Day 95
The following day it was sunny but cold. I rode for about 10 miles South from Tende on the D6204 and then took the D2204 to go over the Coll De Brouis. The road was fantastic and the views were spectacular.
I stopped in the town of Sospel for coffee and croissants then once heated up by the morning sun I coninued on.
I continued riding on the D2204 and went over the Coll De Braus and Coll De Saint-Jean, again it continued to be a superb biking road with spectacular scenery.
I rode on to Nice and then on to the Spanish border. My plan was to go up in to the Pyrenees but as I approached the border French / Spanish border the mountains were topped with lots of black clouds in which lightning flashed every so often. I had no choice but to head for the gap in the clouds and in to sunny Spain beyond. As by now it was getting dark I headed for the seaside holiday resort of Lloret de Mar where I got a room in a five star hotel for 30 Euros, good value even if stuffed with tourists.
Day 96
The next morning I set off to Reus where I was planning to stay with a friend for a few days. I had just gotten south of Barcelona on the N340 and I was approaching a petrol station when the front end went all squirrelly again. Yes, it was yet another puncture to the front tyre, however, this time I had forgotten to buy a spare inner tube. So it was off with the wheel etc. in the forecourt of a petrol station about 3 miles from the nearest town. However, because it was around 1 o’clock, all of the shops in the nearby town would soon be closing for lunch and would not open again till about 4 o’clock in the afternoon.
The tube was cut and after checking the tyre for anything responsible for the puncture, I found that there was nothing. I had also done this when I got the first puncture in Italy but found nothing stuck in the tyre then either. However, I now had a dilemma and sat drinking a coffee thinking about how I could repair it as I did not have a puncture repair kit. I bought some tyre foam, the stuff meant for the emergency repair of tubeless car tyres, and tried that. Not only did it not work but now the tube and the inside of the tyre was coated with this sticky mess that I then had to wash off. I bought another coffee and sat again thinking about how to solve my dilemma, and then inspiration struck.
In my spares that I carried was a couple of lengths of Neoprene cable tubing, the stuff that you place over two joined electrical wires and then heat up to make it shrink. I also had some superglue, so I cut the Neoprene tubing in to rectangles and used the superglue to fix them to the rubber inner tube over the cut. The repair held when I inflated it, so put the tube back in the tyre, refitted the front wheel and I rode to the nearest bike shop to find a replacement tube. It took me visits to three separate shops before I got one.
Now 4 hours behind schedule I again set off for Reus but I only got about 40 miles before my repair failed. So, after another roadside episode of unload the bike, front wheel off, etc. etc, the newly purchased spare inner tube was now in the front tyre, and once inflated I continued my journey. I eventually made it Reus just before it got dark.
Day 97
I obtained a replacement spare tube in Reus and after a few days of rest I set off for Galicia and my ultimate destination on this trip. I rode West along the N240 to Zaragoza and then on the N 122 to Soria where I stopped to eat. Then I continued on to Valladolid and then via the N601 and N 610 to Benavente. This journey was very relaxing as the roads passed through some very scenic countryside scattered with old castles and quaint towns and villages.
As I approached my hotel on the outskirts of Benavente on the N6 the front end went squirelly on me again. On stopping in the hotel car park, I saw that the front tyre had deflated somewhat but it was not quite flat, so after checking in to the hotel and unloading the bike, I used my air compressor to inflate it and it seemed to hold the pressure. I again checked the tyre for anything sticking in it but found nothing.
Day 98
The next morning I checked the front tyre and it had not lost any pressure so I set off along the spectacular N6 and just as I was approaching the junction for the N120, the front end went squirrelly again. Yes, another puncture, however this time the tyre would not reinflate.
So it was yet one more episode of the unpacking of the bike and take the front wheel off pantomime. I again checked the tyre for something causing the puncture but there was nothing, so it was on with the wheel containing my second recently purchased spare tube, and I rode off hoping that it would last the 70 miles that I needed to cover to get to my destination. With a great sigh of relief it did.