The prospect of writing about this day has delayed the publishing of my blog for a month. Now I feel I just have to write it and get on with continuing the commentary on the next stage of my cycle adventure.
My mum had not been in good health for quite some time and had been admitted to hospital with a suspected chest infection at the back end of April. Fortunately, in a way, this coincided with my last pre-planned trip back to UK, as the downturn in her health turned out to be late stage lung cancer. She was determined that her illness shouldn’t unduly impact on my plans and was most insistent that I return to Spain earlier in May in order to continue with my ride. This I did, whilst planning another return home for a few weeks at the end of the month. I’d managed to speak to her in her hospital room every day, but last night she was not well enough to respond.
This morning I rode into Girona and explored the town for a while, before grabbing a coffee.
Just as I was about to leave the cafe, I received a phone call from my daughter; my mum was really poorly and the advice was to get home as soon as possible. I headed off on my planned route in the direction of Perpignan with the thought that the airport there would provide the best route home. In the meantime I tasked my daughter with researching fight options to get me home and agreed we would speak in 2 hours’ time. At the appointed hour, whilst sat in a transport cafe in the midst of a thunderstorm, she told me she had found a flight from Girona into my home town airport of Bournemouth for the next day. I booked the flight there and then, arranged a hotel at the airport which could store my bicycle for an unknown period of time and then got back on my bike and headed off in the direction from whence I’d come.
Shortly after arriving at the hotel my brother phoned to say that my mum had just passed away.
The intervening month or so has not been easy, to say the least. However, following encouragement and advice from the rest of the family, I have been back on the bike for a little over a week. The nature of my ride has now changed and that will become apparent over the course of my subsequent blogs.
This is not Plan A 