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With Single Speed to Marrocco #4: wild bulls and even wilder elders

Jonathan Perraudin und Christoph Zuidema

12.9.2018

Translation: machine translated

After the last exam, Jonathan and Christoph decide to go out and discover the world. Not all-encompassing on the Canary Islands, but no-nonsense to Morocco: only with their Single Speed and light luggage. Here they recount their adventure. In this episode: damn bulls!

All roads lead to Rome, some even to Morocco. We find a particularly beautiful one from Barcelona heading south: fast exits and steep climbs make us forget our tiredness, after an eventful evening and some difficult stages. Arriving at Jonathan's relatives', we enjoy a well-deserved day off. But even here, we try to plan something for our next stages. Nevertheless, we find ourselves the next day on a route that is not really suited to our equipment.

And then here we have to... aaaaaaaaaaahhh!!!

Find error: Single Speed on a gravel track. — And then here we have to... aaaaaaaaaaahhh!!!

The spokes are broken, the will not yet

There are also punctured wheels and Christoph's spokes which regularly break after certain distances. All this is a test of our will to endure and keep going. By chance we meet a group of French people who had moved to Spain a couple of years earlier. They are having a picnic and enjoying the good life between tapas and Cava (a kind of Spanish sparkling wine). They invite us along as we make one of the many repair pit stops.

A tour of Cava with Lilly and her family.

Lilly and her family do not make it easy to continue the journey. What to do? Sleep with sleeping bags on the beach? - By the way: we have some unused sleeping bags. Interested? Contact us! - Or sell our bikes and open a beach bar? Since at least Christoph's back wheel won't get us much money and we want to stick to the goal despite numerous temptations, we move on towards Valencia. However, before we arrive, we come across more unexpected Spanish culture.
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Cava in the blood, bulls in the streets

Having arrived in a small village, we follow our route well, until we find ourselves in front of a two-metre high wooden barrier. Anxious to get to Valencia and with a bit of Cava still in his blood, Jonathan quickly finds a solution: somehow we have to cross. Suddenly: people are running on both sides, some climb over the barrier and the road continues behind them. Jonathan is determined to tackle the obstacle before the locals convince him to give up. And rightly so. Because a short time later people on the other side jump over the barrier. Next time we know that sentences containing the word 'Torro' are not necessarily an invitation to dinner.

Ehm...hello? One-way street! Pucol's bulls don't care.

For Jonathan, this is not a blockade, but a challenge. — Ehm...hello? One-way street! Pucol's bulls don't care.

Valencia proves to be much more relaxed. There are 'Torros', but not as present. However, the next morning we are glad we planned wrong, in a good way. True to the motto 'sewn twice lasts longer', Valencia appears twice as the starting point of our journey. So we take advantage of one day and halve our next stop. Due to the lack of alternatives (couchsurfing, hostels, remote beach) we find ourselves in a place where, for once, we are the least dancing and the first to go to sleep.

The elders go wild, Christoph holds on to his coffee.

What has happened so far:
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With the fixie to Morocco #3: Skidden, Vermuth and melancholy
by Jonathan Perraudin und Christoph Zuidema

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Jonathan Perraudin und Christoph Zuidema

aurel.stevens@gmail.com

We're setting off from Zurich this summer, trying our hand at skidding with fixies, racing over mountain passes and not stopping again until we've reached the beach in Morocco.

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