Chapter two

Well for this second chapter of the trip, let’s see, we were in Portugal at the end of the last chapter.
We drove right up to the north or Portugal and back into Spain, across the top of Spain, then down to Bardenas Reales National Park, a desert where we spent 4 nights.
This for me was the part of the trip I’ve been waiting for! I don’t know what it is, but I am really drawn to deserts, must be something in my Aussie genes I guess.
Since shortly after my last chapter, remember I said that I hadn’t really been doing that much training? Just a bit here and there, as I’d been busy with work and sightseeing as well.
Well this month has been the total opposite! I started getting right into training early in the month, building it up to more, then when we got to this desert I found my rhythm, and I was then doing between 3 and 4 hours per day, while still fitting in working on the laptop, filming new videos, and also just messing about having fun in the desert :-)

So training has been really good, I’m nearly every day now about 3 hours training, sometimes more.
Getting a good mix of Taiji, Qigong, Bagua, and also muscular work outs for the whole body, doing a lot of core work and running, punching and kicking, to bring me back to how I looked before moving to London, as I put on about 9kg from all the work and stress there. I’ve lost 4kg so far, so back down to 73kg. Keeping a very healthy diet of porridge with banana, hemp seeds and honey for breakfast, (occasionally a small bowl of corn flakes if I feel like a treat ;-)
I only eat a bit of fruit through the day, then a nice dinner of a heap of lightly stir fried or steamed veg, with some wholemeal pasta, or Gnocchi, I also make really nice Mexican Burritos, Veg, beans, and loads of Avocado :-)
Basically keeping my intake to about 1000 calories less than I’m burning each day.

The little portable shower we bought has been working well, just a little hand pump to get pressure, then away you go.
We could make it hot by just boiling some water on the stove to put in it, but I think it's better to rough it and have a cold shower right after training while you're still all hot :-)

My standing Qigong each morning is starting to feel really nice again, I wasn’t finding it hard, but just uncomfortable, getting a lot of tension around my shoulders and lower back, so now that I’m training a lot for myself again, all that is going away, body is feeling very nice, feeling stronger and fitter, today I was even singing while out on my run :-)

Coming up now for March I have a workshop every weekend, France, Germany, Holland, Belgium, and then we’re back in the UK for my Foundations camp first week of April.
So going to be a mostly normal work month really, though we might still see some cool things in between, though we have some long drives between workshops, so there will be a lot of driving long hours.

Anyway, here come the pictures again to show you what we’ve been up to :-)

I like spiral staircases :-)

No NO! You can't come in!

Awww...

What else better to do at a convent :-)

Cathedral Beach in Spain

Shopping time ;-)

Silly time on the mountain top :-)

We found this spot by chance, we were heading along a road looking for a supermarket, then I
saw this little track off to the left, so this parking lot was right on top of the mountain, with views
of the snow covered mountains as you can see here, and on the other you could see down to the
ocean, just amazing! All to ourselves :-) We had lovely weather in the day, then a great thunder
and lightning storm with dinner, then a starry night and amazing moon, and check out the sunrise
the next morning!

From the comfort of bed all nice and warm :-) This was Valentines day morning :-)

Then I had told Fran for Valentines day we could go as a treat to a proper camp site,
with hot showers etc! But really I had planned to take her to a hotel and spa in the
valleys below :-)

Such a nice relaxing evening

And then back to the van! On the road again!

Found a great little track that turned into a dead end, google thought we could go through,

but this meant we found this great mountain range :-)

We went for a walk at the end of the road, but the track just went around the bottom,
so we carved a track straight up the front of the mountain :-)

Ok so this part was a bit steep, nothing I've not done before, but Fran had never

actually "climbed" a mountain before, so she was shaking with fear while climbing up
this part, but she didn't let it stop her! She pushed on and got to the top :-D
I was right behind her ready to catch her of course.

Found some friends on the road

Pretty tiny little chapel hidden inside the rocks with a little lake right near it.

Training time

Nice abs Fran :-)

This day was so nice, we sent all day out in the sun training :-)
8 hours in the sun, training, then breakfast/lunch, even cooked out in the sun, did so
much training :-)

Got the music out in the sun doing my core work :-)

Was like a mini China wall :-) Right at the top of Spain, San Juan de Gaztelugatxe

This is one of the many free motor home parking areas around Europe.
We have an app which shows where they all are, so when we need a place to stay
we just open the app and there is always somewhere close by.
Some are just basic car parks, just for a nights sleep, but others are like this one where
it's a really nice place to stay. And they all have water as well, all for free :-)

Here it is! Barenas (Bardanus) Reales National park in Spain.
As I said earlier....WOW!!!!!

My office

Camping spot

Fran's over there in the back :-)

And there's me taking it all in :-)