09/30/2023 Bikepacking Spain Day 53 : An Abundant Resource Suddenly Becomes Scarce.

An early start once again (however this photo is from yesterday). Today was predicted to be hotter than yesterday, but the sun fell short on its promise. —

Pigs! You know by now that Janet loves pigs, so we stopped to visit with these guys. I sure do eat like a pig, so this may be why she likes me! 🐽

So I climbed up on this rock wall to get a snap of Janet. After she rode by, the big rock I was on fell off the wall, taking me with it. Feeling a little Humpty-Dumpty-ish! Luckily, I landed on my feet with no injuries. 👣

Puzzle time! On the left doorway and the right doorway, there are two solutions to the same problem. This is already a big hint. Do you know what it is? Scroll down for answers. . . . . . . Janet and I kept seeing 3’ tall boards and or jugs of water outside of doors all over Southern Portugal. The trend continued throughout today. Once we got into Spain, I was relieved to be able to have conversation again, so I went straight up to a woman who was mopping the sidewalk and asked, “what’s the deal with the bottles outside the doors?” “It’s for the dogs,” she replied. “But the dogs can’t open the bottles. How can they drink it?” “No, it’s to stop them from urinating on the doors.” “Oh!…. But how does it work?” “I don’t know!” She shrugged 🤷‍♀️, and laughed. “It’s a custom here.” The boards in front of the doors are the other solutions. After I had asked her, I started to notice other unprotected wooden doors that were rotted away right where the dogs take aim with their pee. 🐶

Water….water… from everywhere… to nowhere! In the North, we didn’t carry any water except at the end of the day. I’d just grab a little here and there throughout the day from the abundant springs and fountains in every town. Suddenly, here in the South of Spain, that is all gone. There is no water on the ground anymore (I did find one spring today)… and in every town, all the public water was turned off today. I didn’t drink much up North because it was cooler. On cold days, sometimes only 1 bottle all day long! But down here where it was 110F yesterday and high 90s today, I am drinking a lot and wanting to pour it over my head and clothes too. After soaking my jersey yesterday, it was completely dry in 10 minutes! Today, we were completely dependent on the help of other people to obtain water. An elderly woman retrieved a jug from her house. A man helping his daughter carry a router table went and filled up our bottles inside. And at a party in town, (video next), a man filled up our bottles from inside and even gave us ice. Our spirits rose 💯 with the ice! 🧊

Janet recounting the story of trying to get water in town. All her color and cheery brightness returned once she got rehydrated. —

So, something a little interesting happened mid-day. Janet mentioned, “I’ve been thinking about going home.” Uh oh. We still have 37 days left on our visa.. but we thrust ourselves from the beautiful, cool, but challenging mountains into a dry heat that is absolutely reminiscent of home. Home is a good place, but the reason we travel at the cost and sacrifice of not seeing friends and family for a long time is to see NEW stuff. I’ve felt that “why am I doing this?” feeling on tours sometimes log ago in the past, and that is always a good time to reevaluate what you’re doing. Sometimes it is just biochemical. Maybe you’re tired or dehydrated or having caffeine withdrawals. Emotions can be pretty fickle like that… but if the feeling continues for a while, maybe a change is needed. We found some shade and set about planning. Looking at maps and a way to “fast-forward” to the mountains again. This GR48 route isn’t really our schtick. Turns out we had just climbed up a 450 foot hill leaving behind the “last” train station for a while. We decided to scoot a few days ahead on a complex mix of trains. We were all ready to go back down that hill - I had even taken a “stop exercise” dose of insulin… when we suddenly saw online that the train we wanted to take had been shut down since July. There is a bus… but NO BIKES. Ugh! That meant we would keep riding (and now I had to eat some sugar 🤢). We carried on with a new plan to ride 2 more days… and then take a train on a different line. This is something I like about this style of touring: if you don’t like what’s going on, just change the plan! Since we have no reservations or even a return flight, it’s all very flexible! 💪

We did a little towing and the temps decreased a little. Things looked up 🆙

I had stopped to eat the cheese I bought for dinner. It’s that sliced cheese with pieces of paper between each slice. You can imagine the smiles on mom’s making their kids’ sandwiches when this invention came along. Flip that smile upside down to a frown.. and that is me by the side of the road trying to extricate paper from the melted cheese blob. I finally gave up and put the mess in my mouth and spit out waxed paper bits. I was Quite the oily and messy specimen after that, and was overjoyed to find the one spring of the day. A frog was living in here, so I deemed it safe. I poured 3 bottles of water over my head - and dried within minutes, washing away the queso sins from my hands and face. 🧀

👍to no non-refundable reservations. Glad the day looked brighter as the cooler breeze tickled your soul. I'm going to be keeping my eye out for the water bottles.

Mark G.