We set the alarm full of optimism that we can turn up at the only  bike shop in Sanguesa when it opens at 8am, they can replace the broken cable and we can be off. If only it were so simple!

We genuinely are so optimistic that we take the tent down, pack everything up and head off as if we are about to get our heads down for another 90 miles. Despite the complete lack of English of the guy at the bike shop and our even worse Spanish, we manage to glean that yes he can replace the cable and that we should come back at 4pm. That’s not ideal of course but we will absolutely take it….”muchos gracias signor!” We leave the bike and all my panniers there (save valuables) and head off to find some breakfast. 

An hour or so later we decide to drop back into the bike shop to pick up something from my panniers and through the medium of Google translate “signor bike fix” tells me that in fact it is not the relatively easily replaceable cable that is broken but the entire gear shifter mechanism. It’s trash, it can’t be repaired and he does not have a replacement. 

This is of course a major blow. Marc and I hunker down outside to consider next steps and we start scouring the internet for the, as it turns out, very particular bit that we need. It takes about 45 fruitless and increasingly despondent minutes before we think we find the right component that could be delivered to the bike shop here tomorrow. Now is maybe a good moment to highlight that the use of the word “shop” here is wholly interchangeable with “shed” and that whilst there is evidence of other bikes, the bread and butter business seems to be repairing rotivators and lawn mowers. Nonetheless I have 100% confidence in “Signor bike fix” technical prowess.

I take a couple of minutes to go through (via Google translate) what I am planning to order with “signor bike fix” and he, like me seems to be happy with what I am proposing and so it is ordered (at huge expense I might add). It is also the very last one in stock in Spain according to the website and  so I sincerely hope it is real and that it actually arrives. 

If it arrives as advertised then yes we are behind where we wanted to be but we can still make it to Morocco on time if we skip our second planned rest day (we have had two here now anyway) and push on all the way to Tarifa.  If it doesn’t arrive or, heaven forbid, it’s the wrong thing (I have a massive panic about this later in the day….huge thanks to Marc for being the eternal positive energy that he is, and to my brother Neil for his technical expertise, for talking some sense into me and to both of them for providing reassurance that in fact it looks like I have ordered wisely and it will all be ok!) then we will have to come up with another plan…..please, please, please don’t let it come to that. 

All we can do now then is wait….again…..and so we do. The day is spent walking around Sanguesa in the beautiful sunshine, watching the salmon trying to leap across the weir upstream (genuinely….truly amazing to watch although didn’t catch it in film) eating and of course drinking beer. 

Fingers crossed for good news tomorrow.