Friday 7th February 2025 from General Pico to General Villegas
Condolences for all Charlie Broadhurst’s family, total respect for a true Aylesham sportsman, will be thinking of you today.

It’s a sad note to start off, but it has to be said. Living the good life now, Bingo cooked supper, while I got merrily away with the fairies, said I was writing the blog, but was just drinking and putting a few mumbled words together – nothing changes.

Great nights sleep, woke up all ready to rumble, porridge, banana and honey with a cup of coffee, living the life of “Riley”, hit the road at first light. On paper not a bad ride today, but like Brian Clough once said, “We had a great team on paper, unfortunately the game was played on grass”. With us, we did not take in the head wind, just need to put some work in.

Tough start just grinding out the miles before the sun blazes through, always a good time to spot the animals and creepy crawlies (they seemed to be getting bigger and more frequent), first spot a squashed armadillo, same discussion – he is not claiming it. Then he spots a live one trotting (not sure if that’s what they do more like lurching) jumps off his bike forward roll into camera mode, but sadly he missed the shot. Next up I point to a curly thing in the road, turns out to be a snake having a sunbathe in the early morning sun, Bingo is onto it like David Attenborough, nose to the ground, camera poised, me, I just cycle away, might end up in hospital with a poxy wasp sting, so not sure my epi-pen would be any good for a snake bite! Bingo catches up said it was definitely alive, I know I seen its head move, thats why I carried on. Then unbelievable Mr Magoo actually spots another armadillo lurching across the countryside, we both have a good look, quite like how quirky they are.

I finally work out why my Garmin (GPS thing) not working correctly, must have had one extra beer last night, as I have loaded the wrong map up, no worries Bingo says, just another 10 miles on this road, then turn left, even you should be able to do that. On we went just like climbing all day, but doable, stopped for a little break under some shade, had an apple each, half a chocolate wagon wheel, I am not allowed a full one as they make me hyper-active (thought I could do with it, but Bingo is very strict), few boiled sweets also rationed. Off we set again, within no time we reach the junction, on the other side of the road a guy is waving us at like mad, so we both go over, he has loads of cold water, ice and the biggest bunch of bananas you could imagine, turns out he passed us a few miles down the road, then sped off to get us some supplies top bloke, while we was there a lorry driver pulled over loved the bikes, showed us pictures of his bike, great stop. Once again humanity is still alive and kicking, there are so many nice people in this little world, makes it all worthwhile talking and engaging with great people.

Last 30 odd mile to be honest it was a hard slog, done it in three stages, resting and eating peanuts at every opportunity, temperature in the mid to upper 30C, think its Celuis * 1.8 + 32 for Fahrenheit, thats for my lovely sister, lot older than me so always works in Fahrenheit or the truth of the matter still a lot older than me, but lived in America for the last 40 or so years, looking forward to seeing you Deb, sometime in June/July.

Basically thats how I get through the tough times, either sing or try and work out some daft equations, finally could see the little town in the horizon, little discussion fancy a drink or straight to the AirBB, went straight to the digs, both a little tired to say the least. Bingo navigated straight to the place, called them up, they were there within 5 min. Once again lovely couple could not do enough for us, even took me shopping, not sure I like this responsibility, but did myself proud again only a bit of chocolate, loads of beer and some stuff to cook tonight, getting right into this now.

Bit of time to sort out the next few days riding.