Day 23 – Fun and sunshine – there’s enough for everyone!

Well I made it here, just over 80 miles and what felt like a lifetime. Its been a pretty fun day though and its even ending one too as I just walked round the whole town of Favara because I thought the woman at reception said supermercados are all shutting soon, where as what she meant was the one next door is opening soon. Language barrier hey!

I forgot to mention yesterday that its been a few days since I have seen any English plated cars, well I saw one, a camper van yesterday afternoon, so I gave it my normal cheer, although I guess they cant hear me and anyone who can just thinks I’m the lunatic on the bike! And then literally 5 minutes later another one shoots on by, this time a truck loaded up with someones furniture. None today though, as I guess they would all be using the toll roads.

BBC weather yesterday was telling me that today was going to be overcast and light showers all day. They couldn’t have been further from the truth! Its been an absolute scorcher today, I’ve been out in the sun all day and my shadow was like its own sun dial.

When I set off from Benicassim this morning, for about the first 15-20 exits of the N-340 I couldn’t escape the city of Castellon. It was like it just wouldn’t go away. I have never heard of the place before and yet soon as Vila-real came up (a place I’ve heard of from La Liga) I was expecting it to be a bigger city, but I flew straight through the place. Not even a hint or sign of a football stadium!

Stopped for some food, well I say food but my lunches these days are just energy bars and a banana. Once I had put a fresh coat of sun lotion on and was about to get on my way this Spanish guy on a mountain bike stopped, asked if I was ok. Told him I had just had my lunch and was fine, also mentioned what I was doing. Then again like the people in Benicassim, he was more concerned that it would be hard to get to Malaga, not even a praise for the 1400 miles I’ve just done. Maybe all these people know something I don’t about the remainder of the journey.

So once I got into Valencia the first thing I saw was this impressive Bullring. I couldn’t get a photo as the road I was on was just too close to it. But still it was probably bigger than most bog standard non league football clubs. They have this really good bike hire system over here in Spain. I had only seen the one in Barcelona before, but obviously the ones in Valencia are a bit more up market as they are all new. But you literally swipe your card, pick a bike up, ride for how ever long you want and then drop it off at another station. Great idea, although I cant see it working in London, they wouldn’t have any wheels left on them! I then went past the City of Arts and Science in the south of the city. The buildings were very impressive and the whole place made me want to stop and go see what was inside.

Just as I was on my way out of the city I heard a ping noise of some sort and stopped immediately to see what it was. I could see something metal lying in the road about 30 foot back and so I jumped off the bike and started working my way round both wheels counting the spokes. I swear I’m going crazy at every little noise and sound I hear. Even went over a bump today and thought I heard a hissing, but realised it was coming from the field next to me.

Oh and if you didnt notice I’ve had Club Tropicana stuck in my head all day!

Another pic of the hills in Cullera, I mean its no Hollywood sign but I guess it means a lot to the people of Cullera. I cant imagine however the people of Beverly Hills being too happy with some brilliant white Dulux slapped across the rock face.

For the majority of today’s ride I’ve had watery eyes and I just couldn’t get rid of them. And then to make matters worse the watery eyes turn into stinging eyes. The sweat coming down my forehead obviously had the sun lotion mixed in, this doesn’t go well with your eyes, looks like I got 5 more days of that. Then at one stop I take my sunglasses off to wipe my brow, when I accidentally touch the lens. Bad mistake, when everything your wearing is already wet, your gonna struggle to get that lens clean. I tried my best but had to knuckle down and ride the last 8 miles with blurry vision!

I didn’t use my google print out today, just kept following signs for Valencia and then used sat nav to get me around the city and over onto the road out of town. I then decided to go off my own back again until about 4 miles to go, which is about the time I like to give sat nav all the glory. But it wanted to take me on a 11 mile scenic de tour! I don’t think so! 15 minutes later I got here. Strange piece of technology!

Below says I have drunk 6 litres today, that’s 12 litres over the last 2 days, some impressive effort, and you’d think that it would be enough to keep me hydrated. Well your wrong, the tell tale sign of dehydration, the colour of your urine. Sorry didn’t know how else to put, and thought some people might want to know. Well even after 6 litres of water in a day it was still coming out yellow. I’ve already had to up my buying from 3 litres of water in the supermarkets each evening to 4.5, and then another 2 litres during the day from a petrol garage.

Today’s journey was 81.35 miles, riding time of 5:31:24, max speed 24.47 mph, avg speed 14.73 mph, 4890 calories, 6 litres so far.