Day 31 – Over and Out

Evening all, I know this is a late blog update and for most of you it will probably be a good morning. I doubt I could have summed up today straight after I had finished. Been too busy in a swimming pool and out celebrating!

Its not all been fun and games today though, started last night when I was trying to get to sleep in the sauna of a room that I had. No joke, I know a room back in France was hot but this was something special. My stomach and back was sweating before I had even laid down on the bed. My shorts i wear to bed were wet and after little if no sleep at all I decided to just get up and get the show on the road. But to remind you, It was the HOTTEST place on earth to try and get some sleep.

Within the first mile today from leaving Almunecar I was on a climb, it was like this for at least the first 10 miles. A nice easy start to the last day. It was coastal roads the whole way and the first section was up and down, but after that it was all pretty much nice and flat. I have been so close to the sea all day and again seen some lovely views. Shame that the nice views are always looking back into the sun and not very good for a picture. Oh well I have the memories.

I saw a sign for a restaurant called Lola today, which if you don’t know is the name of my niece. Made me smile and I thought about Uncle Sam telling her all about it one day.

When I came across this waterfall right beside the road I did think about dunking my head in. I managed to resist the urge and wait for the swimming pool at the end. Very hard to resist that as I was so hot it was hard to deal with.

Then I entered Malaga and what a busy city. They couldn’t cram anymore traffic lights in that place if they tried! I don’t think i managed to go half a mile without stopping three or four times! I stopped near the airport for some more ague and it was then that it hit me. This is all over as this is my last stop, next stop is the top of the hill.

Just to let you know and I guess you may have picked up on it from the last few days blogs, but these last 4 days riding have been very very tough! The weather has started to get hotter, the terrain has been a constant up and down, dealings with the Policia. Its been hard work but good fun.

Now i did have a black cat cross my path towards the end of today’s journey, now is that good or bad luck?

I spent most of today’s ride thinking about the hill at the end. Its been playing on my mind the whole way and boy was it tough! I had certain people say that they thought I would stop halfway up, that’s how steep it is. Its one of those hills that you have to drop down a gear in a car to get up. At one point I had to lean right forward over the handle bars as I thought the weight of the panniers on the back would have made me do a wheely. Couple of videos below, one of my view on the final bit up the hill, and the other what my mum recorded. I knew she would be there, worked it out last night when I didn’t speak to her at home and dad, well he cant lie to save his life bless him. Was good to see my mum, aunty and cousin all at the top cheering me on. Been told to rest up and let the girls pamper me!

I also had a little reception from a few of the other people who live here and the ones on holiday. Was a nice surprise as I wasn’t expecting it. I then went straight to the swimming pool and stripped off and jumped in. Cramp hit me about a minute later in my right calf! Probably the worse cramp ever and cramp in a swimming pool isn’t a good combination! Went out for dinner tonight and had a lovely beef capaccio starter and ravioli for main. Then I finished off what mum had left. And then had a little bit more room for what my aunty had left too.

Been working out some stats below to put it all into perspective what I have done,

– I have climbed 72931 feet, that’s the equivalent to 2.5 Mount Everest’s
– 1867.7 miles ridden, that would be like driving round the M25 16 times
– 137 hours in the saddle
– 110,824 calories burnt  which is the same as 205 Big Macs
– 129 litres drunk, that’s enough to fill a bath

Well after a long slog of 31 days away and 27 days riding its all finally over. Im a little bit sad to see it all go and won’t know what to do with myself when I wake up in the morning. When I rested up at the weekend I knew I would be back on the bike and riding again. Where as today it feels weird. Its been something I have spoke about for the last 2 years, and after putting everything together with help from my family i managed to make it happen. The whole trip has been an amazing experience, at the moment it all feels like one big blur, as the trouble I had back on day 3 seems like a lifetime ago. Im sure though that with time things will slowly start to come back to me and ill remember where I was when I saw some amazing sights. I would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who has donated to the charity and for those of you that haven’t and still continue to read my blog without doing so, put your hand in your pocket and try to donate a little bit.

Today’s journey was 65.47 miles, riding time of 4:50:49, max speed 31.62 mph, avg speed 13.51 mph, 4240 calories, 5.5 litres so far.