Just when I thought the sun was going to stay out...

The largest cactus I have ever seen. Taken outside Guillena on the Via de la Plata.

After resting up and chilling out in Sevilla for a few days, the weather warmed up and the sun came out. My heart beat seemed to return to normal (no more palpitations) and I decided to do a loop around Andalucia.

The day that I left Sevilla it was beautiful. I stopped at the Roman archeological site of Italica on my way up the road and spent the night in pilgrim´s hostel in Guillena.

It started raining that night but it is still fairly warm down here so I thought I would get out and pedal anyway.  It would only be 25 miles or so up to the next stop on the Via de la Plata. The first few K were fine and then the track began to look like this:

After about 500 meters, my bike started to look like this:

I kept telling myself, it will get better, the track starts to slope and I reasoned, the water will be running off and the track will become more solid. NOT! I have never experienced mud as thick, heavy and sticky as this. My wheels actually stopped rolling because of the mud that was building up under the rear rack and the front fork. That was the point of not using fenders. 

So, I wised up and headed back to town. I passed a deep puddle now abouot the size of a pond and because people in Spain tend to use the countryside as waste disposal, I found an intact kitchen trash can and began pouring water over the bike from the pond. I don´t want to think about what might have been in the water. It was kind of close to an industrial area.  I was able to scrape enough off to make it back to town and found a gas station with a hose.  It took over an hour to clean it up. I took the bags and the wheels off and then discovered that even the brakes were fouled up. When I started cleaning those up , while standing out in intermittent downpours, I dsicovered that the brake pads had become so worn from the friction of the mud, they were unusable. This posed yet another problem. Then I discovered both tires were leaking air at an alarming rate. And I asked myself this question: What is the universe telling me? 

I´ll keep you posted. Thanks for reading this...

Looking back and going forward...

Sevilla, Spain

Palm trees! Wahooo! 

(To see more photos, click on the link)

https://picasaweb.google.com/117111156682678516435/SevillaSpain#

I have just been looking back at some of the older posts and I realize it has been a wild ride. I mean that literally as well as figuratively. 

After what I consider to be a debacle in Salamanca, I began to reconsider things. I began feeling very anxious toward the end of the walk into Santiago. So much so in fact, that I started having heart palpìtations. I have not had coffee in weeks so I know it´s not caffeine related. And please don´t worry too much. I´m being cautious and taking some steps to try and rememdy this from where I am. 

I´ve made it to Sevilla although not by bike. I needed to get out of the cold so I hopped a bus and took my bike with me. I was hoping things would improve in a warmer climate but I´m still have this anxiety and still having heart palpitations. 

So, with much consideration, I´m taking a break. I have a tentative flight back to London on the 22nd. I bought a fairly inexpensive ticket it with trip cancellation insurance so it´s possible I will continue on to Morrocco.

For now I am in a very nice hostel in Sevilla. It´s inexpensive and the staff and the owner are awesome people. I´m going to go down to the beach for a day or 2 and at least look at Morrocco and maybe put my toes in the Mediterranean.

The hardest part of all this is the idea that other people might judge me as weak or that I have failed in my mission. Of course more importantly than that is the judgement I feel toward myself. I´m wondering if I am giving up too easily. You know all the usual crap that runs through one´s mind when considering prioroties. If it was a significant physical injury, I would give myself  much more leeway. But it´s not. I´ve always grappled with the idea that there is something "not normal" about the way I´m wired, or defective. I´ve been anxious most of my life. In fact, I´ve learned on this trip that I often make impulsive decisions because I tend to be anxious. Of course intellectually I know the "not wired correctly" is bullshit. But my intellect cannot justify pedalling with heart palpitations. That just seems dangerous and stupid. My ego is NOT that big.

I was also begining to feel isolated and very lonely. That´s another bad combination. I´ve been on solo treks before, quite a few in fact and had to deal with the usual amount of being alone. I am fine in my own company but something just isnt working. 

So, is this a total failure? No, only an incompletion. I pedaled across France and half of northern Spain. I walked the other half. I think that´s a success.

There is a saying in mountaineering: ¨No mountain is successfully climbed until you´re back at basecamp".

Many mountaineering fatalities happen on the way down.

But not to be so grim abou it. Spain is awesome! I have had a great trip. Most people don´t make it out the front door. Of course this is not much consolation really because I really wanted to at least make it to Tangier by bike.  So, I only pedaled 1000 km this time instead of 2000 Km.
Thanks again for reading this.

Salamanca

A Tuna from the University in Salamanca

A tuna is a group of musicians made up of students of the various of a university. There is a colored sash that identifies the faculty or school to which they are affiliated. Traditionally, tunas were made up of students who could barely afford their meals so they played in restaurants and cafes for soup and other food that was offered.

As you can maybe see in the photo, taken in the Plaza Mayor in Salamanca, it's raining. In fact it's been raining for days. I tried to cycle out of Salamanca today:

 

This is what it looke like. And this:

 

 

I got a little turned around when I arrived at the first junction, I made a wrong turn and ended up back in Salamanca. I am attempting to cycle south on the Ruta via de la Plata to Seville. This should not be attempted without having thorough psychological testing. The results of such testing on me would surely indicate: NUTS!

It was raining hard when I got going in the right direction into a cold, gray headwind. I made 12 K in about an hour and a half. That's about 8 miles. As the rain began to penetrate my rain gear around km marker 9 I began to ask myself, "What the hell am I doing out here"? Then there was this little conversation going on in my mind. One side (the sane side) asks, "What are we doing here"? Not only is the weather horrendous it's the middle of nowhere with no sight of somewhere anywhere. The other side of my brain responds with, "What are ya worried about, really, what's the worse thing that can happen"? To which the sane side says, "Oh, you know get blown into a ditch, a little hypothermia.." At  km marker 12, I actually turned around and pedalled back to Salamanca. You know the strangest thing happened. As soon as I turned around the wind stopped blowing and I seemed to be going much faster.

So, now my dilemma. Same crappy weather for tomorrow. I can probably leap frog my way very slowly from Pilgrim hostel to pilgrim hostel as they don't seem to be more than 20 K apart. Or jump more trains and busses and head farther south. I've given up trying to follow the route backwards. I've got a road map with the waypoints marked ad I'll just stick to pavement.

My other thought is to call this ride and come home...Ahhhh, home. Now there's a thought. Remember that scene in the Wizard of Oz when Dorothy says to the 3 farm hands after waking up from her "dream"? "I know that if I ever go looking for my heart's desire, I'll never go any further than my own back yard. For if it isn't there, I never really lost it."

OK, whatever that means...

Anyway, maybe what I really ought to do is adopt a dog and grow squash.

Thanks for reading this. 

 

 



Santiago!

 

Walking the final 500 meters into the main square in front of the

cathedral felt like gliding. Not that I was walking on air it just felt very quiet. There was a musician  playing uielleann pipes as I walked under the final archway and it provided a lovely ambiance.

The only thing left to do was sit with some friends and share what was left of the loaf of bread I bought on the way into town. I sat for close to an hour watching other pilgrims come in after. The ones I knew I welcomed with a warm embrace.

 

The pilgrim's mass the following day also happen to fall on All Sanit's Day! The cathedral was filled to capacity and they lit the botefumiero right away. It took 6 r 8 men to get it swinging and it started to smoke, the choir was singing in the balconies, the bells outside were ringing and the organ was playng. It rocked me to my core. One f the more moving experiences of my life. It was a high holy day and the bishop led the service. From what I could understand in my limited Spanish it was warm and inviting. This experience will be with me for the rest of my life. To really feel the presence of the divine in that moment with that much depth was profound. I am grateful for the opportunity I had to travel this path on both bicycle and on foot. It would be very difficult to articulate all that has transpired on this part of my trip. It feels as though I have lived an entire lifetime.

It is my feeling now that although the route of Camino Frances is a fabulous bike ride, walking offers a totally different experience. If one were to ask me my opinion of which way to travel, I would answer that it depends on their intention. For the spiritual practivec, I recommend walking. For the aesthetics of a bike ride, then ride.

Speaking of riding. With the feeling of completion of the Camino de Santiago behind, I am ready to get back on my bike. From here I am travelling back to the city of Leon and collecting my bicycle.

From there I will follow roughly the Ruta Via de La Plata in reverse and make my way into southern Spain.

Now that I have my computer back, I should be posting again more regularly.