Hell or High Water

Welcome to my blog for the trip I call El Fondo Part 2 from the place I finished in July 2019 when the weather was over 120 degrees Fahrenheit and I could not pedal a single stroke more.  That was like hell.

Today 21st March 2022 almost 1000 days later I am off back to Spain to finish this off come hell or high water....   High Water indeed.  On the morning of 21st March the weather forecast is saying it will rain all day every day !!!!

So I have bought a new rain cape which only arrived 2 days before setting off. Thanks to the lovely people at Decathlon allowing a Saturday post (for an extra £3)

I am all packed..  I have an old rucksack which I kept for this trip which is ripped and ready for the bin. I also have some old clothes set to one side which I chose especially for this trip which were not good enough for a charity shop and gardening in. So I can offload them when I get to Spain and my host Adolfo in the first AirBnb can recycle them for me.  I just want to add a note here about Adolfo. He has an AirBnb in Castellon and his was the same one I booked in May 2020 when I planned to go back but had to cancel due to Covid-19. He is a great guy and has been very helpful to me. He helped me in so many ways this year. He booked me a taxi from Valencia airport and also got the people at AB Cicles where I sent my bike to be built and checked over to drop the bike into his apartment 4 days before I arrived.  Thank you so much my friend and I hope you enjoy your present I plan on buying in Manchester airport.  Cheers !!

The kit I have consists of :-

Frame bag contents

• Xero shoes (great very light flip flops made of rubber and a piece of string) !!
• Ultralight T Shirt
• Ultralight top
• Running Shorts
• Hand pump
• Cleat covers for walking in
• spare snood

Top bag contents

• passport
• cash & credit cards
• contact lenses and spare glasses
• hand gel and antiseptic wipes
• phone
• sunglasses  (seems funny now)
• I was going to take sun cream but left it at home !! 

Bottle store on back in TT bottle holder contents

• multi tool
• torque wrench 5Nm
• tyre levers
• 4 x CO2 cartridges
• spare chain links and valves
• medical kit with paracetamol/ibuprofen and stronger painkillers 

Large Bag below the TT Bottles

• 4 x inner tubes
• Overnight Bag with toothbrush/paste/  7 x Chamois cream sachets
• Electrical Bag for chargers/cables/powerbank/spare batteries for lights

That's it !!

Bike set up pics I took before which I sent to AB Cicles

Last time I saw Henry at the DHL depot in Chester....

A really important thing I always do before I set off is download the map of the area to Google Maps on my phone which should help me out when in an area with little or no signal on my phone. I had to do it in 3 as the area was so big...

I also got the translate app on the phone too....

So me and Deb set off at around 10 am on the Monday morning to Whitchurch station...

Thank you so much, I'm not going to get emotional but thank you so much for letting me do these things  I love you so much Debby XXXXXXXXXXXX

Off we go..   I always think a good start to the trip and every day sets you off on the right note and to have the support of the one you love is all I ever need.

The train was on time and off I go....

I was actually early and got on the wrong train !!!  But this turned out to be great as I got the earlier train direct to Manchester Airport from Crewe and made it there 55 minutes before planned. It is always worth checking routes while in transit. Trainline doesn't always get it right. 

The previous week T1 was in the news because of horrendous queues and people missing flights but thankfully all was clear and it was OK.

Just a little queue at the gate...

As soon as the flight descended through the clouds over Spain towards Valencia I could clearly see the torrential rain. The rain in Spain definitely does not only fall on the plane. It was about an inch high on the runway too !!!

Face masks are compulsory in Spain so I had mine permanently on from entering Man T1 until I got to Adolfos AirBnb later that night.

The taxi man rang me and was there waiting with my name written on a piece of card.  How cool, is that. He was a nice guy and actually apologised about the weather.  He said it was the worst rain he had ever seen and it was not going to get any better all week.    Great...

It was a festival all week in Castellon called Fiestas de la Magdalena and it was such a shame as last year they could not run it due to lockdown.

I paid homage to the great bike shop who rebuilt the bike for me.  Shame it was closed when I got there as I wanted to meet Fernando and say hola !

Adolfo's AirBnb...

It was fantastic to finally meet Adolfo and say muchos gracias in person. He kindly got me 3 bottles of water and some fruit and biscuits too. The bike was safe and waiting for me downstairs in the back of his hairdressing salon. The 3 flats above were rented out and mine was on the second floor so I had to carry it up 2 floors stairs whilst trying not to scrape the walls with him following behind carrying the water and bag of food.

Bike set up....  took me half an hour to get it all on and ready for the morning...

Huge apartment I can do a 50m practice warm up from one end to the other...

The fiesta unfortunately had a downside.  They partied all night in the house next door and I forgot to pack some ear plugs !!!!

Good night....  ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ   My dreams were filled with waterfalls and flooded streets which would soon become my daytime nightmares.