Art of Travel: Paris to Madrid

Day Twelve

Lay in the bag watching rain painting a series of parallel as it lines trickle down the tent’s roof. Although the rain stopped by early morning the wind never abated, testing the tent’s durability and uprooting a few of the pegs, but it remained upright. However, I took the precaution of altering its position this morning, facing it more into the wind.

I gauged that the wind was still blowing to hard to ride Art along the mountain-side. Deciding to stay put for the present gave me the opportunity to check out the increasingly problematic ball bearings, and time to allow everything to dry out. Although most items were placed in a series of bags which were in turn placed in the double bin bag lined pannier bags, the rain still managed to find its way in. Two pieces of artwork, giclee prints, have been destroyed.

By mid-day the wind had died down, and to show its approval the sun came out while it was still high enough in the sky to transmit some evening Summer warmth. After buying food for the day I went for a short ramble up the rocky coastline to try to find a secluded spot to soak up the sun for an hour or so but the only available patch was already taken by a family of nude bathers. I settled for perching myself on a rocky outcrop surrounded by the roar of crashing waves against granite, with a woman painting a little way to my left and an old man fishing to my right.

An update on Art: Five ball bearings, all on the side which gave me grief in Foix, were badly damaged and needed replacement. I’m not too sure what the cause of the rapid wear is. Fortunately I still had eight spare new ball bearings left over from Foix to keep me going, but I know that it will keep happening unless I can identify and rectify the cause.

As the print in the Rough Guide insinuates, Colera is a shabby, run down little village with a very stoney beach. Not the type of place I would choose to spend two days, however it fulfilled my needs as a brief stopping point to recuperate and lick my wounds.

 

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