Whats it all been about eh...

Well I am shortly (two days) about to get the ferry to Morocco. For soo long now I have been looking forward to getting to Africa by bike that I still try not to think about too much cause I am still not there yet. Never havin cycled any real distance before this trip it has been funny learning how to keep the bike moving and working, the first time I took off the back wheel has hilarious as all sorts of washers and springs fell off I was not sure if I got them all back on in the right order but that was ages back so obviously I did haaa. Even how to pace myself to get the most out of the day has been a long learning curve, when to eat, when to rest, slowly you build up a routine to save time and make the most out of the day.

If any of you are ever in Portugal I seriously think the coast south of Lison is the nicest part plus if your there during the summer I recon you would be crazy not to drop into Tipi Valley and do some Yoga and surfing with Lauri at surfshanti.com. It is a very peaceful and beautiful little valley down near some wet lands and beach. I spent the afternoon with Lauri driving around in his jeep through the wetlands and hills and its a real find in terms of quaint Portuguese life.

Fixing my stabbed mattress

Leg one has been simply amazing and my favourite little things that I have got up to have been:

The romantic lonely fisherman

My coffee: Mixing so much instant coffee into so little hot water that it has the viscosity of Guinness and possibly should be legally a class one drug.

My leaky tent: I have searched for so long and still cant find the bloody hole that I have accepted the leak and I lie to the one side of the tent. My thermorest matress is like a lilo in heavy rain but I stay dry so its all good.

Tipi Valley

My clicking Knee: just seems to be normal now, no pain, I take gloucosomine and vitmains, drink plenty of water but yet the right one clicks away. Hopefully no long term damage haaa.

Rather than turn back
I thought I could push Celona around the lake,
2 hours of pushing later
I had to turn back anyway haaa

The funny times that I get nervous: cant really explain it but its usually when everything is going well I feel like the trip will go tits up because surely life cant really be this good!

The multi flavoured food: I use my cereal bowl to chop veg so my morning museli always has a tint of onion. My coffee has an essence of popcorn and my sandwiches have a smidgen of last nights dinner. But I truly love the mixes haaa.

The looks people give you: Some people will just walk right up to me and stand two feet way staring silently as I am eating. I will say hello yet most of the time they will stay dumbstruck and keep staring finally walking away muttering something like "du dud u loco dud du du" haaa. It makes me feel special when this happens, I wonder do they go home and tell there partner about the strange thing they saw today.

Celona floats easily enough

My beard: Yes I do look inbred. But I will not allow hurtful comments like that stop me from not shaving for one year of my life haa. It gaurantees no sex, not that I get much looking my "best" but it has to be done for the sake of looking back on pics in years to come. Remember that while my beard grows ever wilder, you lot are working!

My mistakes: Taking a wrong turns leading to pushing my bike through 20kms of sand in a national park, breaking my tent twice, putting my knife through my inflatable mattress and so many many more.

Inspiring people: be it emails from friends or the random kindness of strangers I meet everyday. I get so much out of each encounter and it helps to keep my head level and keep perspective on life. I under estimated how important some people are in my life and I am glad so many of you make the effort to keep in touch.

When I talk to strangers and they ask am I "solo" I say yes but I am not really. I think about everyone so much during the day that I feel you lot are here with me at times. I would never have made it past Wales without such a great family and bunch of friends home and abroad. But enough of the lovey dovey talk.

Focus: Making sure I keep my eye on the ball, remembering why I am here. Thinking about what I want out of this trip. Not worrying about distances, keeping an eye on the scenery rather than how far I have come. So I have been taking stock over the last week, remotivating myself and making sure I try get into some silly situations haaaa. Remebering its just a bit of a cycle.

This week has been another mini adventure the likes of which I will be laughing about for a long time. I was going along the coast road when all of a sudden it ends at a military barracks. So I getting chattin to a dude and he draws, with a stick in the sand, a map of how to get around it through the national park. All I could think was this is frickin funny and I did not really pay attention to the map and boy oh boy if I didnt spend the rest of the evening and half the next day in just about the most beautiful lost in the woods scene from Sopranos ever...

I think the one thing I underestimated about this trip is how funny it would be, I spend half my day laughing with strangers, animals or just by myself about how I ended up on a bike in a weird ass town. The south of Spain (under Sevilla) is a crazy flat swamp land. I had been aiming at a town that has a ferry to cross a river, way down in the middle of nowhere haaa I get there and of course the ferry is not working now. Haaa so I cycled back north 40km to the next crossing which was working but taking it was probably the riskiest thing so far haaa. It was as lobsided as I have ever seen a boat in my life, loving it.

My private paradise cove for the night

So Morocco on Monday, only real plan is to go see Fez, meet some Berbers in the Atlas mountains and hopefully see the west side of the Saharan dessert. I remeber years ago all the cars on our street got covered in sand and they said it was from the Saharan Dessert, I thought that was the coolest thing of all time. So to see it in the flesh will probably have me teary eyed.

Peace