Day 18 Perpignan to Béziers 94km

A late start today, not helped by the cold damp morning and grey skies. The spell of fine weather was coming to an end. As I packed I promoted my wet-weather gear to the top of of the pannier, I hadn't seen rain since I left Portugal.
Again, although this is obviously a summer holiday area, the scenery is nothing special. I was surprised by the number of prostitutes at the roadside, at least one every mile, sometimes in pairs. They are hard-looking women and I feel sorry for them. They look absolutely freezing in their short skirts. A few do what they probably consider to be a sexy dance, but in a lay-by in the middle of nowhere it looks incongruous..... I keep pedalling.
I'd hoped to get through Béziers and camp the other side in daylight but it was dark by the time I got through. On the way out I hit a kerb and fell off my bike for the first time. It sounds funny but my heel was clipping my baguette as I pedalled and I turned round to move it, the next thing I know I'm on the pavement. Fortunately no damage done to me or bike although I was glad I was wearing gloves. No photos today.

Day 17 La Belle France!

Girona to Perpignan 99 km

Just keeping up with traditions!

Fancy a date?

Girona is a nice town, worth a return 'weekend away' visit. As I was leaving the hostel, the ever-cheerful woman on the front desk gave me directions to the 'ugly lion' and insisted that I go and kiss it. Legend has it that if you (in her words) 'kiss the arse of the ugly lion' then you will one day return to Girona. She must have given it a good long kiss because she came back and is still here 5 years later.
Crossing the Pyrenees into France was a non-event on the N11, hardly any climbing at all. The steepest bit was going up the main street of the border town of Perthus. The town was packed, bus loads of visitors, all there for what seemed to be duty -free shopping. I don't understand how you can have a duty free zone between two European countries??
The rest of the day was uneventful, nothing worth getting the camera out for.
I camped in the dark very near the TGV (or AVE as they are called in Spain). Actually, I'd been told quite firmly several times in Girona that I'm not in Spain, I'm in Catalunya. The desire for independence here seems even stronger than in Galicia.

Day 16 - Friday 15th Feb 'Rest day' in Girona

OK, I'm tired. I've been cycling for 2 weeks now so why do I feel a bit guilty about a lazy day off? I've covered 1,400 km, mostly in the direction I planned to go, albeit without having to deal with any nasty headwinds. Out of interest I've checked the Google maps distance for my approximate track and it gives 1,170 km (with that very important caveat 'This route may have road closures'). So I've been bimbling about on mountainous back road diversions for an extra 230km  - ouch! That's 2 days riding.  The problem is, and it's caught me out 3 times now, is that new autovia's have been built over the original road and the car is king.....bicycles and tractors shall take to the hills. It really messes up your day.

What! No bikes!

I've re-sewn the catch on my trousers, done all my laundry and later this afternoon I'm going to go out on the bike (unladen!) and take a look around Girona. There is a Decathlon store not far away as I need a new water bag ( the original came off the bike over a speed bump and skittered along the tarmac just long enough to wear a hole in the corner) and a thermal sleeping bag liner. I've been checking out the night temperatures in the Balkans and I need a bit more insulation at night. My current silk liner is light and compact but doesn't add much insulation. 

My hostel room in Girona

Tomorrow I'll be in France, I'll aim to pull up somewhere south of Perpignan but will do some detailed route planning this evening.

Day 10 - Feb 09 The fantastic Gorge

This mornings' ride was a downhill through the beautiful  gorge of the Valle de Mesa. I took so many photos but have just included a couple.
I've run out of time to finish this so there will be a gap for a few days.... going to jump to Girona now

Day 9 - 08 Feb Diversion through the Valle de Mesa! 111km

Dropping down into Algar de Mesa at dusk

 After a nippy start I slowly climbed up to a plateau at 1060m and then followed a long but chilly 20km descent. I was annoyed to discover that my planned route to Calatayud was buried under the new A2 autovia so had to head south into the hills to find a way round. I ran out of daylight and energy around 7pm, back up around 1000m where the temperature really plummets once the sun goes down. I stopped in a cafe in a remote mountain village (Algar de Mesa) to ask how far it was to Calatayud. As soon as I found out that it was a another 60km I gave up. Yes, the cafe owner had an apartment I could use just down the street, reduced to 20 euro from 30 because it had no heating (clearly a summer letting only www.la-encina.com). Yes, I could join the family for supper at 9.30pm. So began an epic night. I drank brandy until dinnertime in front of a big open log fire. The table in the bar was set for nine, other guests joined us from the village and we ate barbecued lamb chops with a delicious red wine. Guitars came out and it all turned into a pleasant musical alcoholic haze.  The only downside was when I finally got away to my freezing apartment there was no hot water as promised. Arghh! I was so looking forward to a piping hot shower. Instead I heated saucepans of water on the cooker to have a strip down wash.......not the same thing at all, especially when standing on icy floor tiles!

I don't know why he wanted to shoot me - maybe it was the conversation about the  ownership of Gibralter 

It's fuzzy but that's me with the gun!

Leaving my apartment the following morning

Day 8 - 07 Feb La Horra to Quintanas de Gormaz 102km

It started to snow as I was having breakfast this morning and ended up rushing around like crazy to get the tent down and everything packed away before it got covered......cold porridge anyone?
Spotted an Auchan hypermarket this morning.......so many goodies! I came out with 2 bags full of treats, looked at my bike and thought where am I going to stash all this?

Topping up with goodies in Auchan hypermarket. Where am I going to put it all?

If I'm passing through a village around 5pm I'll find (often the only) cafe/bar and order a coffee and brandy to pep me up. The brandy comes in a very large glass and all for around 2.50 euro. I'm tempted to have another but I'd never get going again.
I think I eat well when camping, Tonight was pasta with garlic, fresh mushrooms and diced smoked ham dressed with fresh watercress (which I'd spotted in a chalk stream and stuffed my flask full). Yum!

A cheese and watercress butty and a nice cup of tea

I love pasta!

Myfirst and probably last campfire - smoke and ash everywhere!

 My favourite camp spots are normally in pine forest, sheltered and a carpet of pine needles. I lit my first log fire to sit around but it was a bit of a failure as the wind kept blowing smoke and ash into my tent and cooking stuff. It snowed overnight - definitely into winter operations now!

The cover always manages to blow off during the night

This taught me to put all my stuff away at night - almost!

Day 7 - 06 Feb Palencia to La Horra 78km

A late start around midday today, it takes 3 trips to carry my bags from my room on the 3rd floor to my bike in the garage. I dialled up my next GPS track to get me out of Palencia and it is missing! So, it's back to my handle-bar mounted compass (this has been so useful) and my very large scale map of Spain. Now this type of navigation is much more fun but not so efficient in terms of time and energy.

I seem to get on stretches of road that are favoured by truck drivers. There  is a constant stream of these powerful machines and they are from all over Europe. The roads are salted to prevent black ice and each time they pass they stir  up a white cloud of salt dust, I can taste in in my mouth. I think to myself......ok, so you've got a long way to go to....... but I bet my trip is longer than any of yours! Sharing the same valley as a disused railway line it seems that we made a bad decision to give up on rail transport.
Now I don't know why I didn't know about this before, but some truck drivers (in this country anyway) pee in plastic bottles, put the cap on, and throw them out of the window. The unpleasant evidence lies there in the fields and ditches. Now it might be unwanted iced tea but I really don't think so. And it's got to be a road safety hazard; I don't mean being hit by a flying bottle.....but gentlemen, imagine trying to pee into a coke bottle while driving a  40 tonner on a minor road.......do they use a funnel? Are there any accident statistics available? Anyway, it's not pretty to look at as you cycle along.

I'm about 10km NW of Aranda de Duero and heading into vineyards. I'm noting the names of some of the bodegas and will try and track a bottle down in the supermarket when I get home. There are acres and acres of vines, many still to be pruned? How on earth are they going to get them all pruned before the sap starts rising? There doesn't seem to be anyone about.