Well, it's been a while since I started my art trail hasn't it? 20 days to be precise, but this isn't because I have lost interest in my mission already. I can only explain this away as me having been very busy at work for the first part of my absence and then swept up in Christmassy type things for the last part of it. But today I was determined to get out on my bike and find some more murals! And I did!
There was one small hiccup in my plan though. I have recently been having technological issues with my phone. You see I am one of those people that puts my phone on to charge at night and then I unplug it in the morning. Apparently this is not a good thing to do and it has resulted in my phone battery swelling into a pillow shape that doesn't quite fit in the phone anymore. This means that my battery is ok for a short while but then, when it feels like it, the power percentage remaining rapidly depletes in front of my eyes until moments later my phone will beep that the battery level is critically low and then it turns itself off! In preparation for my mission I had charged my phone to 100% and having set my app to record my distance travelled and time taken I cycled off into the wind. I had been forewarned about the possibility of it being a bit windy out but I hadn't listened, choosing only to notice the cloudless, blue sky and so instead decided to wear my Summer cycling clothes of shorts and a vest top, despite it being the end of December. As the chill wind hit me I was sure that as I cycled on I would warm up. And I did. After about 15 minutes pelting along the N340 I did indeed feel very slightly less hypothermic.
As I arrived in Estepona I excitedly cycled through the back streets looking for murals. I hadn't gone far when I found one! It was a black and white mural called 'La mirada de un niño' by Francisco Alarcon. I reached into my bag to get my phone out to take a photo and found that my pillow battery had decided to escape from inside the phone (which isn't too difficult seeing as the back doesn't fit on too well since the battery grew) and so I had to put it all back together before I could take the photo. This wasn't so much of an inconvenience though because just as I had got off my bike a rather dishevelled woman shuffled along and stopped right in front of the mural eating 'pipas' and spitting the shells all over the place. Oblivious to my tuts and stares that were intended to signal that she should move along a little bit, she stayed there showering the ground with her spat out bits. Luckily in the 5 minutes it took me to reassemble my phone and log in and get the camera up and running she had shuffled off to spit elsewhere.
This wasn't the most exciting of murals in my opinion but on returning home and looking up about the mural online I discovered that had I just turned around and looked at the wall behind me I would have seen the second part of the mural, depicting a girl with a bowl of lentils! Unfortunately I didn't notice this and so will have to save taking that particular photo for my next outing.
I popped my camera back in my bag, cycled on a mere few feet and found another mural! This was one I had been hoping to find as I've seen pictures of it before and it's a great one. The child in the mural above is perhaps supposed to be looking at this next one. It's called ' Día de pesca' and it's by José Fernández Rios. It's the biggest vertical mural in Spain and it is painted over 6 walls of a block of flats, taking up over 1000 square metres of the building. I like this one because you need to get just the right perspective to fully appreciate the design which is of a fisherman casting his line to catch a fish, but when you do it looks fantastic. Amazingly it only took 3 weeks to paint which seems quite fast to me.
I hurried to get my camera out once more only to find that the pillow had popped out again! Tutting in annoyance I had to put it all back together again before I could take my photo.
As I took my photo I saw that the battery level was getting low! I noticed that despite the fact the battery had come out twice the app that records my distance travelled was still going! I hastily attempted to close it down in an effort to save battery but instead managed to open up the Internet browser and then Whatsapp which I'm sure didn't help my battery preservation efforts. The clock on the phone was also showing the wrong time but I wasn't too fussed about resetting it seeing as my distance/time app was probably going to be all wrong anyway. I also noticed that my photo hadn't quite captured the best viewing angle of the mural but I was hoping to get at least one more mural ticked off before my phone completely died so I determined to take a better picture next time and hurried off.
I cycled along again and soon saw another mural! I quickly turned off the main road towards it and raced to get my phone out again. Unfortunately it had switched off though and when I tried to restart it the battery level showed 2% and it started beeping again. Defeated and disappointed I decided to call it a day and set off for home, making sure to come back next time to get a photo of it.
I cycled back home and plugged the phone in to charge. Rather frustratingly, as I plugged it in, the battery showed 47% as opposed to the 2% of power that it had offered me while I was out and about. Silly phone. On the plus side by some miracle my distance tracker had somehow continued recording how far I had gone and it informed me I had travelled 21.3 km in minus 15 minutes, which I have to admit is a super human effort and a new personal best!
Until next time............