Sleeping on the beach

Day 41
Distance travelled: 88,7 miles
Time in saddle: 7hrs
Overall distance travelled: 3508 miles

I ended up sleeping on the beach last night. It was a little bumpy as it was a shingle beach and not very wide. It is illegal to do so but I’ve been told if you are discrete then it will be OK. How discrete can I be, a middle-aged cyclist, packed to the rafters dressed in black Lycra….no one will notice a thing. I was woken a few times in the night by breaking surf; it must have got a little rough. Then the fishermen were going out in their boats and shouting to each other. I don’t know what time it was but it was still dark. I eventually woke to the sight of two guys fishing from the shore and they were catching quite a few too. I slept on my camping mattress and loosely put my sleeping bag over me, it wasn’t really cold but the midges were having a feast on my exposed body parts.
I started cycling early today, which was nice. I needed to get some miles under my belt. I feel a little guilty about resting for a couple of days. It was great but I started to lose focus. It was pretty difficult to get back into challenge mode today but by the afternoon I was fine. The roads are even more confusing than they are in America. Two traffic policemen escorted me off the ‘motorway’…..may as well do it in the UK and France to see if I can get a set. I was Ok cycling on this particular road then it just went into a sort of freeway. I knew I was in trouble when I came across a long tunnel. The police car passed in the tunnel and sounded their horn. They were waiting for me at the other end. They were very nice. They showed me the route I needed to take and drove in front of me for about a mile, cheers lads.
I am saying with the sea in sight in future then I can be sure it is the coast road. The trouble is I have to stop at loads of traffic light…. I’m the only cyclist who does….every other cyclist I see seem to ignore traffic signals. I stopped a young lad of about sixteen and asked him the way. We used the international language of pointing and pulling faces….it worked. He cycled off laughing, no wonder, I can pull some funny faces, especially when I am trying to get to Alameria. I didn’t get his name but he was very helpful. I also met a fellow Brit cyclist, over here on holiday, we rode together for a short while and had a chat, unfortunately I didn’t get his name either but he said he would follow the blog.
I am missing my flags off the back of the bike. I left them at Sue’s villa the other day. I’ve bought some more flags but can’t seem to find a pole….story of my life. I may bump into Brian if they go to the beach tomorrow. He will be able to bring the flag to me. I will call him and see what he is doing. If not I will just improvise and get something.
I am glad I chose the coastal route, it’s much more scenic and even though it’s a lot busier it is flat, which is lovely. It’s been really misty today, it came in off the sea but the temperature is still high, at least 30 degrees. I felt quite drained by late afternoon and decided on calling it a day when I say a ‘Hostel’, which is very nice. I will have something to eat, do my blog, send it off and then have an early night ready for tomorrows adventure….whatever that will be.