Oh I Do Like To Be Beside The Seaside

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Thank you for your forebearance yesterday! 

El Ejido turned out to be a so-so sort of place....a big town but just somewhere to live rather than somewhere to spend 56 miles cyling into a headwind to reach.  This morning we were up and on the road before 9 and, as a consequence, reached our hotel by 2:30.  It was 67 miles and a  lumpy day but with an occasional treat:

When you are slogging up a big hill and think you have another few hundred feet of climb left and you suddenly find .....drum roll...... a TUNNEL, there is joy almost beyond measure.  We had 3 of these little beauties today.

2:30 was a little early for check-in so we racked our brains for something to do.  To help lubricate the thought process we had a cold beer and suddenly the problem just went away.  We are in Almunecar and our hotel is just a few yards from the beach.  The sky is blue, the sun is orange, the temperature is in the low 20s and everything is right with world.

Bonus Track 1 - Little Boxes

OK, camper vans.  In southern Spain there are a lot of them (they come from all over but mostly France  and Germany) but they don't bother us because they are usually parked up.  I assume they spend the whole winter down here but I have to ask myself whether living in an aluminium box in a dusty car park is exactly the dream they were hoping to live.  I have also noticed that these car parks have no services and carrying a plastic cassette full of turds to a disposal point isn't 'living the dream' no matter what they claim.

Bonus Track 2 - Soap

Any day now you are going to start seeing adverts on Quest, Dave etc, probably fronted by John Snow on David Attenborough, asking you to donate to raise money to supply Spain with soap.   Nobody has said anything but an acute  shortage is the only possible explanation for the pathetic soap ration in Spanish hotels.  Once I have attended to my cycling kit there is usually only enough soap left to wash the very smelliest parts of my body.  Yesterday I did the left armpit and will hopefully have enough tonight for the right.

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