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

4 Sept - Puebla de Sanabria - 42km

What a day - absolutely stunning and truly trying, too.
We took the diddy road from Bragança to Puebla de Sanabria, through some of the most picturesque villages I think I´ve ever seen, complete with friendly and helpful locals and fresh, cold water springs and dogs and cows. The hills have been killers, but with descents so incredibly breathtaking I think everyone should have a go.

It would help if my chest wasn´t rattling sounding like an angry bear with every breath, and I wan´t coughing up things resembling alien molluscs on every hill.

Funny to arrive in this well-presented city, hair matted and sweaty streaks through the dirt coating our faces. My knickers stretched over my handlebars to dry after their wash in the river earlier, our lives piled high and bungeed tight to the back of our bikes.

Now as Saturday night noisily awakens around and above us we´re cooking another amazing meal on the little camp stove under the bridge. It´s great, we´ve got trees, grass to sleep on, light, a table-of-sorts to cook and eat off, and a river!

Despite all this I´m a little melancholy, I don´t know if it´s the knowledge I´ll be alone for the next however long, or the exhaustion of today´s excercise combined with remnants of tummy bug and chest bother, or just the moon and the distance and the river and the time...
I better go to bed before I waffle too much, muy chin´s on hte table and I haven´t even unrolled my rolmat yet.