Travels in the van 2024 : Week Two

Wild Weather

The Atlantic coast line is dramatic. Craggy and wind swept in current weather, reminding me of wild Pembrokeshire. The forecast worsens, although we’re able to snatch bike rides with breathtaking views. 

The overnight spots are safe but lacking the comfort of hot water and toilets, and the low level anxiety stubbornly persists. If overnight spots are beautiful, it’s worth it. What;s not is n uninspiring campsite with luke warm showers and no hot water for washing up. (I’m the cook, so not my niggle!) It reaches a crescendo when bad weather sets in, a storm drove a small amount of rain water through the usually reliable waterproof canvass of the pop-up roof. Not enough to cause a big problem but still a very mild existential threat, along with the damp causing the heating facility in the van to have an electrical hissy-fit.

The antidote for this has been to own it, to verbalise it, and share it, this feeling, and to don waterproofs and do more cycling. Richard remains cheerful, and I try to relax. You’d think I’d never been cycling in the rain before! We’ve become soft. I’m hold the belief that it never rains all day. There’s always a brief reprise. Nostalgic memories of wet days spent playing cards in a caravan or a damp cabin have surfaced, the van is cosy, we can drive away and follow good weather and run away from bad, or relax into it, read, knit or write. I am also remembering to notice these fleeting emotions and let them go.

So my focus returns to noticing things; changes in vegetation, landscape and vernacular architecture. Greeting people. Breathing in nature. Going with the flow. 

...

Cycling through the Spanish countryside, seeing a farmer in a field, 

or a woman at her door, 

or along the banks of the Douro in Porto, where old fisherman gather with their rods, 

my head full of questions and noticings 

anything new in the tilt of the roof or the shape of a leaf, 

or the smell of the sea on the air

I will always raise a hand or meet an eye and smile or nod. 

It says "I see you" 

and the response that inevitably comes, a wave, a greeting, 

says "I see you too. You are here. Our paths have crossed" 

We have brightened each other's day and been witnessed to life itself.

(prompt from 'A Gift' by Denise Levertov)

...

We leave a wet Santiago de Compostela, where more rain is forecast and head to Porto ahead of schedule running from the weather.