Day 28 - 1,000 mile cycle across France 🇫🇷 + Spain
Packing up my stuff the Dutch lady walks over and asks where I am heading today. We start a conversation and find out that we’re both going to Denia. Her husband yesterday was telling me how he is in the taxi business and how Uber is illegal in Holland. And how he believes Uber has made it difficult for taxi drivers.
Breakfast is a can of monster next to a gas station. I kind of like these drinks but no I do not want to make a lifetime habit of it because that would be bad for my health.
today I have a 60+ miles almost 100 K cycle ride ahead of me. It’s sunny and hot and I wear my hat to protect myself also using suncream on the exposed areas of my body.
I stop to eat some brunch as I only had some chopped up fruit for breakfast which included Wild picked figs and a local mango from Spain.
The restaurant where I am at has a few people sitting around I found myself a table park my bike up next to a car which is kind of funny because it’s not a car it’s a bike but I’ve given it a full parking space it takes up a lot of room with all the bags.
After about 10 minutes of sitting there no one approaching me the waiter walks past me several times I get up go to my bike cycle off and say in Italian Catch you next time. I hear one of the guys repeat what I say.
I cycle further on into a town and go in along the coast where I’m sitting next to the ocean and eat some paella. It taste better than the paella from yesterday in Valencia. There are two African guys selling some merchandise next to the entrance to the beach. It looks hot and they are wearing hats to protect themselves.
Then I make a phone call to my good mate 100 mile Dave. We chat for quite a long time and he’s a good friend. He’s had problems with his knees over the past few years and has told me he has no cartilage left. So he has one more marathon to complete all the marathons in Europe and he has taken some injections for this.
We talk about maybe doing a running talk in the UK together when I get back. he really inspired me earlier on in my running career when he told me that he had one more 100 miler to do after already running three that year. Eventually he became the Grand Slam record holder of the centurion 100 mile events, a solid runner Dave is.
The next few hours were spent cycling amongst rice paddy fields. It was an area where I saw no people and felt very relaxed looking at the grains which made up my paella
I cycled on and saw after a couple of hours of cycling a sign for McDonald’s I thought this will probably be the last time at McDonald’s this year so went and got myself fries, a Coca-Cola and an Oreo McFlurry. I looked at the couple sitting outside with their daughter eating.
There’s definitely something in the food that gives you like a drug affect that makes you happy and satisfied.
anyway I push onto my next stop at a town which festival is happening fireworks are going off and there’s young people everywhere. The streets are full with the carnival atmosphere. I go to a bar and order two beers. I drink them, a drunken lady says the Queen is dead in Spanish I Shrug my shoulders, I know a lot of people make a big fuss about the Queen and her death but I googled how many people die each day in the world and the number that comes up is 100,000 people.
So as I believe in equality on Earth she is just one of the 100,000 people who died that day. I do not personally know her so therefore have no relationship and was emotionally and attached.
I feel tipsy after drinking the three beers and strap my speaker to my bike and play Spanish hip-hop cycling into the dark now with my head torch and call my friend David. I also do Instagram live and I have loads of people watching.
Earlier I found out I had another 33 km to ride and it Was kind of a bummer that’s why I had the beers.
The rest of the ride is fine it’s the first time I cycled during the night had torch on lights flashing on my bike and music playing out loud. My friend David has started a new job and he said it was a good day.
Finally I reach my destination. 1000 mile cycling across France and Spain what an epic adventure Felt like I just started yesterday and already I’m at the end.
