meet dodek

I knew that my mother in law is afraid of deep water, but I didn't know that she's not a fan of altitude. Instead of making her happy I made her shivering.


In the end she overcame her weakness and bravely walked through - veni, vidi, vici. Congratulations!


If you want to make somebody happy you need to know this person. I like the adventure, but personally I prefer more "extrem" ones :P


In the gorge, there were many vultures waiting for death. They wanted to eat carrion, wild pig had fallen from top and smelled terribly, so were landing there but it was to narrow to take off.


More photos and videos on facebook.

I was climbing up with a very nice group when Chris reached us and for around 10 kilometres I had a private domestique, thanks a lot :)


This was the first race ever when we were going together, because normally during climbs Chris speeds up and the only thing I can do is to say good bye and climb slowly in my rhythm.


The second part of the race was the next day, it was only one climb, from Granada to Veleta, around 40 kilometres long. The best woman, Italian - Sabine Gandini - was so fast, that I even did not try to get on her wheel. After half of the climb an amazing welsh, Andrea Jennifer Smith caught me and we were going together, but at the last part she overtook me, but the time difference from the day before was so big that I still was the leader in oro (gold) category.


The organisers invited famous athletes: Luis Angel Maté and Lucas Eguibar Breton, that was a great surprise. In Poland I used to practise a lot of snowboarding, but here unfortunately I do not do it as much. It is incredible that in Spain there are people on such a high level. What is your favourite sport?


Por la tarde, cuando el tiempo cambió un poco, podíamos disfrutar las vistas. Más fotos puedes encontrarIn the afternoon, after a weather change, we went for a walk to enjoy the views. If you want to see more photos visit  the gallery.

The race started slowly, as almost all cyclotourist races. In about 2 hours we reached a pass el Boyar, where we met some cyclists waiting for us. There are people whose presence, nothing more, can motivate and encourage you, one of them is Belén. Thank you :)


The proper race started in Zahara de la Sierra where, as always, I was behind the others. Chris is laughing at me that I am like a steam locomotive, because I need a lot of time to catch my rhythm. I was climbing and catching people in front shouting:¨¡Venga! ¡Vamos!¨ -¨¡Come on!¨ :) At the very end with the wind blowing into my face a few of them overtook me. But my goal was to go strong without any excuses :)

Chris usually has problems with changes, because he thinks that everybody will collaborate, but ... life is life.


About one and a half year ago, when I was climbing up this las Palomas, I had an amazing domestique, Andrés. I will never forget him shouting and encouraging me :)


I am very happy with my results, because I managed to be 20 in general :) If you want to find more information, photos and an audition on the radio about the race visit radio Ubrique page, but it is only in Spanish.

Due to the health problems I have been struggling with, I could not sleep well so I felt a bit dizzy. The fall woke me up. With support from the other participants and spectators I continued the fight against myself. When I saw ¨no hay dolor¨, which means there is no pain, on the last climb I laughed at myself, because the only thing that slows you down or stops you is your brain.

At the finish line Chris was waiting for me. I wanted to stop strava, when I realised that I did not have my mobile in the pocket. I must have fallen out during the crash. I changed my clothes and with the organisers we went to Periana to look for it, but it was not there. We returned to alfarnate and ate ham and paella, which after 4 hours of sweet drinks and gels tasted even better. Many thanks for the organisers, Alfarnate Club Deportivo, and my husband, who normally tells: ¨If you only want, you can do it¨.

During the way back home, we gave another try and we found the cell phone, it was off the road, in a ditch. Now I just need to heel the burns. All is well that ends well :)

Cycling is much more than competing, it is also encouraging and supporting the participants :)


If you are interested you will find pictures on gallery.

For me there is no better place than mountains with snow. We spent the last two days in the Sierra Nevada. During the day the sun was shining and after skiing we were watching colourful sunsets with a lift in the foreground.

El pavo means turkey. For cyclists before Christmas it means even more - in Spain every December people race to win a turkey. Yesterday we were in Marbella where the race was held on the main road of the city.


Today we went to Velez to go for another one. However, the weather was awful and I decided not to take the risk. Probably, I got used to Spanish sun too much. Congratulations for all the participants and even bigger ones for the winners.

Cheers to Dani - we are going to try ourselves again soon.


More photos  here.

Yesterday it was a bit different than usually, instead of cooking and working I went climbing with a funny couple. I had to mention that I was not only taking pictures, but also trying to do it myself. I haven't done it for a really long time, probably 10 years, but even though I admired it a lot, especially that in Poland I used to climb on artificial walls inside buildings. Nature in here is so spectacular, that after a short period of time I forgot about the fear of falling down ;)


From the top, there was a really nice view. I was very satisfied that I managed to reach it, a bit like in Nepal ;) I've been dreaming about another trip to the high mountains. In the pictures Doris and Adam.