Inland to Portalegre and south to Sevilla

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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.

oh yes and i passed the 3000 km mark on my journey ever south!
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

A map of where I am!

hi folks,

I`'m in Portalegre in Portugal staying with a friend that I met at the Transition Towns Conference in Liverpool in the summer. Having lots of fun and I will write a post soon....
.... but he has just shown me how to have a map showing my location on the blog.
So this is where I am.....




Wahey, the technological advancements are leaping forward!!!!
More tales of adventure and photos to come.
I was also interviewed by some journalism students here today so there should be a little student movie coming soon to.
Ver mapa maior

Down by the Sea Side

After my first month of cycling across France and then the Camino to Santiago I decided to rest up in Vigo at Pablo´s house. I had only had 2 days off from cycling untill then and it was great just to hang out in one place and meet a whole bunch of sound folk and be spoilt by Pablo´s kind Galician hosptilaity so a massive thankyou to you for everything P.

It was great to play a bit of capoeira again and meet up with a small but perfectly formed crew of Angoleiros there and mess around doing our thing.

The Galician coast is a beautiful rugged coast line with little islands and gorgeous bays and there were plenty of beautiful sunsets across the Atalntic. Infact it seems that we are having an unusualy hot hot autumn and every where i go people tell me that the weather patterns have completely changed over the last few years..... climatre change is happening for sure!

I do also need to big up a fantastic little bar in Vigo called the Charlatana bar run by a great English woman called Fleur who has spent many years wondering the globe but now settled down here to run the bar and be the hostess with the mostess. We spent many a happy evening drinking in her place and felt very welcomed by the vibe there.

Leaving Vigo i decided to take the coastal route and have now spent the last couple of days on the coast road heading south. Its so good to be by the sea again and have little time lounging on a beach. I took a little ferry boat across the river at the border with Portugal and entered only my third country of the journey but with a whole new language and different way of being. It´s good to be speaking portuguese again although all my languages are now mixed up into a strange melange of Spanish, Portuguese and French but poeple seem to understand some of what i ramble on about.

After a couple of days i´ve made it to Porto which is a beautiful city on the Beach at the inlet of the River Douro. It reminds me so much of Brazil but I guess it is really the other way round that Brazil very much takes after Portugal. I bet this place kicks off in the weekend but I´m not hanging around to find out but going to follow the river east heading inland into rural Poirtugal and slowly back towards Spain.

Oh yes and most importantly i gave my bike a make over in Vigo. As much as i loved the pink plastic flowers i had been given on my departure from Lex and Daisy it was time for a new look. The comments of ´les belle fleur´ or ... ´the women in my country have baskets like that´ will be no more. My beautiful, and i must say incredibly reliable, Thorn Sherpa now proudly sports the red gold and green of Africa!

The Camino de Santiago

It has been quite a while since I have written a post and I feel like I have been in another world traveling the Camino de Santiago west from the French Pyrenees in the Basque Country to Galicia in the North West of Spain. Obviously this is not on the way South to Africa but it has been a journey that I have wanted to do for a very long time and a part of the world that I have been intrigued to visit.

The Camino is a pilgrimage route that began in the 9^th century after the apparent discovery of the tomb of Saint Jaque, or Tiago, or Jacob depending on where you from. He was an apostle of Christ who during his life time came to preach in the Galician peninsula and after being beheaded by the baddies of Rome his body returned to this part of the world on a boat with some of his disciples and friends. It’s a pretty wild tale that seems a little unlikely yet the faith and compassion that is born from the experience of the journey for so many leaves me with little interest in really questioning the truth of the myth itself. The journey became really popular in the middle ages and a whole series of stunning old churches, monasteries, hospitals and rest places have grown up along the route that takes you through all kinds of landscapes from stunning wild mountains, wide open dry plains, valleys and also now quite a lot of urban areas to. The route has become really popular again in recent years and feels very much alive with travellers from all over the world walking hundreds of miles to pay their respects to the tomb in the fantastic cathedral in Santiago itself.

I began the Camino proper in St Jean de Pied de Port at sunrise on a stunning misty morning. The road takes you up through beautifully wooded valleys high in to the mountains, over a pass and into Spain. It was so great to arrive here and leave France after so long of feeling quiet culturally starved and ripped off by expensive campsites full of old folks in ridiculously large camper vans. At last things are more affordable and there are plenty of other great folk travelling the road to hang out with. The journey of 777 km normally takes walkers about 35 days but on a bike it took 9 days on roads, tracks and footpaths, sleeping in pilgrim´s hostels and feasting on fine Spanish food and plenty cheap wine. Indeed a bottle of wine can cost the same as a bottle of mineral water, which incidentally is generally the same price as petrol which I have always thought was pretty bonkers.

Any way I soon hooked up with other cyclists along the way and by the time we arrived in Santiago we were a crew of 5 all kitted out in the full spandex cycling gear…. We love it! After days of riding the high ways, or rough tracks up and down mountains or through hundreds of miles of flat grain fields we would meet up and feast on the local foods and wine. Que Vida Rica! The rest of the crew were all Spanish lads so I´ve been getting into the lingo and having a whale of a time.

Arriving in the fantastic city of Santiago was an extremely powerful experience. We pulled into the square outside the epic cathedral as the bells struck midday to announce the daily Mass attended by thousands of devoted Christians and arriving Pilgrims. The service was incredibly emotional for so many people who have travelled hundreds or even thousands of miles to be there in the footsteps of so many before them for a thousand years. The Mass happens at this time every day and includes prayers,  readings and blessings with a full power climax involving the swinging of a huge incense burner billowing the sweet smoke of frankincense the full length of the Isle. This is accompanied by full-on dramatic organ music and the gasps and amazement of the congregation. The whole experience, empowered by such strong intentions and faith, leaves the entire congregation in a much heightened state. The cathedral itself is also full of magnificent imagery and ancient artworks that adds to the whole experience.  Together with the relief of completing such a journey that for many would have been pretty demanding, this makes for a very magical moment that I will always remember. The journey of pilgrimage offers deep insights into our own spiritual worlds and I am very grateful for the learning of this time on the Camino and for the companionship of my fellow Pilgrims. Of course the whole thing ended with more feasting and drinking in true Spanish style until some crazy hour of the morning

I hit 2000km on the road to Santiago which felt like quite an achievement but many more to go. 

It is time to head south again now, but this time through Portugal and then back into Spain to Seville and Andalucía to seek out some Flamenco in its true homelands down South.

Run To The Hills!

Well I've made it St Jean de Pied de Port which i like to think of meaning St Jean with his foot in the door, but probably doesn't.

It is here that people flock to begin the Pilgrimage of St Jacque west to Galicia to Santiago. Apparently nearly 200 folk every day sign up and head off with walking stick in hand for the 35 day trek. I'll be on my bike so it shouldn't take more than a couple of weeks and I’m very much looking forward to the journey.

I slept in a bed last night for the first time as there are plenty of cheap hostels along the route so this is a whole new phase to look forward to.

Since my last post I’ve been up in the mountains in the Pyrenees discovering the joys of cycling a heavily laden bike on mountain roads. After arriving in Lourdes i headed south into the hills and decided on a route that looked pretty scenic on the map. As ever i never quite know what lies ahead but this time in turned out to be an infamous route on the tour de France involving an epic 1709 meter pass way up in the mountains. The views were stunning, the shepherds were charming and the sense of achievement was almost overwhelming but i certainly nearly died in the process and think perhaps i have taken this extreme bike touring a step too far. Although the ride down the hill on the other side was pretty ecstatic, speeding through beautiful mountain scapes and fantastic woodland with the ever-present sounds of sheep herds dinngling there bells across the valleys. ( current down hill top speed is 62 km an hour)

I have so many beautiful pictures of the mountains and misty valleys but here´s just a little taster:

 

The following morning was misty and damp so i decided to take a lower road westwards and came across another English lad on a bike. His name was Charlie and i realised that it was the first time for quite a while that i was able to natter away in my mother tongue. We spent the day riding through beautiful woodland and rolling hills and camped out in the wilds of the Basque country.

This is what it was meant to be like; wild camping and open fires with fellow adventurers of the open road. I had been getting a bit down for the last few days and feeling that this was actually a ridiculous idea and far harder than my crazy idealistic dreaming mind had realised so a bit of companionship and nature's wilderness has set me right back on track and i can't wait to hit Spain tomorrow and continue this journey into the next chapter.

To south and Beyond!. . . . well west a bit actually!

Across France the first 1000 km

yo yo yo

These internet cafes are few and far between in France.
yes yes yes, I've crossed the whole daan country now. I'm in Tarbes looking up at the pyrenees thinkin, oh they look kinda large. well i guess that's the next mission.

So I'm 1152 km in now and thats my first 1000 km i have ever cylced in my life!
Just a few more thousand to till i get any where near Africa. Oh well I guess i'll just keep peddling on.
So It's finaly stopped raining and now been roasting in beautiful sunshine for the last few days. I followed the Camino de St Jaque de Compostella for about a week that took me through some beautiful country side and endless historic towns and villages. The French countryside does all seem strangely empty though and then all of a sudden i'll stumble across a fantastic medieval castle, walled village or beautiful church. The most amazing was a 12th century cave church that had been carved out of the white rock of the hillside. It totaly blew me and had the most incredible acoustics inside.

I think it was in place called St Aulaye on the old pilgrimage route and was stunning. I love the fact that i have no idea what i'm going to stumble across next.

Like these characters on the road side:

The other thing that these places around there and in the Dodogne have a lot of is English people who have sold up and moved south to live the dream in the sun. There are so many big old beautiful farm houses looking a bit sorry for themsleves and in need of a bit of love i can understand why. So in the  old square amidst the cafes there'll be an estate agent and some English folk dreamily looking in the windows searching for their retirement home.

It's been pretty quite on the road but have met a few good folk and been well looked after in times of need. I'm still loving the random wild camping but spent a night in Harley's veg garden that was great and left there with plenty veg for a few days and a few new guitar chords. I imagine as soon as i hit the camino going into Spain there'll be a whole crew of wanderers upon the road.

I did leave the camino recently to stop off at Plum village which is a zen buddhist monestary of Tich Nat Hanh's crew which was a perfect spot to rest up for a couple of days and connect with their teachings.

There is a very peaceful vibe there and they are following such a simple mindful aproach. Sitting meditation at 5.45 followed by a day of Dhama talks, walking meditaion and eating in noble silence. Just what i needed! Many thanks for their hospitality.

So back out there and time to start climbing those hills but one more pic befor i go......

Hey Keith, looks like there's another Daddy K out there!

One week in France in The Rain

Well atlast I've found an internet cafe.

I'm in Poitier some where in central France having cycled 500 and something kilometers over the last week heading pretty much south all the way. The last few days hve been drenched in rain and i'm feeling pretty damp sitting here in 'cybercorner'.

A couple of days ago i met a group of Duch cyclists also heading to Santiago in northern Spain and it turned out that i was already on a pilgrimage route that ran right across France to join the Spanish Camino in St Jean-Pied-de-Port on the border in the Pyrenees. I made photocopies of their maps and i'm now heading south and a bit west with a new sense of purpose and clearer direction as to the route to take. Every now and again the is a little image of a shell on a lamp post guiding the way or even the odd sculpted figure of a wandering pilgrim.

It feels some how reasuring to know that thousands of others have made this very same journey for hundreds of years. Apparently since 800 AD so i'm not the only one mad enough.
This particular route is called the La Route De St Jaque and the guy i met who told me a bit of the history was himself called Jaque. I decided it was meant to be so on i go.

It is suprisingly not that hard to cycle a hundred kilometers in a day, you just have to keep at it for hours on end.... and no my bum's not even sore. My old school leather Brooks saddle, that a lot of people seemed worried about, has now shaped it's self nicely to my butt and all is well and comfortable.
I've camping out in the wilds some nights, in Forests and by rivers and every now and again when i feel the need for a shower I've been in the municipal campsites but France is surprisingly expensive so generally opting for the wildside.

Having said that there isn't really much wilderness about but just endless agricltural fields of sweetcorn, sunflowers, cabbages and the like, loads of shockingly amazing chateaus around every other corner though and ample boloungeries selling baguettes and sweet cakes, which i like!

Oh yes, and i eat alot..... i mean alot. This trip maybe pretty much fossil fuel free but it's deffinitly taking enormous amounts of food to fuel me along the way and i discovered today that a good strong coffee can get me about 15km even in the rain.

So south on the pilgrims road i head dreaming of dryer sunnier places, still with the memories of the fantastic  Phoenix Fayre and all the support of my beautiful friends in my heart. It's going to take i little while to get the hang of this internet blogging technology thing but hopefully i can stick some videos up next time to.
Big love to you all and to Magnus for his endless texting of great jokes.
Here in France they like to say Bon Courage! to me when they relise what i'm doing so Bon Courage for what ever it is that you are up to!

Untill next time