Spanish coast SW

First time we forgot something and left the locks behind at Isla Cristina. I am sitting sunning myself by a beach at La Antilla while gary is pedalling back to the little hotel Paraiso where we had a bed to sleep in, the first for a good month! He'll be at least two hours. I kept his heavy bike bags to give him wings and this break gives me time to write.

We will continue for a day or so along the Spanish coast before going up to Seville for a couple of days to see the city before the flight back to Toulouse on the 23rd.

We are looking forward to seeing all our french family and Sacha and little big man baby Lucas are coming over from Quebec!

Dawn will be forty on the 28th,so a big celebration to come. Little viggo, Daisy and J's new baby has totally changed since we left.

Looking back over the last 5 weeks, lots of colourful memories come to mind and warm scents of pine trees and sardines on the grill, not to mention the fresh salty tang of the air. I became so keen on  sardines that i decided to use 'sardine' instead of 'banane' as my cycling mantra up tough hills. I gave it a go but soon went back to 'banane, left push right push,banane,left right........etc,etc

We complained about the rainy weather in the basque country but have other memorable images of that beautiful rugged coastline. When we finally climbed on  that first hot day to 400 meters above the sea from Irun, I can remember gazing down over the green drop to the dark grey/blue sea below and seeing a clear pattern of white birds' heads bobbing far below like a strand of pearls.

People were often warm and supportive, giving us the thumbs up sign when we reached the top of a hill as they drove by in low gear. 

Before leaving Portugal, we avoided one stretch of the coastal mainroad by following tracks across the salt flats finally ending up on a sandy beach opposite one of the flat islands in the group called the ria formosa. When I was waist high in the crystal clear waters, fish were swimming past me in all directions following the ebbing tide round the islands.

Some of the undrained flats were a deep red colour,right next to another rectangle of bright blue water. I have never seen nor eaten more fish than on this trip!

We now find ouselves south west of Seville in an extraordinary village El Rocio, suggested to us by Olivier , Martine and Pierre who met up with us near the spanish border.What a pleasant surprise to meet up with friends and neighbours by a beach in Portugal, so what did we do? Went and ate indian curry together!

Next day we took a ferry from Ohlao out to the islands and walked along a sun drenched beach together and had a picnic!

Going back to the present, El Roncio is very like an old mexican pueblo with vast areas of sand surrounding an old white walled church.There are mules pulling carts full of visitors, beautiful horses prancing by and enthusiastic flamenco style singing in the church, loud bells ring out over the marsh land and guns go off frequently to scare the pigeons away. Gary was forcibly ejected from his bike twice in thick sand! Just a few scratches.

We have cycled north to get here next to Donana, a national park full of scrub, pines, storks, flamingos and the odd lynx. In a couple of days we'll arrive in Seville and spend 3 days there before flying home. Will finally have lots of tapas and gaspacho!

So look forward to seeing many of you soon

Down the road.......

Anna