Day 3: Tavira to Matalascañas (150 km)

Fundraising Tour 2019 1 Minute

Today was the day of unforeseen insights and some laughter.

The first learing was that boarding the ferry across the Rio Guadiana to get to Spain entailed a time change of one hour – to my disadvantage because of reduced travel time.

Also, instead of listening to music I started increasing my Spanish vocabulary. However, I had obviously downloaded a rather old audio book because there were a lot of words to learn around exchanging money or where to find a telephone cell. This made me laugh out loud. How normal it is for us today to have a shared currency and mobile phones. However, it is not.

Around noon, I had some nice tapas for lunch in Huelva. The second learning happened happened a little later in the huge industrial harbor of Huelva. My navigation system (Komoot) had send me 5 km down a road that turned out to be a dead end and I had to return and cycle back. However, instead of being furious it made me smile somehow. I had had similar situations in other big harbors before.

Then followed the very large national park Coto de Doñano and the third learing. For 40km nothing but pine forest and dunes – but no people or villages. Then I arrived in Matalascañas which is a artificial tourist ghost city the size of a regular village and the last civilization for another 40km. According to Komoot the road would now follow the coast line and would then get to another ferry to Sanlúcar de Barrameda. Taking another route would add another 30-40km because of the detour around the national park. The problem turned out to be, that were just was no road. Not even a trail. It was all covered by dunes. What had been there once was long gone.

Since it was to late for the detour I decided to stay in the tourist ghost town which was really special. I used the gained time and the great scenery for some more drone shots.

Insight of the day: Unforeseen learnings can make you angry or amused. It depends on your state of mind.

Published by Karsten Drath

About 30 years ago, two zis scholarships helped me to broaden my horizon, expand my understanding of what is possible, and develop more self-confidence. zis is a non-profit organization that has been awarding scholarships for study trips to young people between the ages of 16 and 20 for more than 60 years. Today, the word we use for tenacity and grit is resilience - and I've made it my profession, to help managers around the world to develop more of this inner power. In retrospect, the experiences I've had on these trips to Scotland and Iceland have been priceless for my development. After having had a childhood with some challenges, I learned that I could cycle 1,700km on my own and get wet every day without despairing. I have learned that I was able to get along with only 300 € for 4 weeks and still had a good time. I have learned what it's like to be threatened with deportation and how to get an interview with the President from such a crisis. I have understood that limitations are primarily constructs in our heads, and I want to make these insights available to as many adolescents as possible.

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One thought on “Day 3: Tavira to Matalascañas (150 km)”

  1. Lieber Karsten,

    nach einem euphorisierenden zis-Jury-Wochenende, bei dem wir viele sehr spannende zis-Reisen juriert haben (Jahrgang 2018) und neue Bewerber*innen aufgenommen haben (Jahrgang 2019) grüße ich dich ganz herzlich zurück aus meinem Alltag!
    Die ersten Tage deiner Tour wirken entspannt und gut gelaunt trotz nicht immer gelingender (Routen-)Pläne. Wie schön! Ich verfolge gespannt deine (Drohnen-)Bilder und deine Insights via Learned Lessons – Danke dafür und bleib weiterhin so guter Dinge!
    Herzlich, Nina

    Reply

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