Santander to Perpignan - Tour Daily

After staying at @Kati's place for the night, I packed everything on the bike that's now front heavy, have a flat white before heading to Waterloo to catch the fast train to Portsmouth, I was not the only one who's going on a tour, halfway to Portsmouth, there's a family who's going to France via ferry having a hard time with the station master trying desperately to convinced him that his trailer can be transformed into a much smaller item to be stow away in the cycle section without disturbing the Health and Safety lots, they're all on what resemblance, BSO, the dad is on an old Raleigh tourer that's too big for him hauling a huge trailer with everything they need, from tent to cooking equipment, they even have a small surfboard on top, dedicated.

His intention is to catch the ferry, then ride about 10 miles a day to each destination with his two sons and wife for a couple weeks before catching the ferry back to England, a kind of tour I wholeheartedly approved of.

Upon arriving at the ferry terminal, I was greet by a gaggle of kids on their overloaded bicycles in preparation for an adventure, I didn't asked much question other than the usual greeting, but I can tell by the group calamity that they're going to have a lots of fun.

Met three more groups, two couples touring Spain on their overloaded tourer (seeing a pattern?), and a German woman whom I spoke to at great length on the ferry learning of her tour, it's easier to get along with foreigner than my peers I've found, then a guy on a modern celeste Bianchi with two white Ortlieb panniers, and wearing full Bianchi kits, also heading to Spain, he took more clothes than I did, intended to B&B/hotel mostly.

The Ferry went without a hitch, dreadfully bored not being able to move around much, it very much stuck in the 90's, just how I remembered it when my family took an overnight to France in the 90's, swimming pool the size of a bathroom on the top desk reek of chlorine isn't helping, neither does the motorway style service station (admittedly not too bad if you stick to the surprisingly fresh salad only hand picked a couple weeks beforehand).

Saw my first hovercraft since the 90's while leaving Portsmouth, is the city even aware it's in the 21st Century? evidence suggest otherwise.

Slept on the floor as I couldn't afford a cabin, now seemed like a luxury notion after a night, although I did slept fairly well, walk around, consumed silly amount of food out of boredom (probably the only negative aspect of the ferry), luckily my ebook kept me going until we're near Santander, the desk is littered with people whom look very much at home by the seaside in Margate, just a severe lack of Tetley and seagull poo.

After arriving in Santander, we went into the hold to prepared our bicycles, everyone bid each other a farewell, the gaggle of kids would like to follow me to my destination, which is over 60km from the port, I hesitated as it just before 7pm, and sunset is at half 9, in the end I ditched them as quickly as possible to make my way to the camp site, feel very guilty for doing so but end up being very glad to, the only nearest one I can find within distance to where I'm going, just outside Santander that also allow me to catch up the missing day on the ferry, I stopped at a local supermarket to get some bread, cheese, ham and freshly baked doughnut that the Spanish love.

Foolishly I didn't quite check the route beforehand which result in I spending a huge amount of time climbing Puerto de Alisas realising it's one of the Vuelta climb after noticing the paints on the road, and the memorial near the top, it was getting colder, starting to drizzle, felt more like Yorkshire than Spain, but it was great to finally stretch my legs after 25 hours of wandering aimlessly in the ferry like a lost drug addict in High Street Kensington trying to bragged a free Ben's Cookies.

After arriving at the top of the climb feeling very miserable wishing I should have follow the German and the Bianchi to the camp site in Santander, nicely drenched in cold sweat and moisture, I quickly dry myself and put a rain cape, glove, and glasses on as the cloud finally engulfed the last ray of sunshine, pushing off onto the final descent that last 20km all the way to the camp site, still taking a while to get used to the disc brake being able to stop the loaded bicycle much quicker than I realised, braking very late before a corner is a skill I've yet to mastered after decades of rims braking (and skinny tyres I guess).

Arrived just after 10pm, pitched tent, blew mattress up, ate, pissed, showered and slept soundly.

http://ridewithgps.com/routes/5880050

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