Our stay in Toro proved to be somewhat unsatisfactory for such a beautiful town. The rooms in the Palacio Rejadorado looked great, but that is all that could be said for it. I had asked for early breakfasts in each of our hotels, but in this case we were informed that first breakfast was at 9am and if we were lucky we might get it at 8:45. Penny and Joe finally got some dried toast at 9;10 by which time we were long departed.

The morning ride proved to be very hard work, although we past through some nice scenery amongst the vineyards. Our one downhill slope of any significance was out of Toro, which was very much an off piste black run down a very poor road.After that we grinded our way steadily uphill for 35 miles into the wind. The first 40 miles took over 5 hours and we became somewhat anxious about our arrival time given that this was to be our longest day with 93 miles to cover.Our saving grace was our support crew,Penny and joe who have been fantastic thorughout our journey and who provided us with hors d'ouvres followed by a great picnic lunch.

Fortunately after that the terrain got easier and we went through some wonderful countryside seeing numerous olive trees with the odd kite hovering above them.We also saw a variety of cattle including some bulls being reared for the ring.Towards late afternoon we started to hit some pretty poor roads for the first time  as until then the Spannish roads had been superb.

At about 6pm we reached Fuente de Estobar in .pretty high spirits, despite the rain as we anticipated arriving soon after 7pm with just 14 miles still to cover. Unfortunately Garmin had other plans for us, taking us down a pot holed farm lane and after much debate we decided to over rule it and rejoin the main road. Reversing our route proved challenging as it involved winding our way back through the streets of Estobar and the party split up, adding half an hour to our journey while we regrouped.Once back on the main road, we spotted a sign to our final destination stating that it was 20 miles away when we had expected 11!With the rain pooring down and darkness descending we ploughed on and but for the superb Spannish roads which descended smoothly into Ciudad Rodrego we might not have made it. At 8:30 pm we staggered to our rooms completely shattered, having completed 104 miles and hoping for some sunshine and a tail wind for Monday!

 

 

As feared, we woke up to heavy rain on Saturday. As we got on our bikes, the Garmin decided to add 6 miles to the journey making it an 82 mile day, albeit relatively flat.My new wet weather jacket proved to be invaluable for the first two hours, although I wish that I had windscreen wipers on my glasses as it was hard to read the Garmin.

Mercifully after 2 hours the rain stopped and we found a nice coffee shop for coffee and donuts.During the day we passed through some nice looking villages, but the journey proved to be very testing as we had strong head winds for the entire day, combined with periodic heavy rain.From what we could see the countryside was more attractive and one of the highlites was passing a vineyard where each row had a bird scarer which was activated as we past ! We finally arrived in Toro, exhausted at about 6:30pm, only to find that most restaurants did not open until 9pm! Toro looks like a town well worth visiting and there was a vintage car rally ending in the town centre to jazz it up.

 

Friday on paper always looked to be the toughest and so far it has lived up to expectations! We left Casa Zalama with fond memories and in good spirits, having slept in great comfort, fed well and warmly greeted.

The day started with a gentle and scenic descent and at about 16 miles we were bracing ourselves for the big climb, when morale took a turn for the worse when the Garmin informed us that we had 120 miles to go when we were expecting 75! We soon realised that the device had gone mad and we re routed to the proper road. We then began a siginificant climb of some 400 meters which passed well and morale was good as we neared the summit of just over 1000 meters thinking that our days work was almost over!

Little did we know that we would be riding into a gale for the bulk of the remained of the day and there were lots of further inclines. While the start of the day was through beautiful countryside, the remained was through dreary desolate lands where the only scenery was wind turbines which were everywhere.We were extremely grateful to our support crew who produced sandwiches and located the one scenic spot of the afternoon. As we arrived in Fromista, feeling shattered, the rain started, which does not bode well for tomorrow!

 

 

On Thursday the team became increasingly confident about the task ahead, as only 36 miles were planned, albeit this was to be our big climb day. We left around 9:30 which was later than planned, but an improvement on past form.The weather was kind and the day went smoothly, with no navigation hiccups, although the team accidentally split in two for a while as the lack of confidence in our Garmin had meant that we had a hard copy of the journey in adition to the Garmin.It proved to be a monstrous clim day through some fantastic scenery and we all made it to the peeks thanks to some tremendous coaching forom generous.In total we climbed 7200 feet over 41 miles and even managed to fit in lunch.

 

 

Arrived on Wednesday evening at 18:15 which theoretically gave us sufficient time to make the 12 mile journey to our hotel in Solares. Alas things did not work out as planned, mainly due to our fear of ending up on a motorway! Instead we headed through the centre of Santander into a tunnel which caused the Garmin to mulfunction. As it began to get dark, we had to resort to asking for directions, but alas english speakers proved to be non existant. All we could ascertain was that SOlares was miles away! Finally some policemen told us to follow the signs to Bilbao and before we knew what was happening we found ourselves on the slip road heading onto a motorway.As we dismounted and headed back, a very kind lady stopped , took sympathy and lead us to safety, just in the nick of time as to quote a rider "we are seriously in danger of putting our safety at risk"We finally arrived at our hotel at 10:15pm having turned a planned 12 miles into 27!

 

Tuesday got off to a slow start as we have not as yet got the preparations for each day's ride down to a fine art. Gerard also had to return to Liphook for some bike repairs. The bike shop in Liphook comes with our highest recommendation as, on learning that he had come from France to ride for Shooting Star Chase, they not only carrried out the repairs for free, but also sponsored him £20.

 

This was a short ride day of just 28 miles to Portsmouth through the beautiful W. Sussex National Park, although nobody warned us about the "Little Switzerland" area of the South Downs and the 568ft climb up S. Harting Hill. The weather was superb, but unfortunately there was insufficient time to stop to take in the scenery, although Weissie did manage to stop in front of the Coach and Horses which proved all too tempting!The Top Dog from the Horsham brewery proved a great success and was mercifully only 1.2% alcohol!

We made it safely to the beautiful coastal village of Emsworth for some fish and chips before the hazardous route along the A27 to Portsmouth and the Ferry to Santander. So far all present, and on time and the sea is calm!

I will post pictures when we have enough bandwidth.

 

 

Thank you from the team for all your wonderfully generous donations.

Also thank you to all of you who gave us such a fantastic send off from Kingston. Everthing went smoothly and in true Bourne style we finally set off an hour late at 1.30.

After that all went well with a superb ride in beautiful weather and expert navigation! Tesco's in Haselmere is to be recommended and and was our only divertion. We travelled 46 miles and climbed 2653 ft and arrived at The Flying Bull at 18.00.

Portsmouth beckons today via Emsworth for lunch.

Having recently reached the ripe old age of 60, my family were just beginning to think that my mid life crisis was over, but it looks as though I’ve proved them wrong!

It was during a very good and rather wine fuelled dinner at a local establishment with my old friend Mike Bourne, that it was suggested that I join him and a few others on their adventure, which involved cycling from London to the Algarve in Portugal, hence the nickname: Pissheads Peddling to Portugal for Charity. Waking up the next morning fairly heavy in the head I wondered what on earth I had committed myself to and my immediate thought was how to get myself out of this madcap, drink fuelled commitment! Suffice to say that I have not been able to do so and after a few weeks of rather tame training on the flats of the Romney Marsh (not ideal preparation for the Spanish and Portuguese hills), I find the departure date of 23 September approaching fast.

My somewhat Skoda of a bike has now been adapted and transformed into a Rolls Royce version with all sorts of appendages designed to make life easier on the way. “All the gear but no idea” some would say, but the route has now been planned, taking in some 750 miles and some pretty big hills along the way.

I shall be doing the ride in aid of two charities; Shooting Star Chase and Save the Rhino and what follows is a brief description of both.

Save the Rhino International

The plight of this critically endangered species has been highlighted over the past few years with incidents of mass poaching in Africa and Asia alarmingly on the rise. Rhinos are now on the brink of extinction and need our urgent help to save them and preserve the species for future generations. Rhino poaching rose by 43% between 2011 and 2012 with one being poached in Africa every 12 hours, mostly in South Africa. Demand for the horn from Asian countries has soared, despite it having no proven medicinal benefits, and those employed in rhino poaching will employ merciless tactics to shoot the animals and saw off their horns, often while they are still alive. Find out more at www.savetherhino.org

Please give as much as you can, to spur me on my way for these two very worthy causes!