Hello everyone!

I made it out of Switzerland and down into France. I passed through Lausanne and Geneva where I used to study and work. Having a fully loaded motorbike and an adventure ahead while stopping at stoplights in the city centers was pretty cool I'll admit. There was distance to cover so no time for stops. I headed South through the Haute Savoie and arrived in a little village called Saint Étienne de Crossey at dinner time. The campsite I had had my eye on was closed. The bartender recommended "camping sauvage" and warned me about the wild boars. Laughs all around. I found a secluded little spot outside of town in the woods. I'm not going to lie: the squiking of the boars made my sleep a slight bit uneasy (my French friends are probably laughing at the scared Swiss boy :).

I put in a full days worth of riding the next day and was glad to reach the sea in the evening. I had a swim and splurged on a legit campsite in Montpellier, a shower and some Pizza.

My wake up in the morning was at 6am in order to adjust the valve clearance on my motorbike. I did it in 35 minutes (yes I'm proud). I'll admit King Kong is still making noises though. We've started to develop a relationship where the bike makes a sound and I try to guess if/what might be the problem :). 

There were black clouds looming at the foot of the Pyrenees as I set out. I decided to stop for a pain au chocolat (aw yes) and to put on my rain gear. It all got tested that day. It turns out not all of my stuff is waterproof, even with my rain gear on (shout out to Ray for the neon yellow rain jump suit :). I made it across the mountains and back down to the coast. When I got there it finally stopped raining and I was back to being a happy camper. I rode down the coast and stopped when I reached El Masnou outside of Barcelona.

My stuff was nearly dry the next day. I did however get to enjoy the feeling of putting on wet pants and shoes in the early morning. I was thankful to have a sunny Spanish day of riding. In light of the good weather I decided to skip the campsite and set up my tent sauvage on the beach of Puçol just outside of Valencia. It was a very pleasant evening with my saved money invested in Swordfish for supper and no police under the stary skies.

6am seems to be my wake up time and I had my stuff packed up (it takes me about 1 hour and 20 minutes - I'm not sure where I spend all that time - to be optimized hopefully!) just in time for the sunrise. I made it through the city of Valencia ok through the morning traffic. Keen to eat the last 300km to my friend Fernando's in Totana, I had a lovely day of riding through the Provinces of Valencia and Murcia. I took the back roads through vineyards and lemon plantations and it was absolutely delightful.

I reached Totana and found my friend. 

We used to be roommates in Taipei in the most unique flat in the city. It's been two years since we last saw each other and he's still as fine a peach as ever :)

The plan for the next couple of days is to get King Kong looked at by a professional and enjoy the beach and the company.