I have arrived in Sevilla in the south of Spain and i´m staying with Spanish Capeoira friends from Brighton; Jorge and Marta, in a lovely flat close to the old city centre where it all happens. There is deffinitly a strong flamenco culture going on here and I have already had the chance to catch some fantastic playing and some late night drunken singing in the yard. I am looking forward to going to a few lessons and more shows while i´m here and judging by the first couple of days here there will probably be plenty hanging out in bars and cafes on tiny little streets that reveal all kinds of hidden secrets.
The journey from Porto on the Portuguese coast was a fantastic ride through so many different places its hard to know where to begin. Having been on the beach for a couple of days it was actually great to head inland again but i did take a few days to get away from the more populated coastal regions and get back out into the wilds. First i followed the River Douro inland for a day or two and then up into the mountains and into the Serra Estrallas; the mountains of the stars.
The valley was pretty spectacular but also pretty full-on on a bike as you can imagine up and down those hills. Gradually the sprawl of new concrete houses receeded and the landscape revealed some lovely vinyards and more oldschool villages, there was even some forests and more wild corners as i climbed up out of the valley.
It took sevral days heading south east through towns such as Trancoso, Gaurda, Covilha, Castelo Branco and Castelo de Vida befor I reached my friend in Portalegre. the land became more and more empty and also dryer the further i rode. Endless fantastic fileds of cork oaks and olives that continued all the way to the mountains just north of Sevilla.
In Portalegre I stayed with Luis who i had met at the transition town conference in Liverpool in the summer. We did a little gig at the conference with Keith and Will on trombone and there was a small crew from Portugal who were the party corner, singing and dancing while the more reserved English folk were slowly warming but we did get em all up dancing in the end. Anyway Luis was pretty inspired by my cycle ride and invited me to come visit along the way. I had a great couple of days there with him and also Paulo and his other friends who showed me around town and stayed up till the early hours talking nonsense.
It is great that the transition movement is becoming such an international phenomenon and interesting how it will need to adapt to such different circumstances, but these guys are on the case so perhaps there is hope after all.
Whilst in Portalegre i had great fun doing an interview for some journalism students getting very confused with our languages but it was also quite insiteful in terms of the questions we came up with as to why someone would do such a journey as this. It´s all about Living the dream! Having a big idea and doing it. I´m thinking about developing a new career as a motivational speaker for corporate events and earning huge amounts of money.... Live the Dream! Hopefully they will actually complete the film and i can stick it up on the blog for all to see.
It was hard to leave. Even after just a couple of nights there i felt very much at home and it seems to be a bit like that. It´s hard to stop when you´re just cruising on and hard to get going again when you stop.
Any how from Portalegre the road lead south and east back into Spain and on the the Via de Plata which is another pilgrimage route from Seville to Saintiago. It was great to be on the Camino again staying in cheap hostels and meeting other folk on the road. The route took me through some beautiful vast landscapes of cork oaks and cattle ranches, olives and vinyards. The landscape at times almost felt African in its vastness and dryness. It was great to cycles through and the weather was always sunny, infact the land felt very dry and it turns out that they hadn´t rain for 7 months....
That has all changed now though and it has been raining even here in Sevilla.
I have passed so much road kill this last few weeks from hedgehogs, snakes, birds, frogs, foxes, badgers, cats, dogs and unrecognisable clumps of fur bit this beautiful creature did really touch my heart so here she is.
So many other tales to tell but that will do for now.
Back to the city streets and the home of flamenco. Much love from Sevilla
Wow, it's so great reading of your adventures. I'm jealous! The dead owl really touched my heart too. So sad.
ReplyDeleteI see that you decided not to use a helmut. So sad.
Ruah