Greetings from Guadalupe

Eventful day, got in late to Guadalupe having left Cacares at 'sparrow fart'. It has to be said that Jeremy was not looking all too bright when we left the hotel; our mistake was putting this down to a rare combination of beer and tapas that he'd been rather keen on the previous evening. His complexion matched the grey clouds and his athletic prowess, was closer to that of your aged grandmother. After about 10 miles Jeremy came to a collapsing kind of a halt and started coughing up blood.

Whilst on these occasions we try to observe the 'Top Gear' protocol of checking for signs of life and if present, offering modest sympathy before wishing the victim well before peddling off, we thought on this occasion we should at least get him to a hospital. A taxi was summoned, a rather dishevelled Mr. Gittins was loaded in with bike and off he went to the local hospital.

We got a text from from him some hours later saying something along the lines of "There I told you I was ill" and that he had spent a day in the hospital at Caceres explaining to a petite blond nurse just what an important man he was. He says he´s going to find a car and try and catch up with us but we all suspect that he and the nurse have other plans... Graham got a puncture in the middle of nowhere - par for the course. An excellent lunch in the historic square at Trujillo where the refreshment bill seemed disproportionately cheaper with only the four of us.

In the afternoon the rain came down like stair rods for hours, everything got soaked. What we could see of the countryside and mountains through the driving rain seemed pleasant enough but to be honest we were all feeling pretty damp, miserable and concerned that we seemed to have lost one of our number. Got to the hotel about 8 O'Clock. 90 very damp miles, 7,000 feet of climbing

Keep you posted.

GPX file of today's route
Caceres to Guadalupe