Craig's blog

Today was our last full riding day in Spain.  We enjoyed an excellent breakfast with a great buffet at our hotel Mas de Torrent.  Then we suited up and headed off.  I hung with Jessie for the first 12km and then the kids went off on a ceramics activity.  Kelli and Kate did it too, but they’re a little bummed that they’ve had to select between the activities and riding much.

Then the adults mostly hung together, for a 600’ climb and descent on the way to the sea.  We then road along a boardwalk (slowly) while people watching, until we came to a little hut that Backroads stops at for coffee and snacks.  We sat there for an hour and watched the local beach goers which was fun.  Then we rode another 15km to our lunch stop which was spectacular.  It was about 150’ up on a cliff above the Mediterranean.  We sat under the shade of cork trees and had a great lunch while watching the sea in the distance.  The setting was a little like Nepenthe, but bigger and with a view that had more houses.  After lunch we walked part way down the cliffs to a place where you could jump about 25’ into the sea.  Katie went first, then I went.  Eventually Jessie went too.  I sat out on a little island rock and watched all the others jumping or thinking about jumping.  Finally Katie and I swam around a little point and in to a different beach (maybe 200 yards) and then climbed up a ton of stairs to get back to the cliffs to get our stuff.  The water was probably 75 degrees.

Nine people had said they would probably ride back (instead of taking a van), but in the end only myself and one of our guides, Andres, went back on bikes.  The rest went in the vans or a taxi.  We had a good hard ride back, climbed over a bonus hill to check out a view, and got to know each other a little more.

When we got back to the hotel (around 5:15), I went down to the pool and read for a couple of hours (dinner wasn’t until 8:00).  At 8:00 we had our goodbye speech and then sat down for a nice meal.  The kids all sat at one table, and the adults at another.  It’s amazing how well and quickly the kids on this trip bonded with each other.