Final Meeting

Theoretically, the last Sunday meeting took place yesterday, this was at la Vila-Joiosa, but I am certain that there will still be lots of smaller (non-affiliated) meetings still taking place.

We met at Paco's house at 8am, and set off over the mountains to the seaside... gosh, it was cold! As we rode through Muro de Alcoy, all of us felt it. The worry was, the we knew there were higher mountains still to go over. In the end, the cold eased quite quickly, but the rising sun caused its own problems. Many times, it was impossible to see when riding directly into the sun. A vauge shadow of the bike in front was about all that could be seen. Dangerous in principle, that was actually not too bad, as the 5 riders were all very safety concious, and had no intention of speeding around the bends. We took the 'scenic' route, which involved a trip along a road numbered CV-785. If you want to google it, it will make you laugh, especially around 'Penaguila'. What google doesn't show, is the incline on each of the hairpin bends, nor the terrible foundations to the road, (the tarmac was fine) riddled with tree roots - it was more like riding a horse.

On this road, we passed a Safari park, that I had no idea was there. (Safari Aitana) From the road, I saw a llama, and Ed saw some deer too. He also saw some red quirrels, but I don't think they were official attrations. Looking at their web-site, this is somewhere will will venture to soon. (Ed says we could take the dogs for a walk!)

We stopped for a coffee in Sella and were rather amused by the decor in the cafe. The whole place was decorated with tea towels from all over the place (most of them English). Very strange! On leaving the cafe, I was embarrased at not knowing one of the groups name. I asked Paco what Paco2's wife was called. He didn't know and muttered something to Vicoria. I thought he didn't understand me. Next, I asked Victoria for the name of Paco2's wife, she responded, "I don't remember". How terrible. To my horror, Paco shouted down the street, "hey, what's your wife's name". Then Julian pulled up, and he didn't know either. How funny - everyone just referred to her as 'Paco's wife'. Needless to say, this was soon put right, and now everyone knows that her name is Emy.

We set off to the sea front at la Vila-Joiosa, and soon found the hotel, the venue for the meeting. We paid our €10 but found that lunch wasn't being served until 12:00, as there was an official ride out around the area. Having covered more mailes than they were about to, we gave that a miss. We had a nice stroll around the beach front, and I can certainly recommend it. It was very pretty, considering it is the next town along from concrete Benidorm.

At 12, lunch was served. There was a selection of foods available, from the usual bocadillos, to a plateful of baby crabs. Julian took a crab, and hid it in Victorias rucksack! The usual draw took place, and the final prize was a jamon (a full leg of cured ham). To our delight, this was won by Victoria. Worth the trip out, just for that - they can cost €150 for a good one, which this was. Thankfully, I had a cargo net with me, so we were able to take it back without any problems at all.