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.