Spain Planning...

Taking a break from Scotland for a sec, I thought I'd update y'all on my my plans for spain this summer...
They've been (slowly) developing, but it looks like I will fly into Faro, Portugal around April 21, spend a day getting my bike built, equipment together, etc, then take off the following day for Huelva, Spain, which is 127km to the east. If I can, I might try to take 2 days to do it, and sleep outside somewhere for the first night. I'm going to try to get a hold of some backcountry/ trails maps so I'm not stuck on the highways and main roads the whole time. After I get to Huelva, I'm going to attend a language school for two weeks to try to get my Spanish up to an at least acceptable level. I've been living with two native Spanish speakers for 5 months and never took them up on their offer to learn Spanish... I'm kicking myself already, and I'm sure it won't be the last time! After Huelva, I'm going to work my way along the coast--hopefully first south around Cadiz, then Tarifa, then start moving up the coast. The route is dependent on where the farms are so we'll see where I actually end up going. It's a bit wierd for me to do this much planning, I'm usually more of a go with the flow traveler, but being on my bike and staying with hosts changes things a bit.

I've been really digging into the WOOF listings...some of the farms sound like paradise, and I can't believe I could be going to some of them...check it out for yourself...

I've also been having quite a time getting all my equiptment together--everything I need for my trip is at home, so my mom has been having to get it all together for me, going off of descriptions like "pedals, not the old rusty ones, the new ones, might be on the work bench or in a small zip lock bag...can you fit an 8mm allen in the back?" But thanks to the help of the crew at Kulshan Cycles, we managed to get it all (mostly) sorted, and I'm now almost completely ready to go. I'm hoping to just tow a small trailer that will hopefully weigh in around 30lbs loaded. We'll see if that actually happens though.

I'll keep ya posted as I know more, but for now here's the tentative route plan for your viewing pleasure (click to enlarge)...