There is nothing better to lift the spirits than a holiday.
So, in the middle of July I took the bike out and rode it 1000 km to my friend’s house in Galicia. Not a cloud in the sky, 40 degrees and the whole journey I managed to do in (Ahem!) hours.
The only problem I encountered was at about 995 km in to the journey, as I was approaching the cut off for the village where my friend lives, I felt a sharp pain in my back and suddenly more pain, and then again. Having had this pain on a number of occasions before whilst travelling on a bike in the summer, I realised that a wasp had managed to get inside my jacket and was now stinging me but as I was travelling at (Ahem!) mph there was little I could do about it, so it continued to sting me until I reached my friends house. Once there I quickly shed my jacket and when it fell out I stamped the wasp to death. I know I should not have killed it but I needed to do it!
A cool shower and a bit of vinegar on the stings and I was right as rain again. As usual, once settled by the hospitality of my good friend, a major chill-out thereafter ensued. Each day I struggled to get less that 12 hours sleep! For the first two or three weeks, I seldom got up before 11 o’clock in the morning. However, I did feel that it was the best sleep I have had in years, so I never bothered to set an alarm.
Long hot days sitting under the canopy of vine leaves at my friend’s beautiful home, putting the world to rights or strolling up to the village for drinks and tapas with friends were followed by warm evenings, sitting after dark listening to the crickets chirping and watching the bats spinning and twirling around the odd light here and there, feasting on the insects drawn to them. Again, eating and drinking featured largely in these evenings. As it had been unusually dry over the preceding months forest fires became a problem in Galicia, as every other day huge plumes of smoke would rise in to the air signalling yet another fire in the distance. Luckily none of the fires were too close to my friend’s house.
At night the fires that were still burning were very spectacular as they lit up the evening sky for miles around. Thankfully when I was there no-one was killed but in Portugal the fires were so severe that a number of people lost their lives. This fire was about 20 miles away and if you look closely at the right hand side of the picture, wind turbines are clearly visible on the hillside, giving some idea of the scale of this blaze.
As I have said before, this part of Spain looks so much like Scotland, one of the places that I frequented was a small bar situated on a steep vineyard covered hillside in a river valley. The bar is run by two very nice Spanish people that I have come to know and it is surrounded by apple, pear, orange, and lemon trees. The bar is a beautiful spot to sit and relax, the beer is cold and the food is great.
It’s also a good place on a hot day to throw a dog in to for a swim.
