Well, today was finally the day we started riding. After accidentally sleeping in (only till about 8:00, mind), we began our Macs Adventure cycle... adventure! Or at least we attempted to.
On leaving the hotel with a vague idea where we we going, we cycled back into the centre of Leon. I let Dad lead the way thinking he knew what was what.
He had an idea... it was the wrong idea. There were no clear markings up for the route and though I've travelled to a lot of mainline Europe, here in rural (ish) Spain, English speakers were hard to come by.
Round and round we went until we ended up riding past the train station. At this point I got my bearings and with that I utilised my only super power as a first world male: I got my phone out.
After sucking down the better part of a years worth of internet usage I figured out which direction we needed to go in and off we went.
Getting out of Leon itself wasn't that nice a ride. The town had plenty of abandoned industry to ogle and its large roads made for some uncomfortable cycling. As we headed out of town on our way to the nearest hamlet, that would ultimately lead us to the trail, coming in the opposite direction was a trio of cyclist in sporty gear and atop fancy bikes.
The lead rider, a rather charming fellow from a famous British holiday island, admitted that he and his friends were also a bit lost and in search of the same trail as us. Not one to step down from a challenge, or ever admit I don't know what I'm doing, I insisted I knew EXACTLY what I was doing (as is the British way) and advised they follow me up the road and across to the town that would join us to the Santiago trail.
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| Look at me, pretending to know what I'm doing! |
I needed to keep up the pace! These boys weren't messing about and they had the fanciest of cycling gear. Up a rather large hill we went until the famous seashells of the trail revealed themselves and our part-time friends sped off into the distance. They were pros, there was no keeping up with them.
Getting onto the trail itself was good though. The number of walkers or, pilgrims, trekking on its cobbled stones was impressive. Getting past them on the bikes depended on the slightness of the path itself, which varied.
Something I quite like about this trail is that everyone that passes each other feels the need to shout 'dom Santiago' at each other as they do.
This amuses me. Cycling up and down the Taff trail in Cardiff, this is a tradition I'm planning on adopting. The next time you see me cycling you'll hear me screaming 'Taff Trail!' or 'St Mary's Street!' at everyone I pass in an effort to translate the tradition. That'll be fun.
Most of today's ride was spent next to Spain's international roads, which is as much fun as it sounds. Though the latter half saw us finally head into the undulating farm land, we were met with rocky pathways and steep inclines. I was totally fine with this, Dad less so. As soon as the mid-day heat got to us we found the going got significantly tougher.
I thoroughly enjoyed it though. I've yet to meet a hill that can beat me (even the steepest of streets bows to my skilful use of gears) and we ended up spending about 6 hours on the bikes. Though the distance is short (around 50 km) the terrain certainly slows you down.
Keeping an eye on the path itself is fun too. Heading out of Leon we were treated to some lovely run-down industry and the shells of the path revealed themselves on bins and the odd bit of crumbling wall.
Though I loathed being close to the road due to the noise of the traffic, as soon as we headed away it became a lot more difficult to ride, but much more in-keeping with how I had originally envisioned the ride to be.
Large stones and steep hills ensured we got a good work out. And, obviously the heat didn't help matters. We had to pick ourselves up some shells of our own, which we'll attach to our bikes tomorrow.
Everyone had them and I guess it has something to do with the significance of route itself. You've got Google, you can look up what it means. It's probably something religious.
Right now, I'm gonna get some rest and prepare myself for the ride ahead. It's only gonna get harder, but I'm ready for it. I promise I'll really try and do some vidoc stuff like I said I would yesterday, but let's just see how things go.
Here's a pic of the fabled shells:
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