Little things

The wind, has been the main character of the last few days of riding. Definitly, it has stolen the show.
Since I left the Pyrenees it's been consistently coming from where I want to go to. It's been very frustrating. Not only makes the ride a lot harder, slower, and longer, but it's restless to ride against a headwind. Phisically and mentally. When you're on the mountains you only push going uphill and then relax coming down. But against the wind on this hilly terrain, it makes the ride a 150-200 km mild uphill. 7 to 10 hours a day you can't rest, even when going downhill.
And then there's the noise, the bloody stressful noise. Being a sailor I should be used to this. But pedaling for 8 hours with this distant thundering right inside your head non stop, drives me insane.
It's very hard to deal with all this. Specially when I thought this would be the easier part of the trip. I thought the mountains would test myself, but these last 5 days have been the real test. They reminded me of the meaningless of planning. No matter how much you train or prepare and plan for journeys like this, it's nature who has the last call. Weather has been perfect don't get me wrong, sunny warm days one after the other. But my legs and my mind are way more exhausted than what I thought they would at this point.
From Biarritz to Arcachon on wednesday, there're 180 km. I did 210. I left the bag with money and debit card at lunch and I realized it 15 km later. On the evening, one hour from Arcachon, I couldn't take a panini out the bag (tired, wind, hunger) and so I went off at it with such anger, I actually felt ashame of myself. Such is the desperation I reach when riding over 10 hours with this constant buzz in my ears.
But at the end of the day, I feel happy. I feel happy because I arrive and I can rest. I feel happy because I'm out there, free, doing what I chose to do. Doing something that I believe in.
And are the little things that I witness and learn along the way that keep me going. The smell of the forest, the hare that sprinted away scared of my suddent presence, the croaking of frogs while passing a little pond and the wind died down a little to allow me to hear the world. It's finding out that Sort, where I spent my second day on the Pyrenees, means Luck in Catalan, so people go there specifically to buy their lottery tickets.
On Thursday going to Angouleme (a cool little surprise of a town by the way) when the wind was not that strong, I found this group of kattle laying lazily on the grass. And I saw them, and I stared at them, and secretly envied them for being so laid back and restful. But at getting closer I noticed their ears, shaking, every 3 or 5 seconds, all the time. I realized they were shaking the flies off their ears. That must be so annoying I thought. So I smiled, put my head down, and kept going, pedaling away.
Yesterday, was the windier day, and after a bend on the grenhills I saw this cows, again, just chilling. And I started smiling again, but this time there was no shaking, just peace and restfulness. Puzzled, I wondered, and immediatly this white noise spoke right next to my ears and gave me the answer. That same wind which was exhausting me, was blowing the flies away from the kattle's ears. And I smiled again. I smiled at how things work. I smiled because there's a balance, sometimes we're good and sometimes not quite. And I smiled because I knew at some point this wind would let go, veer or back to help me, or if it doesn't then there's must be a lesson there I have to understand.
So I put my head down again, and pedaled and pedaled and pedaled... and thought it would be cool to be able to shake my ears like that to scare flies and mosquitoes, or this bloody wind... and I pedaled.

PS: can't upload pictures in this... bar with computers! tomorrow Paris so I should then...