Rise and shine

Day 1 of our tour and it is 6h30 here. It would sound stupid to say I have jet lag (only 1 hour time difference), but I was up at 5h this morning. Just couldn't sleep anymore.

Our flight yesterday was good. Left on time, landed half an hour late. But we had a lot of turbulence during the last 20 minutes of the flight, and some people in the plane got very scared.

We missed the driver that had to pick us up (had already left), and as the ambulance parked in front of the airport building was not yet for us (too early, we haven't driven the bikes yet) we decided to take a taxi. We got pushed into a taxi...all three of us...with the oversized travel bag...in a FIAT UNO ! Now I know how a sardine feels like. It was a crazy thing to do but we had so much fun sitting in this small, worn out taxi with little or no shock absorbers and brakes that probably come from a 40 year old scooter..Good thing we didn't have to go too far because with 40 degrees outside we must have lost 2 kg in sweat just getting to the hotel. And the lony airco was opening the windows (oh, forgot, you do get some driving wind coming in through the rust holes of the car LOL)

Anyway, we had our first briefing last night, met with the other riders and our guide, and picked out our bike (not very hard, they are all orange ...). Of our two co-riders, one is Swedish and lives in France, the other is Jordanian but lives in the UK. Nice guys, also looking for a leasurely drive, and not speed freaks. We had dinner together last night and quite a few laughs so I'm sure we will get along fine.

Number 6, coming from Canada, missed his connecting flight last night in Lisbon. He will fly over this morning and he will rendez-vous with us by normal road for lunch.

Becasue of the hot weather, we are leaving early this morning. This way we can take a longer break over lunch when the temperature is the highest (powernap time ?)

Have to go for breakfast now. My mobile doesn't work here, so updating the blog depends on me finding a computer in each hotel. So if there is no blog tonight, it means I didn't find one ...