7 Sept, Palencia

Well ironically though last night and today probably make the best reading of my adventures so far, I don´t think I can do it justice; I´m utterly exhausted.

You probably guessed already my sleeping spot of choice last night didn´t really do the job, I was getting desperate.

I lay there feeling smug, snug and happy and even when it started to drizzle it was fine at first.

I kind of don´t want to go through this I can almost hear you laughing, it may be funny from a distance and I know it´ll be funny tomorrow or the day after (or if i wasn´t on my own...) but it´s all a bit fresh and I feel silly.

The drizzle continued and grew in strength. So did the smug feeling, in fact my shelter was so good a few mosquitoes came to join me in it, complete with that terrible intangible stereo hum.

When rain started to come through one little bit of the bales, I didn´t worry too much. It´d probably stop soon anyway and I could avoid the drip.

It wasn´t very nice, though, when I started getting bitten by horrible crawly things that I couldn´t see, but weren´t the mozzies. I still lay there, trying to ignore it and at a loss for an alternative.

In fact I still lay there until my whole sleeping bag, all the cozy clothes I had layered on, my pillow and most everything, was wet, muddy and scratchy with straw and entirely different from the soft warm refuge I´d created a few hours earlier.

It wasn´t until something scuffled, right by my head, from a gap in the bales, (that was definately not a mite or a mozzy) that I leapt up and packed. I would have to continue cycling until I found a hostel and hope that there´d be someone awake to let me in. At least I´d be warm, on the move.

The next while was the closest thing to dreaming so far all night, white line drifting by on my left, edge on the right, wobbling along somewhere between the two.
A village I passed through´s church struck 2, twice.
Rabbit!

After an age, I passed a motel thing, loads of lorries parked all around and not a glimmer of light.

Oh, but some out-buildings! Look, no door on that one!

Full of shit. Great.

Another dream of white lines. I ran over a frog and cried.

And finally- a 24-hour garage, thank god, yes, yes, light and humans; who aren´t hurtling past on massive lorries.

The man hardly batted an eyelid as I stumbled in, soaking and muddy and bedraggled, his dog barking at me from the end of his rope.

I had some hot water and tried to blag a lift to Palencia with truckers, and he got a bit of my situation out of me- I was a bit embarrassed, to be honest.

But it was lucky I let my pride drop for a minute, cos the next thing he´s offered me a place to sleep- his and his brothers house is just round the back of the garage, so I gratefully hung my stuff up to dry and snuggled up in the most incredibly squishy, comfy bed until morning., while kind night-shifter worked next door.

Obviously there´s been today as well, but it wasn´t that eventful and now I´m in Palencia. Sleeping in a hostel tonight as I need to do some laundry, get decent sleep and it´s still raining.

I just had a frustrating but heart-warming silent chat with mum over skype, we could grin at each other like loons and gesture wildly but neither of us could hear a thing. That´d keep me going through another last night :)

Ate amanha x

Ferry musings

I´m perched in a litte nook on the windowsill right at the front of the ferry, where no desperate loudspeakered ´entertainment´ hassles me and the seat is comfier for not even trying to be comfy - the sky is hazy blue and I´´m squinting through my eyelashes from the sun (you know when it goes all rainbow blobby?)

I think I anticipated the fear of actually being on the journey so much in the time leading up to setting off that I´´ve got no room left for anxiety- I feel a little drunk and spacey, from lack of sleep and the rocking of the boat, and slightly timeless, having explored the ship quite thoroughly, watched a film, snacked all day...

My time in Bristiol was good if busy- the harbourside festival, where i saw some pretty faces I´ve not seen in a long while and some fireworks and had a good laugh, did some work setting up and taking down from the Invisible circus´´s Swing Thing, it was Ash´´s birthday on Monday which was a fine occasion indeed- overall it was hard work remembering to get prepared for the trip.

This morning I remembered a few essentials, but after a little disagreement with my alarm at 5:40 didn´´t have quite enough time, but I´ve got a good feeling and even gooder friends and I´´m fully looking forward to the journey ahead. The pass I´m thinking of taking is as high as Snowdon on the day I arrive, but I´m only planning on doing about 30k and I´´ve got acouchsurf organised who seems really lovely, so I´m not worried.

In fact I´m REALLY EXCITED!! And looking forward immensely to travelling for at least some of the distance with Nick and Hannah, who are also cycling to Boom, and just happened even to be on the same ferry!!

I´d be out of my mind with boredom already if they weren´´t here and it´´s lovely to have someone else with the same plans nearby.

We´ve been discussing routes, I think we´ll definately cycle together for the first bit- it makes sense to share each others company, slipstreams and luggage; but I´ve also come to terms quite well with travelling alone and may split off for parts of the journey, if purely for thesake of feeling I have. It´´d be good to give them space to travel as they´´d intended, too, and I´ll have more time to write if I´m not socializing :P