Castellon de la Plana to Almenara – 36km
18C
Terrain: roads

I’m back! And really excited!

My #vivrunseurope short film is now live on this website and here it is!

My amazing brother Marc Joynes so kindly stepped in to edit it and I’m just so excited that it’s out there. Please don’t hesitate to share to help raise awareness for the plight of refugees, the backbone of this entire challenge.

In fact, today I was listening to the news and heard that the World Food Programme has had to cut support to about 1.7 million Syrian refugees due to lack of funds. It’s difficult to imagine the devastating impact this will have on the refugees themselves and on the communities surrounding them. While I’m raising funds for the British Red Cross, they will be going directly to refugee projects so the more we can raise, the more of a difference we can make. Thank you so much for your support so far!

Also, apologies for the absence over the past few days. I made a snap decision to fly back to the UK for my nephews’ 2^nd birthday. My achilles was bothering me and I needed to take another rest so the timing worked out perfectly.

It was a surprise and my brother Marc’s face when I turned up at his doorstep on Friday was simply priceless. His wife Jo’s wasn’t too bad either! Life is just too short to miss these events and I feel thoroughly re-fueled with family love. Unfortunately, I didn’t have time to see friends but hopefully I’ll be back soon!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I also managed to see two key people to try to sort my body out a little. Barbara, who runs EnergyLab (sports therapy and coaching, www.energylab-bts.com/) and Gavin, my amazing osteopath who runs Backs and Beyond, www.backsandbeyond.co.uk (I couldn’t recommend them highly enough for people who live in or near London). I received some excellent care and advice from people that I trust for the next part of this journey.

So I was back on the road again today, heading towards Valencia. With very few busy roads it was really tranquil and my mind felt a lot less stressed after my short break, it was a really good day. The beautiful sun was out and I was surrounded by orange trees almost the entire way with mountains in the background, fabulous!

Here are some pics.

Not such a pleasant start but then…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

…it was like this (no cars, bliss).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Harvesting oranges.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And finally arrived here.