Day 152
Friendship
After our first night at Niall and Suna’s we woke rested and refreshed. So much so, Stephane had decided to stay another day and we spent the morning as all cycle tourers do, catching up on our blogs, cleaning kit but most important of all, not cycling. Resting our weary bodies was the order of the day.
We have so loved the quality of the food available in Spain, and this was brought home to us even more as we joined in with family meals. So much of what we ate was home grown, organic, or from local shops. It all simply tastes so much better than what is easily available in the UK. Food is a major part of daily life for everyone and here in Spain it is clearly part of everyone’s social life, and we are loving it.
Blogs updated, we headed to a local community olive processing plant. We had seen people collecting the olives from their trees, and this was the next stage. Some had a bag, others a trailer, and some had a lorry load. They formed an orderly queue, when their turn came they tipped their olives into a grate, they were then uploaded onto a conveyer belt, stripped of any leaves etc., then weighed. From this the value of the crop was worked out, and they formed another queue to collect a chit to the value of their harvest. This they would then exchange for olive oil, which will last them hopefully until next year. Whilst this was happening the olives were continuing their journey through the plant. Different qualities would be processed. The best quality from the first press, second press, they even create oil from the stones. The waste leaves etc. was taken away to be used as fertiliser. It was an amazing hive of activity and fabulous insight into life in Spain. We felt very privileged to see it. In the afternoon Niall and I walked to see his neighbour’s greenhouses and fields where he produced fruit and vegetables on a commercial scale. The quality and quantity was clear to see, but to compete with prices he has to use plastic sheeting to prevent weeds growing. We had cycled past fields full of shredded plastic, crazy when we all know how bad this is for the environment but ultimately price drives these methods.
I was lucky to be introduced to one of the workers, a young African guy. He had arrived in Spain five years previously. Here he was allowed to earn legal status to remain by working a low paid job for five years. This he had achieved and he had just returned from a trip ‘home’, where he married his ‘first’ wife. It had been his first ever flight. His original journey when aged just 18 was a much more perilous one. The system seems to work well for both cultures, though as to whether his wife as she becomes more westernised will accept wife number two remains to be seen!
In the evening we went to see Ula, Niall and Suna’s 12-year old daughter, take part in one of her 3 or 4 sessions a week rugby training. At the moment the team is mixed, with an increasing number of girls taking part. The pitch is part of a sports development in the local town of Elx and again we were loving seeing the real Spain. Then it was back home, where it was all hands on deck to create another fabulous meal, we ended the evening , chatting, playing cards and possibly drinking a little too much!
The following morning Stephane decided he couldn’t delay his departure any longer, he has a deadline, he needs to be home for his dad’s birthday. Niall’s kindly drove him a good few miles so he could miss some busy hilly roads whilst Tom and I cleaned our bikes. We all spent the rest of the day like anxious parents wondering how Stephane was getting on!
To switch off, Niall and Suna kindly treated Tom and I to a special Spanish dish, ‘Arroz con Costra’ at a local restaurant. It is a bit like paella with a baked omelette on top. With various tapas dishes to start with we all ate far too much. We then tried to walk off all this food by a trip to Elx. We strolled around the centre, saw some stunning statues. We were particularly taken with the ‘Three Marias’ and the local castle and cathedral. Then home and nothing for it but to spend the evening with more chat and cards, and even more food! We’re loving this life.
In the morning we reluctantly said our goodbyes and hit the road. We had had over 100 miles of downhill to get here, today we paid the price and started to climb. Fortunately the gradient was very gentle. We saw a stunning hill, that reminded us of Parys Mountain, a stunning mix of coppery orange colours. The locals seemed bemused as we stopped to take photos. Then the rain came down. We passed through a town called ‘Happy Castle on the Hill’, but the weather was making us far from happy so we pressed on. A short while later we saw a group of local lads taking shelter. As we passed, one of them called out to us, the rest of them took up the cry, and we were given a deafening cheer, brilliant! Each day we often get toots from cars, waves from people we pass, so many good luck calls, all of these really help make our journey so much more enjoyable.
Onwards we went, tea was cooked in a partially completed concrete building, we had shelter but the rat droppings on the floor and the cries of the birds somewhere in the building made it far from an ideal spot to spend the night. An hour later as the light we finally set up camp in a field full of rocks! Exhausted we were soon asleep. Still no news from Stephane though!
