My first task today was to get my wheel repaired. However, a visit to the three bicycle repair shops and a bike hire shop recommended because it had a small workshop all elicited the same reply: they could not help me until next week or later, and this despite me explaining my situation and what I was doing. It was a disappointment to say the least. I considered the purchase of a new wheel should one be available but I would still want to keep the current one as it was a moderately expensive upgrade. And I would still need workshop support to swap the gears because of the tools required. My other option was to move on, cross my fingers, and hope for better luck in Marbella, a flat ride of sixteen miles away.
I opted for the latter and enjoyed (as best I could when every jolt and rough piece of path had me grimacing) a ride on promenade and track along the seafront: on the one side beaches of rock and dark sand, on the other beachside houses and resorts, modern and luxurious, and the occasional bar and restaurant. Twice I passed the skeletal frame of new developments in their patch of ground by the sea which surprised me as I had thought all the viable seafront building plots would have been used long ago. My route was slow, steady and flat so I was not putting too much stress on the bike and my initial destination (assuming no catastrophic failure) was a bike shop in Puerto Banus, just this side of Marbella, that had been recommended. The last part of the journey through town was everything I had been trying to avoid: roads of heavy traffic with lots of stop-start riding and hills but the bike made it to this built up and not particularly inspiring area inland from the Puerto Banus coast. I don’t care about the surroundings though because the shop will fix my bike for tomorrow morning. When I explained that nowhere in Estepona had been able to help because most are booked up until June the owners said they were too 'but you are travelling and you are in need of help so we will help'. Was I wrong to hope for that attitude twelve miles back?
I have found a hotel a mile further out from town. It felt a long walk in the afternoon heat but options in Puerto Banus itself were limited and the prices ridiculous. I have had a siesta (relief induced as much as from the afternoon heat I think) and I have eaten well in this little Puerto Banus suburb. I hopefully collect my bike tomorrow morning and then press on over the hills to Malaga, probably my last stop before Almuñécar.
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