When The Party's Over

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The observant among you will have noted that there was no blog yesterday.  I can only imagine your disappointment as you sat waiting for the Facebook ping that alerts you that there is fresh bollocks to read.  The reason was simple....I didn't ride!  An intermittent back problem (which some have said is probably spinelessness) made itself known yesterday morning, and I know that the price of ignoring the 1st twinges can be high.  So while the boys did some hills I did some chills.

Today the back was improved enough to get back on the bike and we decided to head back inland to Competa, but reversing our route from last time.  The forecast was poor but we felt we had to give it a go as it was our last day.  As we headed inland and uphill the temperature dropped and the sky got darker and 3 miles from Competa (and the top of a 10 mile hill) it started to rain....or rather we think it was raining there already and we just rode into it.  We turned around and headed for home which still gave us a 40 mile/4000 ft ride and left enough day for bike packing.

Packing to go home is the worst part of any trip and bike packing even more so...the bikes are now dirty and nothing seems to fit into the box quite as neatly as it did at the start.  The trick is to drink beer while doing it but it is a fine balance because it gets even fiddler after six or seven.

The paella chef has presumably been working on our dinner for 7 hours now and has just 5 more to get everything ready for our farewell feast...no pressure.  During those same 5 hours we will have to think of something to do.  If only there was some sort of fermented beverage that was tasty to drink!

Tomorrow morning we will return the car to the Thrifty forensic scientists, who can find a ding or scratch of less than a micron, and join the queue for Malaga passport control which often starts in Barcelona.

The next adventure is not really a Grumpy Old Men production, but it's a big one so worth a blog or 30.  Watch this space in about 3 weeks!

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