After a few days, I leave Havana, heading west towards the Gunahabibicanes Peninsula. I am keen to avoid the more touristy parts of Cuba and this region is, supposedly, quite wild and untouched by the kind of insensitive development and tacky holiday resorts that seem to have blighted many of Cuba’s most beautiful beaches.
Cuba, unsurprisingly, is heavily militarised. Signs proclaiming military zones are everywhere - these helicopters are part of some sort of training course by the side of the freeway on which I leave Havana.
Tourist accommodation in Cuba offers few options for the budget traveller and so my plan, as usual, is spend most nights in my tent. The Cubans that I inform of this are totally horrified – it is beyond their comprehension that a woman could travel alone, let alone camp alone. They insist that if I am determined to follow through with this insanity that I must find camp sites in well-populated areas, where security guards will be able to protect me.
The city is soon behind me and I head westward on the look out for likely places to camp as the road wends through farm land, loosely following the coast. A low range of mountains, with strange limestone rock formations, also parallels the coastline.
Cuba's strange mountainous limestone formations, seen here in the mountain range in the distance, are known as mogotes.
Cuba is free of commercial advertising but many forms of political propaganda take its place. This roadsign sign reads, " We will recover very soon!" You can only hope it hasn't been there for too long but since the crisis it refers to is the economic collapse provoked by the fall of the Soviet Union I'm not sure if this is the case.
I ride until dusk and finally set up camp next to a muddy bay in the grounds of a water-side restaurant and bar. I find the situation less than ideal as camping in the proximity of people tends to make me feel less, instead of more, safe. A group of women in the restaurant are kind enough to organise a bucket of water for me to wash with but entering the restaurant or bar is altogether too daunting and I snack out of my pannier on rather inadequate crackers.
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