More Riding

After doing the Sierra Bermeja mountain last Saturday. I decided to get straight back onto the bike the day after. Now If i'm to cycle from Gibraltar up to the UK. Then I need to cover some mileage in a day and do a full day ride rather than just an afternoon ride. So a nice 135km route - Ronda the Long Way round as I called it was devised. From Estepona to Casares to Gaucin to Ronda to San Pedro to Estepona. To say that was a marathon was an understatement. I blame the terrain though. It was mountain terrain. 135k on the flat should be a lot easier! The other problem was that it was bloody freezing up the top of those mountains! I didnt learn from the day before to wrap up warm, and I didnt take enough food either! 10 hours 20 minutes of cycling, and ended up having to cycle from San Pedro to Estepona down the busy A7/N340 road in the dark, which was a mad dash at the end! I did suffer the next couple of days after doing that. But woah what a ride it was. It did not put me off going further... to Yorkshire!

Today I decided to do an easier route and a change of scene from climbing mountains all the

time. I drove the bike to Los Barrios and went from there to Tarifa. Tarifa is the most southernly spot in europe. It is in essence, the

Edge of Europe with just a 35 minute ferry seperating two completely different cultures. It was actually so great cycling down into tarifa listening to French speaking, Arabic music Morrocon radio stations and looking over there to a different land. It was so clear today you could make out buildings and practically see cars driving over there. The photos didnt pick this out unfortunately. It just made me want to put the bike on the ferry and go there! So today was a nice 75km run which wasn't too mountainous. However in contrast to last week, I did find it rather hot at times. Even in February the temperature was 21c. Tarifa gave such a reward at the end with its white sandy beaches.

Im now off the bike for 3 weeks due to going to the UK (by plane!) and moving house down here which is going to occupy the next few weekends. Ive been randomly playing with the tracker at the side here updating my position every now and again. It seems to be working well! Twitter updates plus Flickr update giving a little slideshow are all working well and updateable anywhere via my mobile. So all good there!