2 MID-LIFE CYCLISTS IN A MOTORHOME: May 2015

The Santisima Trinidad, Alicante

We're heading for that striped mast!!

1st May 2015. We decided to start May with a climb to the top of the Serra Gelada
rather than our usual bike ride. The mountain side is covered in pine
trees and there is a marked route which weaves through the trees to
reach the summit where repeater masts are stationed. Some of the
route markings have long since faded so we took a few wrong turns but
soon got back on track. It involved a climb of over 400 metres and in
some places it was so steep I had to keep stopping to rest as my poor
thigh muscles and my lungs were protesting, payback for all the years
I smoked. It was a really tough climb which took us just over an hour
but the view of the surrounding areas from the summit was
outstanding.

The view from the top!

We could also see down to the lighthouse where we had cycled previously which looked tiny from the summit. I was amazed at how many other people we saw doing the hike so we weren't the only crazy ones!! The descent proved to be trickier than the climb with loose stones on the track. I managed to slip 5 times giving Glynn a heart attack each time as he worried that I would hurt myself. Apart from one heavy fall backwards when I landed on the palms of my hands I escaped relatively unscathed much to Glynn's relief.

Lovely beer and tapas.

When we got back down to the town we spotted a really pretty hotel courtyard with a small water feature and a big pond full of Koi carp. They were advertising beer and tapas for €1!! Heaven!! We sat and recovered from our climb with a well earned beer and some lovely tapas of crusty bread with Chorizo and a tasty sauce. When we got back to the Motorhome we had only walked 10kms but it certainly felt like a lot more!! Certainly far enough to warrant a reward of a glass of red wine!!

2nd May 2015. Our friends Deb and David arrived today. We met them last year when we were camped at Narbonne plage and again at Gruissan Port when poor David lost reverse gear on his Motorhome and Glynn had tried to help him (see July 2014 post) . We had stayed in touch and it was lovely to see them again. The first thing I checked was whether David had remembered to take out breakdown insurance this time!! We sat outside in the sun and enjoyed a lovely al fresco lunch while we caught up on all the news. It was a really hot day, reaching 29° and early evening we took a stroll down to Albir to show them the lovely beach and we enjoyed beer and tapas at a seafront bar before walking back. It had been a really lovely relaxing day.

 3rd May 2015. Ouch!! My calf muscles!! I couldn't even get out of bed this morning my calf muscles were so tight from the climb 2 days ago!! Glynn laughed while I hobbled around trying to loosen them up.

5th May 2015.

At the lighthouse.

We have enjoyed a couple of nice rides around the area the last 2 days, albeit only 40kms, so today we decided to walk to the lighthouse for a change. Deb and David don't ride and we were keen to show them the spectacular views so we took a leisurely stroll to the lighthouse and after admiring the views we returned to Albir to partake of more beer and tapas as a reward for the climb.
Glynn had been making enquiries about getting 4 new tyres fitted on the rear axles as he noticed the walls were starting to show early signs of cracking.

View of Albir behind us from the lighthouse

He discovered the tyres were 11 years old so they must be the original ones from when the van was new! A local garage in Benidorm had quoted us a good price and when we raised concerns about negotiating Herman into their workshop they insisted it would be no problem for them to come to the camperpark and take one wheel at a time to fit and balance the new tyres before returning them to us. We were very impressed at their customer service. The mechanic turned up and took the first wheel at 4.30pm and said he would drop it back on his way home from work. When he hadn't returned by 6pm we started to worry as the garage shuts at 5.30pm. We tried phoning the garage and then their mobile number but got no answer. We breathed a sigh of relief when he eventually returned with the new tyre shortly before 7pm. He fitted the wheel and said he would call in the morning to take the next one. It was only after he had gone that we noticed he had fitted a Michelin Agilis van tyre and not a camper tyre!! Oh well there wasn't a lot we could do about it until the morning so we decided not to worry about it. Deb and David had invited us to join them for the evening and we spent a lovely evening sat outside chatting, enjoying a very nice bottle of champagne and some nibbles. This is the life!

6th May 2015. Glynn phoned the garage as soon as they opened and explained the error with the tyres. Initially they weren't too happy and insisted we hadn't asked for camper specific tyres. I understood their reaction and once we referred them to a previous email we'd sent them they accepted it was their error. The camper specific tyres were showing as unavailable until the end of June so they agreed to refit our original tyre. As we didn't know where we would be at the end of June we couldn't commit to having the tyres from them so advised them we would be in touch if we were back in the area around that time. We breathed a sigh of relief that they still had our old tyre or things could have got very awkward. We waited in all day but the tyre didn't materialise. Glynn eventually phoned the garage again at the end of the day and they explained they had been very busy but would come in the morning.

7th May 2015. Ouch, sore calf muscles again!! I'n not sure this walking lark is good for you!! Might stick to cycling from now on.
At 9.30am a young mechanic turned up and took away our wheel promising to return in an hour and a half with the old tyre re-fitted. When he returned as promised he showed us that they had cleaned the rust off the back of the wheel , sprayed it silver to help stop it rusting and greased the wheel nuts. Now that's what I call good service. We breathed a collective sigh of relief that all had ended well albeit we still needed 4 new tyres!
I had a real fancy for some soup and we are somewhat spoilt in the UK when it comes to buying ready made soups as there are literally hundreds to choose from. This is not the case in Spain and after scouring Lidl, Aldi and Mercadona I was only able to come out with a chicken flavour packet soup, pollo con maravilla. Oh well, needs must!! I didn't know what maravilla was so I placed my Word Lens app over the packet to translate it and couldn't help laughing when it translated it as "knob soup"!! We didn't realise how apt the description would turn out to be as the soup was disgusting. Serves me right for not being patient and making my own. It literally translates as chicken soup with wonder! the only wonder was how they could call it soup!! I was determined to enjoy a nice soup so set off back to the supermarket for a nice dry white wine and a kilo of onions. In hindsight choosing to make a big batch of French onion soup in a motorhome wasn't my brightest moment but never mind. I am sure the smell will eventually fade and it makes a change from the smell of curry. The soup required 250ml of wine so while I caramelised the onions I happily consumed a glass or 2 to check for quality as I needed to ensure the wine wouldn't spoil my soup! The end result was absolutely delicious and we sat outside in the sun with a big bowl of soup and lots of crusty bread. I froze 4 bags of soup for another day but then decided to remove 2 almost straight away so that we could have the soup again tomorrow.

 8th May 2015. Glynn beat me at Rummikub 2-1 making the score 9-6. Enough said on that!!

 13th May. We have had a lovely time at Alfaz del Pi and in the last week we have cycled all around the area covering around 100kms. 

Villajoyosa

We headed in to Benidorm one day but got a bit carried away and ended up in the beautiful coastal resort of Villajoyosa, 20kms from our camperpark. The promenade is lined with lovely 4 storey narrow houses all painted different pastel colours and there was a beautiful wide sandy beach. A real picture postcard resort and if you're in to chocolate it is the home of the Valor chocolate factory where you can have a free guided tour before purchasing some chocolate! 
This morning we decided to leave Alfaz del Pi and head further south to El Campello. The views along the coast were stunning as we headed towards Alicante. The camperpark was in a fabulous location just 2 minutes from a beautiful wide sandy beach and just 3 miles south of the main town of El Campello. The tram line runs along the edge of the promenade and runs from Alicante which is only 10kms south of the camperpark and runs as far north as Denia stopping at Benidorm, Calpe and Villajoyosa too. 
We decided to explore the area and cycled along the promenade in the direction of Alicante. It certainly seemed to be much less hilly here compared with Calpe and we did an easy 20km ride. Tomorrow we will venture in to Alicante to explore.

 18th May 2015. We have spent a fabulous week exploring the area. 

Alicante Harbour

We cycled in to Alicante twice which was an easy 20km round trip. We cycled to El Campello and beyond, exploring the promenade and the marina on the way. There are a few short but sweet (interpret sweet as horribly steep!) hills leading out of El Campello so we were keeping our fitness levels up as Glynn suggested "let's just pop up that hill and see what's there"!! "Righto Glynn". I was surprised and disappointed that El Campello has not yet caught up with the need for cycle lanes. There was plenty of room to create them and many areas nearby provide excellent cycle routes. Maybe in the near future? On the whole Spanish drivers are very considerate to cyclists and there are few places we have visited where there aren't cycle lanes. Funnily enough the closest call I had was when an English car came within a foot of me. I can't print what I thought of their stupidity as getting that close is life threatening to a cyclist. 
I had been exchanging emails with Deb and David after they left Alfaz del Pi and after describing El Campello to them they decided to head back south and join us. They arrived this morning and we were delighted at seeing them again.

21st May 2015. We have spent the last few days catching up with Deb and David. We did a lovely 7 mile walk to El Campello market and back, we strolled along the promenade and had enjoyed a couple of hours chilling on the beach.

El Campello

I have even managed a quick swim although it was a far cry from the lovely warm waters of Goa. I was keen to head out on the bikes again today so we set off towards Alicante before chancing across a great cycle lane network. We followed the signs to the University at Sant Vicent del Raspeig. The cycle path varied from a separate lane beside the road to a wide tarmaced traffic free path through barren wasteland where we passed an old goatherd with his herd of goats. A series of whistles from the goatherd and the goats quickly cleared the cycle path to make way for us like a group of obedient schoolchildren. Typical I had forgotten my camera today so I managed a quick picture on my IPhone but it doesn't quite have the picture quality of my camera. From Sant Vicent we headed towards Alicante and then followed the coast road back home. It was a great ride albeit only 38kms. We decided to play boules after lunch and Glynn beat me 2-1 after a slow start. Deb and David joined us and again Glynn managed to sneak up and take the trophy after trailing behind most of the game. After dinner we decided to play Rummikub and I finally managed to beat him 3-0 bringing our total to 9-9!! All in all it had been quite an active day so we decided to chill with a nice bottle of red wine and some olives.

22nd May 2015. We caught the tram to Alicante with Deb and David.

Quaint Spanish street

I was keen to explore the ruins of Santa Barbara castle as I had visited them 22 years ago on my first trip to Spain when I had spent a week in Alicante with my dear friend Katrine (we have sadly lost contact so if anyone knows where Katrine is now let me know. She had just married Andy and was expecting a baby when I last saw her about 12 years ago). After exploring the harbour and the Old Town we started the climb up towards Mount Benacantil which took us through some quaint narrow streets lined with colourful pots of plants and there was an old Spanish lady sitting outside her front door catching the breeze.

The picture it created was the epitome of Spain. It was a really steep climb up to the castle but so worth it for the spectacular view when we got there. After taking some photos and catching our breath we began the descent in search of a restaurant and lunch!

The view from Santa Barbara castle.

When we finally made it back to the Old Town we found a great little place with tables lining the pavement and sat outside to eat. They did a great menu of 3 courses and a glass of wine for €10.50 a head. Bargain!! We didn't just get a glass of wine as the waiter placed a full bottle on the table accompanied by a lovely big bread basket with balsamic vinegar and olive oil too. By the time we had finished all 3 courses we were full. After a slow saunter back towards the tram station we headed home. What a great day it had been.

No words needed!!

23rd May 2015. After posting a review on the Motorhome Fun forum about how lovely the area was 2 more British motorhomes had arrived so I decided to have a paella night. Will and Jan, whom we'd met at our last stop in Alfaz del Pi, where also now at El Campello so there was 10 of us with Deb and David too. We had a great night getting to know each other and enjoyed copious amounts of wine and paella while we swapped information about great places to visit. Yolanda, who owns the site with her husband Jorge, knew we were having a gathering and turned up with a lovely Spanish tortilla to go with our paella and I had also made lots of garlic bread so I was definitely going to need a big bike ride tomorrow to burn it all off. 

Enjoying the lovely warm Spanish evenings!

Just as everyone was leaving at the end of the evening I got a message from my son Darryl asking to Skype. He had lots of friends round and they had enjoyed a big bike ride in the afternoon before heading back in to our village for a pub meal and a few beers. They were all in high spirits and it was great to catch up. Let's hope the house is still intact when we get home!!

 24th May 2015. OUCH!! I couldn't get out of bed again this morning, my poor calf muscles were in complete spasm. I am seriously going to have to give up climbing steep hills!!

27th May 2015. Glynn has continued to make enquiries about obtaining 4 new tyres but 2 further garages had confirmed the Michelin Agilis camper tyres were unavailable until the end of June. This presented us with the issue of whether it was worth the risk driving further south as although the tyres had good tread it was a real concern that we could have a blow out because of the age of the tyres, the other option would be to go for a different make. Yesterday we had been enjoying a lovely ride around Sant Joan d'Alacant and Sant Vicent del Raspeig when Glynn spotted a Euromaster garage. He made enquiries about camper tyres and although the manager spoke no English it was easy to write down the tyre size and he produced a written quote that wasn't only the cheapest we'd had but appeared to indicate he could get the Michelin tyres the next day. When we got back to the camperstop we enlisted the help of Pilar, the site manager, and she kindly phoned the garage and was able to confirm that the tyres were available and she was also able to tell the garage that we needed metal valves which we had struggled to get him to understand. So today we found ourselves driving to Sant Vicent at 4pm with fingers crossed that the tyres would be the correct ones. We were delighted to discover they were and 90 minutes later we were heading back to the camperpark €700 lighter of pocket but with 4 shiny new rear tyres to match the new ones on the front. At least we could safely carry on our journey without worrying about a blowout now.

28th May 2015. Today I learnt a useful lesson. We were just getting ready to go out on a ride when I decided to lay on the floor and do some stretches as I had been having a bit of trouble with my sacroiliac joint. As I laid down I heard a funny noise and felt this lovely warm feeling spread across my lower back. Then I remembered I had put my banana in the centre back pocket of my cycling top and I had just laid on it, squashing it !! Note to self, do stretches before loading pockets!!

Hot & sweaty but worth it for the view.

We decided to ride to Busot today which was my second daft decision of the day. It was very hot and Busot was at the top of a long long climb from El Campello. My Garmin showed we had done a total ascent of 400 metres when we stopped to admire the spectacular views. I had really struggled with the climb today, probably partly due to the heat and the wine consumption the night before and also due to the fact that no matter how hard I try I am rubbish on the hills. Will I ever get better? I can only keep trying. We enjoyed a well-earned coffee at a café in

Stunning view from the café in Busot

the town that overlooked the valley below and got chatting to a guy who had recently entered an event where he had cycled over 300kms over a weekend. Respect!! He told me to just keep doing the best I can. Great advice. The descent was awesome and I had to apply the brakes when we were reaching 50kms an hour as it was getting quite scary. It was downhill all the way to Mutxamel and then on to El Campello. We were back in no time and although we had only done 32kms it had been a tough ride. We decided to enjoy a leisurely afternoon playing cards in the sun.

 30th May 2015. After a quiet day yesterday where we did little more than stroll to a local market before enjoying beer and tapas we decided to go on another big ride today. 

The church in Mutxamel.

I liked the look of a town called Xixona as it was only 20kms away so we set off bright and early after a fortifying bowl of porridge and my banana safely tucked in my back pocket (after doing my stretches!!). Note to self: switch map view on Google maps to show the terrain!! Oh Lordy what a route I had picked. With a total ascent of nearly 450 metres in 29° of sunshine we arrived in Xixona suitably exhausted and when I removed my helmet my hair was wetter than if I'd just got out of the shower. Glynn went to order 2 coffees and came out of the cafe with a big grin on his face. All became clear when the waitress appeared with the coffees and the most delectable looking patisserie filled with chocolate cream. Oh my it tasted good and was well deserved. As we had been climbing all the way from El Campello this meant it was an easy descent all the way back and we stopped to explore Mutxamel, a lovely town we passed through, before heading back for lunch. We had cycled 46kms so an afternoon of laying on the beach was called for!

Looking a bit flushed in Mutxamel!!

31st May 2015. This month seems to have flown by. We have enjoyed some great rides in spectacular surroundings and also enjoyed the walks, although my calf muscles may beg to differ! we have cycled 442 kms bringing our total to 977 kms. In addition we got ourselves a job!! Yes, you read correctly. Ever sensible where money is concerned we had spotted an advert in the local paper offering a free stay at the camperpark we are currently on in return for helping out when Pilar, the manager, was at lunch from 2-4pm and also after 7pm when she finished each day. All it entailed was letting any new arrivals in and showing them the facilities and then Pilar would sort the paperwork when she was next on duty. It suited our routine perfectly as we tend to ride in the mornings and chill after lunch. We have had great fun learning to communicate in French, German, Spanish and Flemish. What I have learnt is that I speak far better French than I do Spanish and as for my German and Flemish speaking skills, let's just say thank god for sign language!! It has been great fun and we have met some really great characters. We will continue to help out until we leave here around the 10th June when we head further south to Cartagena. It also means we have come in under budget for once, well that was until we bought the new tyres!! Oh well, there's always next month!

Are we crazy!

Whilst browsing on Facebook I had seen a 30 day Ab challenge on the Cycling Bug page. Ever up for a challenge I persuaded Glynn we should give it a go. It involved doing front and side planks followed by crunches and bicycles. All month we have been working our way up from a 15 second plank (way too easy!) to 120 seconds (not so easy!). It has been great fun (read that as challenging!) and after only 2 weeks we could see a huge difference in muscle tone. By the end of May we were on 120 seconds front plank, 76 seconds side planks and 100 crunches and bicycles. We have decided it would be a shame not to carry on so we will repeat the last 5 days of the program. I am now looking for the next challenge so I may start on their 30 day squat challenge. All in the hope that I will get better at climbing those hills!!