Day 98 25th October
27miles (around El Palmar) Average speed 8.8 mph top speed 22 mph
I left the campsite after brekkie of magdelenas and Fanta and headed towards Conil de la Frontera but the beach road ran out at a river so I had to go back and get on the main road.
(Ermintrude: this website http://www.vejerdelafrontera.co.uk/beaches.html gives an overview of this coast and an idea of how far the beach road runs.)
Torre Nueva El Palmar. This tower stands in the centre of the beach at El Palmar
Eventually found a bank and bought lunch and tomorrow’s brekkie. Looked around town and had a coffee then followed beach path to the river I couldn’t cross earlier. It was very sandy and hard on the legs. Mountain bikes were OK but tough in my thin tyres. I thought there was a road back to main road but I found myself back at the river I had avoided earlier. A Dutch couple showed me the way to cross it and I carried bike across up to my shorts in the water. Great fun and I took photos of them and vice versa.
Brian on the beach – river crossing
Headed back to campsite for lunch with some cats.(Ermintrude: Is this jive talkin’ or were they real cats?) Then to garage for air and on road back to beach I found some great firewood at a rubbish site. Then a few hours on the beach watching surfers and back for pasta dinner cooked with good dry firewood.
El Palmar surfers
(Ermintrude; Brian the Snail won his race at Catterick short odds at 5/6 but this is only his second race, so worth watching)