motorway day - Cadiz for elevenses, lunch in Seville and Supper in Ayamonte. My neck and arm were still pretty sore even after the rest day, so the first stop was a farmacia for some more Ibuprofen tablets and gel. We then headed off onto the motorway for a brisk spin up to Cadiz.

The temperature started to soar as the morning progressed and we were soon glad of the fairly stiff breeze to keep cool. The approach to Cadiz is quite dramatic there's a huge long narrow causeway that leads into Cadiz, which is situated on the southern side of a huge bay. Cadiz felt like a huge moderm town, but Badger had reconnoitered the route into the historic section the previous day. We stopped to take some photos of the place including a huge tree with massive trunk and branches, which is near the University.

Part of the Historic Quarter of Cadiz

An Amazing Tree

A Tiny Part of the Harbour at Cadiz

We got back on the bikes to search for a cafe for elevenses but before we had found somewhere with convenient parking for the bikes we found ourselves in the ultra-modern port district. Cadiz has a seriously big port and - like most big ports - has an equally confusing road system, we quickly gave up on the idea of stopping and just tried to find our way out - this resulted in about 20 minutes of going round in circles before we found our way to the motorway for Seville. We had to ride for about another 30 miles before we came to a service station where we filled up the bikes and stopped for a coffee. The motorway had started out reasonably empty, but as we neared Seville it started to fill up with traffic. About 20 miles before Seville there was a sign for a Pay Station so we attempted to get off the motorway at that point. This was a bad move - we had to pay to get off - then found that the easist way in was by the motorway and had to pay to get back on - DOH!

We were soon in Seville following the signs for the city centre. Badger asked a local biker for directions to the main station and he kindly lead all the way there. We were soon right in the centre of town on the South Bank of the Guadalquivir. Rather than mucking about we parked the bikes up and went for lunch at the local kebab shop, which was both cheap and delicious and much lighter than the kebabs you find in the UK. It was a real flying visit - lunch, a few snapshots and then head off for Ayamonte, but what we saw of the place it felt like a very young an vibrant place - definitely worth a proper visit.

Kebabs for Lunch

A Plaza

A Carriage Ride

Municipal Bike Hire

A Moorish Building

The Guadalquivir

Suitably refreshed after lunch we followed the road along the river looking for a place to cross and exit the City. Ayamonte is more or less due West of Seville on the A49 motorway, but Badger had plotted a much more circuitous route that took in a northerly loop that involved much more mountaineous terrain, however we really needed some local knowledge so we stopped at the first place we could find outside Seville. This turned out to be a bar in a sleepy little place called Castileja de Guzman. Badger found an English-speaking off-duty policeman, who strongly advised us against our proposed route, so Badger plotted out a much flatter route that roughly followed the motorway a few miles to the north.

This turned out to be a very pleasant afternoon's ride. We were now riding across a very fertile, rich plain quite often passing horses in the surrounding fields. The roads were mostly empty so we were able to make good time only slowing down for the many small towns we quickly passed through. I was out in front and shortly before we rejoined the motorway near Huelva, Badger suddenly stopped. I went back to see what the matter was. Badger had been listening to music on his iPhone, which was in his tank bag, when he went over a bump and the iPhone went flying. We split up to look for the missing phone, which Badger managed to find before another vehicle ran it over. Amazingly it was still working despite the screen being badly scratched. Reunited with his iPhone we continued on our way, we filled up at a nearby garage then got onto the motorway for the last few miles into Ayamento.

We pulled into Ayamento at about 5 o'clock and followed the signs to the tourist office. Ayamento is right on the border with Portugal and is a long narrow seaside town, which was built long before cars came into existence. The main street is a decent size, but many of the side streets are narrow cobbled alleys and the tourist office is in one of these. Badger had pulled his Triumph into about the only space near the tourist office and I was blocking access to a busy side street, so I went to find a better parking spot - unfortunately there wasn't one and as the street was one-way I ended doing about a 2 mile circuit of the town to get back to the tourist office. The only place to park was on the pavement, which was quite narrow and had a fairly high kerb and I got the front wheel onto the pavement, but didn't have enough momentum to get the back wheel on. I got my left leg down but the bike was at a bad angle, I didn't have the strength to keep it up and dropped it and went tumbling into the street with a loud crash. Badger and the Tourist Office staff came running out and helped me up, Badger and I got the bike up - fortunately the only thing that was hurt was my dignity, and the bike got a few more scratches.

Badger got us fixed up at a local hotel, so we rode round. They didn't have any parking nut let us park in front of the hotel entrance. This involved mounting another kerb and a ramp, but I was very careful how I did this and Badger gave me a hand to park the bike safely. The hotel was rather nice and reasonably priced so we got separate rooms, unloaded the bikes, got showered and changed ready for the evening. We had adjacent rooms overlooking a small park and Badger claimed he could see a Zebra from his room. As we walked into town to meet up with in-laws it turned out that the park was a zoo and Badger had seen a Zebra. We walked into the town centre to meet up with Badger's sister-in-law Jane and her husband Mark and a couple of their friends - Jane and Johnny.

Badger in Ayamonte

Apes at the Zoo

A Memorial in Ayamonte

We met up with everyone at a restaurant in the main square in town. It was rather nice to have some different company for a change. Mark and Jane had chosen an excellent place for supper and the wine and beer flowed quite freely. My memory of the latter part of the evening is very hazy, I am ashamed to admit that I rather overdid it on the booze, particularly the local spirits and needed some assistance from Badger to get back to the hotel and was very relieved to crawl into bed and instantly fall asleep.

Day Summary

Day -	20
Miles Covered in Day	200 approx.
Miles Covered in Trip	3130 approx.