It has been a big one today, Bucket man has managed a whopping 120 miles, including cycling across the Straits of Biarritz, and did not finish pedalling until 9.15pm so did his ‘up and over’ the Col d’Ispeguy in the dark. He has texted us a photo, but as it is photo of a mountain in the dark it could be anywhere, no sign of the pedaller in the picture. He is currently holed up in Elizondo, on the N121B in Spain.
Martin is finally content with how his bike is working so can no longer blame it for his poor performance. Apparently (and this may be horribly wrong but we had a mixture of bad connections and a noisy pub to contend with) he watched his wiggle going round (we are sure that is what was said) and worked out that a pin was half out of the chain. This is where it gets surreal, we thought Martin said he found a nobber, and then sadly, the phone went dead. What is a nobber we thought, is it Spanish for a robber and he has just been mugged in a phone box? Is it a special tool for working on bike chains? Once reconnected all became clear, he was saying another mechanic he had found who poked the pin back in so everything is now hunky dory. Oh yes, the nobber was French, and located some 25 miles north of Bayonne – phew, glad we sorted out that potential misunderstanding.
Just remembered, Martin has managed to text us two photos, including the dark mountain one which frankly, is pretty dreary but sadly, we don’t have the magic lead with us to attach the phone to the computer so have no way of sharing these with you yet. Stand by on Sunday for a blog with extras.
He also had two punctures today and no involuntary dismounts. Remember the little man with the big psi? Well his big psi was his problem today, as he inched his way up a steep hill with too many psi his tyre blew up, hence the puncture, although tyre" blow up" and "puncture" don’t seem close in our thesaurus…
Bucket man spotted another dead red squirrel; it is difficult to imagine how he will be able to contain his excitement when he spots a live red squirrel! His heart monitor is working so he is definitely not dead but he is proud that he did an 8 km (those dratted kms again) climb over his 700m high mountain, which seems more of big hill to us. No planned route tomorrow, but he is skirting around Pamplona avoiding any rampaging bulls. General plan is to head for Gibraltar.
As you can tell it was quite late as I crested the Col d'Ispeguy!
Over and out.
Canal sub blog: New crew member joined this morning, lots of locks, lots of sun, lots of wine and spirits due to very low yard arm. Now moored outside the Shroppie Fly public house in Audlem.
I don't know whether to feel jealous i'm not there or relieved..on the whole jealous.....really well written blog..you can tell he hasn't done it...!
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