Day 27: 11 Sep ’91 Wednesday Maintenance in La Azohia

A reasonable night. Breakfast of boiled eggs, bread, jam, butter and tea. Had a quick shower before washing my kikoy before setting off to spray our bikes down with a jet wash. Spent the rest of the day servicing our bikes, re-greasing wheel bearings, pedals, pulleys on derailleurs, bottom bracket, putting new liners on my rims and taking out tyre liners (they’re supposed to prevent punctures but, in my experience, they’re useless). My mood deteriorated as the day went on. Eventually, we finished bar re-greasing my headset.

Clouds began to form over the hills behind us. The Belgian returned from his day out somewhere and commented that it was going to rain. Indeed, it looked so, which produced hurried actions to pack away to put our things either in the tent or back on our bikes.

After this busy period, Dan and I went to the supermarket to buy supper (bread, cheese, salami, wine, cream puddings and chocolate). Sitting on our jerry cans, we ate, feeling odd spots of rain on our backs. That was all the rain we had.

The wine was going to my head. Another shower freshened me up a bit. We decided to wander to the bar to see if the TV was on but it was full of Germans and awful music was being played. Sluggishly, we walked back to the tent to write our journals under the strip lamps. Last night, we decided we were going to go on to Algeciras without meeting Steve and Simon. A shame but we will have to wait around for at least a week before meeting up. It sounds like a small amount of time but we are finding it expensive to hand around in Spain and it may well jeopardise later travel. So we’re going on.

It also might mean that I might not see Penny in Algeciras. I thought about her today and had a huge bout of homesickness thinking about her at home in England. I miss not having her with me. I miss not being able to touch and hug her. It’s not only the physical side I miss. I miss talking with her, laughing with her, reading the newspapers with her. It’s killing me. What is she up to? She starts her course soon and her mum in visiting her from Botswana in two days’ time. I want to see Penny soon.

Tomorrow, we will finish off servicing the bikes and push off. It’s good to stop and settle for a while but this place is the epitome of all that I dislike about Spain. The coastal part of Spain that I have seen is dreadful. Coastal Spaniards are lazy, unfriendly and rude individuals. The sooner we get back to the mountains, the better.