TUESDAY 10TH SEPTEMBER I'm afraid I haven't done anything much today. I made a decision yesterday morning to stay an extra night in Roses due to the poor weather forecast. I did hear a few claps of thunder during the night and it did rain on and off throughout the morning, but by the afternoon it was dry, dull and overcast with a cool offshore breeze, enough to keep most people firmly cocooned in their pacamacs and sweatshirts. 

Thankfully Colonel Kleb was off duty and I was able to smuggle a peach away from the dining room without being spotted! I then spent the rest of the morning getting the blog up to date and still trying, mostly in vain, to upload pictures and maps to my story to hopefully make it a lot more interesting for all my three readers! The annoying thing is, I somehow managed to get my journey from Reading to Portsmouth uploaded, but when it came to my photos I thought I carried out the right procedure only to see a load of hieroglyphics appear on the blog when I tried to upload. Dan, my son, is going to try and resolve this in the next couple of days, but if I still can’t do it then I’m just going to post all the pics on Facebook which would be a shame as it would be much better to see them within the context of the blog.

The other momentous decision I’ve come to is to abandon the trail riding side of my trip (notice I’m calling it a trip now and not an adventure LOL 😊). Without the aid of the uploaded trails on my Garmin satnav I just don't feel comfortable or confident enough to just rely on Google Maps. Instead I'm heading to Madrid for a long weekend. This is for two reasons. Firstly, I’ve never been to Spain’s capital and secondly this weekend is the culmination of La Vuelta D’Espana cycle race in Madrid on Sunday. I’ve been to the finale of the Tour De France and if the atmosphere is anything like that it should be a good day! However Madrid is one ‘helluva’ long ride so I’m stopping off half-way tomorrow at Zargoza.

I was going to venture out for a bite to eat this evening, but when I got to the hotel lobby it was lashing with rain again so I did an about turn and headed for the hotel restaurant instead where I was again confronted by Colonel Klebb, but this time she just fleeced me for 16 Euros and pointed towards the buffet. I found a quiet spot on a table out the way at the back of the restaurant, but just after settling down I was approached by one of Klebbs henchmen (well it was a woman actually) who, even though she couldn't speak a word of English, made it perfectly clear that I shouldn't be sat there and had to move. So I picked up my starter and my water and parked myself on the table next door. Within a minute she was back again with a look of total exasperation indicating I shouldn'nt have been there either and that I might as well go back to where I originally was. Not wanting to upset the whole KGB, I did as I was told and went back to my original seat. It was a good buffet and I had my first bit of proper veg since I came away. I'm not a massive vegatable fan but I really felt I needed a few greens, I think my digestive system did to, as everythings been a bit blocked down below over the last few days!