Good Samaritans

In the last 3 days we did 55km to O'cebreiro, 53km to Barbadelo and today 59km to Melide. Tomorrow we should reach Santiago!!!

The last 4 days of cycling we have done so much climbing and descending it was actually quite tough. When we got to O'Cebreiro we thought we may be able to see Santiago in the distance but instead we saw a thousand mountains. The climb to O'Cebreiro was a 1.4 km gain about 10 to 15km of just climbing... we were knackered - it was steep and it was very hot :) The next day we raced down the same mountain. I would have been scared in a car or a Weed Killer :)

Yesterday morning we started another climb, Colette suggested we take the tarmac but I was scared we miss some beautiful scenery (lekker dom) so we ended up pushing our heavy bikes up a rocky scramble... She was not impressed... and to top it off she then got a flat tyre which must have been caused by the rocky road. Fortunately for me we were able to pump up the tyre without any patching. We had particular bad luck with tyres early in our trip, many punctures so big we couldn't patch it, so we were quite relieved when we did not need to patch. We did another 40 odd km on that tyre that day, and ended the day with a mean scramble out of Sarria. We stayed over at a stunning Auberge in a rural area, cost of only 9Euro per person. We also had their Peregrino menu for 9Euro per person. This is a 3 course meal with half a bottle of wine each, and the waiter was so professional. For the same price one sometimes get the best of Spain and sometimes not!

This morning when we got to the bikes the tyre was flat again, this time it did not hold any air. So we patched... it was another one of the big holes so we used 3 patches to get the job done. We reached for a spare tube just to discover the valve does not fit into the rim (another long story). The closest bike shop was very far away and we knew if the patch doesn't hold we would be in big trouble. The terrain for the day was hilly and rocky... not good for our tyre :/ On route we passed a group of 4 Spanish guys a couple of times... so we greated and got a bit familiar. About 20km into the day, and in our first town we lost the tyre. There was no bike shop or tyre for sale... our only option would be to take a taxi to the nearest town with a bike shop. Whilst walking through town we saw our 4 Cycling Amigos leaving a coffee shop... fortunately one of them had a tyre that would fit and we bought it from him. They insisted to help with the change so they lost lots of time. We just bumped into them again 35km later - they looked knackered after a long day in the sun and so we are so very greatfull to them.