{"id":17600,"date":"2018-02-26T19:33:07","date_gmt":"2018-02-26T19:33:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.geoffjones.com\/?p=17600"},"modified":"2018-02-26T19:33:07","modified_gmt":"2018-02-26T19:33:07","slug":"cycling-walking-huelva-mertola-portugal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsite.geoffjones.com\/?p=17600","title":{"rendered":"Cycling & walking from Huelva to Mertola, Portugal"},"content":{"rendered":"

Thursday, February 22nd<\/p>\n

Well, the walking part was due to mechanical failure, first time in several years of cycle touring \ud83d\ude41<\/p>\n

I started off from Huelva early, stopping at the ham shop to get a quick cheese sandwich, with the firm intention of getting the rear derailleur sorted out, but the shop didn’t open till\u00a010 am\u00a0and didn’t look too good anyway, although\u00a0with hindsight I should have stayed!<\/p>\n

\"water<\/a>
You can just see on the horizon were the water pops up again!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The first part was crossing the estuary by a lovely bike path, I’m sure the twitchers would have loved it, a quick stop for a second breakfast in Aljarque foolishly taking a ‘shortcut’ over what turned out to be a sand dune – when will I learn \ud83d\ude41\u00a0 Later it was interesting pedalling alongside the water channels similar to the Maderian Lavadas especially their gigantic syphons to get across the many valleys<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Jammed chain<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Just after\u00a0\u200e\u2068El Granado\u2069 my little mechanical failure occurred as I was dropping down on the front derailleur the rear derailleur cable snapped in the brake housing (so that’s why it hadn’t\u00a0been working so well) causing the chain to leap up and wedge itself in the mechanism and I mean wedged! In the end i resorted to violence by kicking the pedal backwards thus freeing the chain & twisting the changer:-(\u00a0 \u00a0I sort of twisted it back with my pedal spanner, cut the wire and wrapped it around one of the luggage rack screws suitably tensioned for the middle gear \ud83d\ude41<\/p>\n

Of cause I ended up walking the big hills especially the huge one after crossing the border where I had met the most miserable cafe owner to date. Cheered me up no end, not.<\/p>\n

I eventually arrived at the Beira Rio hotel in Mertola to meet more miserable faces \ud83d\ude41\u00a0 The lady suggested a bike repair\u00a0place in Mertola so I shot off there, only to find they now fix rotavators etc \ud83d\ude41<\/p>\n

Looking on Google I could see there was a bike shop in Beja a much bigger city and only 30 miles away so I booked a hotel, for tomorrow, near to the shop and hoped it wasn’t just an agricultural or kiddies bike place.<\/p>\n

The days Strava is here:
\n