so the 2 day ride from albecete to valencia was fairly uneventful. i met another dutch cycle tourer heading the opposite way so passed on my knowledge of the train track. some hairy moments on the freeway getting into valencia but fairly easy riding. id like to thank my sponsors, the morning tailwinds and gravity as i came down off the highlands down to sea level

spent 3 nights in valencia which was fairly quiet due to still being holidays and the locals go elsewhere. hung out with a english guy, irishnguy amd american guy. tried to get in with the german female group of uni students in the hostel but no joy. another goddamn snorer in our room. valencia has this great massive public park that uses the area the main river ran through the city before they redirected the river southnof the city due to flooding. they almost turned it into a freeway but luckily they didnt. a really good use of space and they habe done a goodmjob with it. unlike their "science and art" precinct which while it looked impressive the buildingsare all starting to deteriorate and apparently has been a colossal political shit fight with spending.

left valencia at midday to head to barcelona. road along the coast road with alot of european semi nudity. (some good, some very bad). in the late arvo met rapha a spanish cycle tourist who even spoke english and rode 40km with him. really nice guy with no fixed address and a self proclaimed "gypsy".he was spending a couple days with his girlfriend  in the town ahead so i camped in a mandarin farm. (yay for me). he was heading inland after that so we had to say our goodbyes. was good to finally ride with someone.

 i had been intending to do 2x 150km days to get to barca. considering the coast is all flat it would have been achievable. but a strong head wind slowed me down and by 4pm id only done 40km. then i took the 'scenic' route in the arvo which ended up being a 20km dirt track which with a fully loaded touring bike was pretty rough and slow. great scenery though as you were right on the water. ended on 95km and had a terrible nights sleep for some reason last night so unlikely ill make it to barca today

28.04.14

saturday had to deal with a bit more headwind, and kept doimg little detours along the nice coastal towns which were in varying stages of weird abandonment. weird amount of construction in progress or maybe was in progress before they realised no body was coming. in think the tourism (especially british) is very seasonal but these were ghost towns.

further up highway luckily realised that the girls selling drinks on the side of the road were actually selling alot more than that.... was about to stop until I clicked.... but jesus these women were rough! i swear eastern europe had sent over the absolute bottom of the barrel. i kinda feel sorry for the spanish truckies who i assume are their clients.

 didnt get on the bike until 1pm (more like 11am sun wise). just very tired and slow. day before i smashed out this 25km section trying to break a record so that may have something to do with it.

usually the first 40km are the hardest and then you just settle in. ended up finishing to barcelona after 127km with a really awesome section in the arvo. a crazy winding road around cliffs. pretty crazy but the spanish drivers are vrry considerate and always give you heaps of room. from what i could find it was the only way into barca to avoid the freeways. finally a dash through the city finding some accomodation in the dark.

rest day tomorrow for sure


kinda looks like trick photography

view from camp spot. wind turbines in the distance. looked cool at night as they were all lit up in succession

valencia science,art precinct that looked cool but not that interesting

raphe my temporary spanish riding friend

mandarin farm camp site

didnt last long but another awesome cycle track

this giant art structure was an ugly piece of crap

found em, had to buy em.

off roading

new definition of 'road train'

cool old section of town

if they bring out this flavour of cola, i don't care how thirsty I am.....

these spanish factories look so dark and awesome, like out of some bond movie. looked cool with the mountains and clouded sky

new use of chain breaker. 

stealth camping level: expert 

camp dishes

some amusement park south of barcelona

no idea

teragona, nice city southnof barca

prime use of invaluable beachside real estate...

epic road into barca. photos dont do it justice. not much room for me but the traffic was messy anyway.

another epic-looking factory

HOLA from Spain!

alot has happened since morocco so jist going to try amd go from the dates to try and remember.
in general, as youd know i sorted out my knee and everything in spain has been fantastic. roads are good, have had a great time with people ive met in hostels. loving the slow spainish lifestyle and enjoying learning some spanish. (ok, not much but some nonetheless)

06.04.14


crossed the ferry to tarifa, spain. i had some additional stretches i had been doing that i was pretty confident would work. the ride began will a steep 10km climb, which my knee was fine with. i walked some of it just not to overdo it.got into the next down and finally had a decent feed with no fear of food poisoning. plus a $2.50 beer! got some supplies and during the 30 km ride out of town to find a camp spot, the knee went again. spewing.

07.04.14

took off from camp and could feel i wasnt going to get far today. the coastal road was amazing but couldnt enjoying it having to walk, ride with one leg and generally wonder what the hell i was going to do about my knee. i figured i need help and every doctor i passed either wouldnt see me for days or it was the goddamn siesta.....siesta sucks for getting anything done!

i figured i need a decent sized city so rode to a town called estapona, caught a bus (angry bus guy broke my fender bolt) and arrived to the city of malaga. hobled to the closest hotel i could find as my knee was buggered


08.04.14

i found a hostel so could meet some other travellers and then started my mission to find a physio. of course big language barrier, more people speak english in marocco than spain. in the end i found this great physio who spoke english, treated me, gave me advice on more stretches and additional excercises to build up a particular muscle in my leg, got me in contact with a orthapedic specialist to get a knee brace and also a contact for the best bike shop in town to see if they can make any adjustments to my bike setup. all for free.

of course its all start\stop with siesta so couldnt  get to orthapedic place til next day. the girls there were awesome but told me it was unlikely they could order the brace in time before semana santa, the week long religious holiday. nothing opens, nothing happens except processions and drinking.
it could potentially take 12 days to get it. when i told them i will pay to get it shipped or couriered, they laughed at me. "it doesnt work like that in spain"

the VERY short version is she managed to get it the NEXT day (i still dont know how).
a couple extra days of seeing malaga, bit of partying. i really liked malaga.
 I was nervously ready to try again on the bike. if the knee went again I wasn't sure what i was going to do....

i did a light 27km to take it easy and found an awesome camp spot. no pain.
day 2 a solid 50km with some decent climbing, being ejected off one of the freeways by the police (apparently no bikes allowed). lots of stretching but no pain. day 3 was a huge 70km with heaps of climbing. would have been well over the equilavant of 100km on flat......I was CURED! it was a catholic holy week miracle!

spent 2 nights in grenada, had an awesome time there also, saw a great flamenco show.

16.04.14
it was time to try and catch up on lost time. i rode out of grenada 10km and camped in this old decommisioned camp ground.
day 1 .knocked out 100km, camped in olive farm
day 2 another 100km, camped ....i cant remember.

19.04.14 day 3. woke up it was a miserable day. not raining but very foggy and humid and overcast. which meant no sun to dry up the crazy amounts i sweat. (btw, the weather in southern spain had been nothing but ideal so far). i wanted to make it to the city of albacete which was 125km away. the first 60km was tough and stopped for lunch thinking i wasnt going to make it. windy and cold and unpleasant. luckily i met these two cycle tourists at the cafe, from belgium in their 50's, who told me not 50 metres from the cafe was this dedicated cycling trail made from an old train line. and it was 60km straight to the city. being an old train line it was a perfect consistant gradient (slightly downhill) so i smashed it out and it was absolute cycling bliss. there were 12 tunnels you had to go through that stetched for 500m. pure darkness. luckily i have my head torch for camping. it was an awesome end to the day. (well it pissed down rain at the very end) i found a hotel (no tourism here) but it still only cost 27 euros. went out to find some food and ended up drinking for hours with these locals in this small bar. just talking shit (really as only one of them spoke a small bit of english). was a fun night. bit dusty this morning but just need to do 70km with some decents to camp in this natíonal park, then finish tomorrow in valencia.

need to move so hopefully the photos will tell a better story.

welcome to spain

looking back to africa

malaga peeps
(dirty beard got chopped off that day)

old man brace

a few olive trees

and more

kkk is back....

semana santa action

endless stretching

 awesome cycle trail

1000km milestone

rain happiness