Spain - Montalban to Heliin

Day 11 - Tuesday 7 May, Montelban to Hellin

We stuck to our usual ritual, up at 7am, breakfast at 8am and off at 9am. It was another hot Spanish day. Badger and Eddy were navigating and we were staying on fast A-roads so I didn't pay a huge amount of attention as to where we were headed, I just let them get on with it. When I was leading, I simply asked them to point me in the right direction and headed on off. As with the previous day, the riding was great fun, the road surfaces were good, the drivers considerate to bikers and the bends well sign-posted; Eddy reckoned that a good rule of thumb was to ride round the bends at the speed indicated by the signs - only at mph rather then kph on the signs, it seemed to work pretty well.

We stopped for coffee about 11am at a place called Teruel, which seemed a rather affluent little place. I nearly came a cropper in the cafe when paying the bill, I missed a step and nearly went over, I only just managed to stay on my feet. Imagine a drunken elephant on roller-skates- you'll get the general idea. I've no idea what the locals made of it all. However - apart from my pride - all was well.

Elevenses at Teruel

In an effort to get some serious miles in we decided to only have a picnic lunch and popped into Requena to but bread, cheese, ham and drinks, which we ate at the roadside outside town.

Roadside Picnic

After lunch we pressed on headed roughly towards Albacete. By about 6pm we had gotten as far as Hellin and decided to stay the night there. We were all pretty hot and tired and getting a bit fed up as we driove around looking for a decent hotel. Eddy had asked some locals who had said there was a place around the corner, we however chose to go to find the tourist office and after a frustrating, unsuccessful and very hot 40 minutes drove back to where the locals said and found a basic and very cheap hotel. We decided to go for separate rooms, Eddy and Badger got quiet rooms round the back, but I ended up facing the very noisy road.

Outside the Hotel in Hellin

After showering and changing we went out for supper and a wander round Hellin. We ended up at a restaurant on the main shopping street - we hadn't got into the Tapas habit and it was not easy to find somewhere that was serving food early. The locals only started to appear for supper as we headed for bed. This was our last night with Eddy as he was headed home in the morning whilst Badger and I were headed towards Granada and an appointment with a Triumph dealer to get his fork seals changed and charging circuit tested. We had a farewell toast then headed back to the hotel past the bullring, which looked like it had seen better days.

Day Summary

Day	11
Miles Covered in Day	200 approx.
Miles Covered in Trip	1900 approx.