It was to be a day of quiet reflection of the last couple of days. Thinking about the 2 couples I had met, their different stories and ultimately what happened. I personally gained a lot from the experience, both in terms of learning to handle the bike but also a good sense of perspective. In the end it was all sorted very easily but had it not been a campsite ultimately geared towards motorcycle trail riding, things could have turned out very different. They really are a good bunch at Camping Isabena. The son who seems to do all the maintenance runs the motorcycle side of things and says it's a regular occurrence having to rescue people off the mountain. (Wish they'd told me that beforehand!) They even leant Oliver their car to go to the hospital and took care of all the translation over the phone. Camping Isabena; highly recommended. I was surprised at how angry Ralph was. It had been a long day and we were all tired. I can understand Oliver's need to get back to base ASAP. For Ralph and I there was no rush, so his anger directed at Oliver for leaving us behind was completely misplaced I thought. Plus his wife needed to go to the hospital for God sake. The whole start together, finish together does depend how fast you ride and Ralph was slow. Oliver was genuinely gutted that Ralph was so angry with him.
The team awaiting recovery:
As the miles flew by, I startes thinking how great it will be to meet up with he boys in Palencia (not forgetting Mark, Kathy, Brian and Gerry who will be joining us later in Morocco).
There wasn't much to photograph. The landscape is vast and green. I wouldn't say there is that much to admire round here. I've had a ride round and I've got to say it does lack a little something. If you ride through little Italian villages, generally they are well kept and have a natural beauty about them. Here the villages just look like complete tips with old and new architecture thrown together. They will even leave buildings abandoned, yet build some hideous structure right next door. Strange.
I decided to stop by the road side in a little overgrown picnic spot and break out the stove. Chicken curry tonight. I'd been saving it till now. Wayfarer really are top drawer when it comes to boil in the bag.
Oh and I forget to say I was pulled by the rozzers as well. They really don't f@ck about do they over here. I thought it was bang out of order. I came round a blind bend, under the speed limit and suddenly everyone slammed on their brakes. A lorry had broken down but unfortunately I didn't have enough time to slow down so I nipped in front of the car in front of me. I'd say collision avoidance. Unfortunately I crossed a solid white line and the cop who was blowing his big whistle went absolutely bananas. I tried to explain I couldnt see round the bend and didn't have enough time to stop but he was having none of it and donned his cap and demanded to see my licence. I said it was way down at the bottom of my bag and proceeded to slowly unpack my entire bike on the road side next to the same dangerous blind bend. In the end I was so slow, the lorry had moved off and now they were having to direct traffic around me. Eventually he said 'ok ok, no problem' and told me to be careful next time. Cheers for that! Got a feeling my pops was looking down on me and squared that one away for me. Cheers dad
Now a shower and a nice cold beer is in order. I need to try and get my shit together. A week in and my organised packing system has gone to rat shit.
A few pics to follow once they are loaded.
