Not many photos today, which mean it was a”HARD DAY.” Early this morning I went to pay our bill for the past two days, it was only two nights accommodation, (3 Chalets per night,) 15 beers, 3 bottles of wine and 5 Pasta dishes on Friday and 5 Pasta dishes last night, and the bill was higher than I expected. The chalets were very basic but had no Air-con and only a Fan. There was also no plug to charge your phone and one hat to use the communal charging station in the restaurant. Our chalets looked like this:

But if you read on the internet most people say Costa Rica’s coastal accommodation is very expensive for what you pay.

We were in high spirits and as it was my 29th Wedding Anniversary they al promised to take lots of photos of me, starting with this, which was the last, all the other footage of me is taken on video so that can capture me falling in the water-crossing. Luckily I never fell so we only have this photo to work with where I am in, I think.

Look at my optimistic smile, IDIOT !!!

We left at 7h45 and only arrived here at 16h00, and that was to do only 224 km. We never stopped for coffee but needed to eat some lunch as we had burnt a lot of calories this morning thank to Tex. like fools we all followed him on the horrible “road” out of the Lodge, and when he made a wrong turn down to the sea where the boat arrives with new guests. I immediately knew we were in very deep trouble but apart from screaming and a little prayer, I was a passenger on the bike all the way down.

We had to climb the little “road” back to where the bad road of yesterday was waiting for us. if you look at this photo you will see I am stuck in the centre of the “road” on the leaves and mud, 10cm lower than the two cement tracks:

But Milsy is a Roof of Africa Bronze Over Achiever and I got off and offered to push him up if he rides DadAss. Rocky was also near as he had the same little “situation” as I did, and as we would not need to pay him with whisky for the next year (as Tex won that honour,) Milsy was pushed up the hill, (ok, maybe just a little bit up the hill until he got the bikes back on the track. I must say in my defence, the photo does not show how steep this angle is.

Pie had his hands full with Tex who made it to them top of the 1st hill and then the bike came over on to the wrong side and his legs were 10cm to short.

It was not the day I had planned;

Gradually the road got better until we were off the property of the Lodge and on a Public Road:

And then it got worse, we got lost, several water crossings, some twice when we realised we were going wrong. The mGPS could not connect to a satellite under the canopy of the forest, and Google Maps wanted us to wait while it phones a friend.

My best photo was of Rocky, below:

At each water crossing I lied down in the shallow water to wet my riding-gear, we call this “putting on the air-con, and it causes lots of amusement at the Filling Stations and Restaurants or cool drink stops along the way.

There are no photos of Pie crossing the rivers as he drove almost in to me at the 1st one and splashed me, already wet, and drenching my phone, which is also my camera and crucial for this blog.

Things started going wrong for me during the night when I started coughing and feeling sick. My lovely wonderful wive of 29 years packed me an emergency kit for many things 3 years ago. The meds boxes has been shaking for many kilometres now and I could not read what they were for, so I dosed myself with a few which I recognised, the bubble stuff, (Spell Check is stumped by my spelling of “evervesants.”

But I forgot that when you are on the bike holding on for your life and the “clear liquid” from your nose starts running down your upper lip it is important to keep your moth shut. I also forgot that you need to open your helmets visor quickly, like a Fast Draw y a cowboy, when you sneeze, and I had to learn that lesson again today, ONLY ONCE !!!!

But it went wrong after lunch when the server wanted to take a photo, see above. It was very hot and Milsy who already had his riding jacket on left 1st. He had chosen a new town as Golfino was nothing like Portofino in Italy, although it had a Port. So Missy left and turned left, my phone stopped working and my GPS was also stumped, Pie had some destination in but I doubted it was the right destination, Tex had cooked his I-Phone by charging it in the sun on the bike and was going to follow us, Rocky was not any better prepared and I order off turning rights my Phone had said before it stopped working.

 

So Milsy got a very good road, a short-cut and we went the long-way, back to the main road for 10km and then wee got onto the Dentist Road, where we each get to test the quality of our Dentist’s work as the fillings are vibrated out of your mouth, which is good if your mouth can be open, but not so good if you have to hold it tightly-shut.

So Milsy arrived here, our Surfers Paradise for the night half an hour before us:

The Surfer Good’s who cleans our rooms very quickly and run off to catch some waves said they can cook us fish tonight, wonder how that will work out for us. But

Tomorrow we plan to cross over into Panama, which might or might not happen????

Have a Good Monday

Signing  off

Fleisch