The morning after the day before.......
A relaxed departure from Benidorm saw the bike fuelled, a little oil added and a wee hurl down the prom for a photo or two.
Having hugged the coast for a few days I figured a run up the mountains would be a good idea and I knew if I kept heading west I would eventually get to Portugal before hitting the Atlantic Ocean.
Suitably refreshed we set off on the trip with no destination in mind, I had clearly got a real bond with the bike now as I started to think of us as a team, a really funny mindset that I haven't had since travelling across the Atacama in 2014. It usually means you are going bonkers or have totally relaxed into a long journey.
Zipping about the rocky and sand coloured mountains was great and the miles and time flew by, this was all caught on my GoPro so no photos on my phone. I stopped at a roadside cafe to check my location and find a hotel for the night.
The coffee was excellent and I stayed a wee while and managed to book a hotel in Ciudad Real for only ?37, the reviews were good and I couldn't believe the price as all the other good hotels had been about double that, worth a gamble.
I headed off again in a westerly direction and was rewarded by stunning empty twisty roads for mile after mile, this was the best road yet and had me smile from ear to ear as I realised I was leaning well over on country roads with massive grip at 3 digits speeds.
Slowing down to catch my breath I saw a six military jets flying in formation in the bright blue sky and watched them for ages carrying out dogfighting manoeuvres in pairs against each other while my iPod which was set on shuffle decided to surprise me with 'Take my breath away' by Berlin and I was crying laughing at the coincidence.
As a wee aside when I was 18 years old and waiting to leave for the RAF, I took 7 different girls to see Top Gun at the cinema in a week, but not my wife, as we had fallen out. This is always brought up to me by my children as my wife has told them who the women are and they refer to them as 'The Top gunners' when they see them, lol.
I stumbled across a National Park, which was closed to vehicles but deserved a closer look.
It wasn't until I took the second photo that I remembered that I had discarded my usual knobblies for road tyres and I was laughing at my stupidity as I had been riding on loose gravel and sand for a few miles, not quite what the were designed for.
The park was beautiful and I wished I had more time to explore but I decided that I wouldn't push my luck with the tyres or indeed getting caught by the Police in a prohibited area.
Having ridden to the entrance of the park I stopped for a slash and remounted the bike, I had only ridden about twenty yards to the junction with the main road and was waiting for a bus to pass so I could get back on with my journey when I saw a Guardia Civil traffic car approaching from the same direction as the bus, I was flashed out by the Police and sat in front of them at the speed limit for the next half hour or so before arriving at my hotel, which looked promising from the outside and was well worth the token fee when I got inside my room.
Signing off this entry into my ride report with a bog shot, lol.
JimmyMac
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