A Glorious Day

I gaze out of my bedroom window to see drizzle and think of the phrase ‘The sun shines on the righteous’, or is it the SON shines on the righteous? Well whatever/whoever is supposed to shine, the SUN wasn’t shining on me this morning, nor by the forecast would it for the next few days, as I am in the only place in Spain with one rain drop, and I’m not even on the plain! So much for all these so called sayings.

But I feel grateful to be here, and take my time loading up the bike thinking that the weather will improve in an hour or so, and I was right, the drizzle had subsided sufficiently to allow me to sit in the saddle without wiping it with the knee of my jeans, a practice commonplace amongst us northern European bikers.

As I set off towards Potes I felt good to be on the bike again, but tinged with a strange emotion which immediately made me run these words through my head ‘It’s a little bit funny, this feeling inside, I’m not one of those who can easily hide’, but any further similarity to Elton John’s ‘Your Song’ ends there, I’m not saying I’m a rich man though!

Funny feelings were running through inside, I was enjoying so much being on such a great bike on roads which are a Mecca for bikers and the weather, until this morning, has been excellent but …..something was niggling.

Potes sits at an altitude of roughly 1,000 feet and as the N621 climbs up the San Gloria pass it peaks at over 5,000 feet, needless to say a few bends are necessary for the ascent, which makes for a very enjoyable climb even though I started to think of Gorillas in the Mist during the majority of it. 

On one of my photo stops I noticed I had a missed call from Datatool, my bike’s tracking company, note to self, keep my ignition key on me when loading the bike, they had received a bike movement activation without the key being near! Good to know the system works though.

I hoped that I would eventually get above the cloud and sure enough, not far from the summit I was greeted with blue skies and stunning views of the inversion. The rest of the day was cloudless, with the exception of the arrival at my hotel for the next four nights, but not sufficient to spoil the view. Anyway, if I will book a hotel at a ski resort what should I expect?

During today’s ride the word which sprung to mind was ‘Glorious’, it’s only now that I’ve realised what an appropriate word that is for a ride which encompassed such a pass!

Footnote:

Riding solo at a relaxed pace gives me time to think. My feelings earlier were like a contradiction ‘I ain’t happy, I’m feeling glad, I’ve got sunshine in a bag, I’m useless but not for long, the future is coming on’, but any further similarity to Gorillaz ‘Clint Eastwood’ ends there.