It can happen to you

An interesting day. Actually they've all been interesting; this one perhaps a little more eventful than others. In fact this update from your correspondent almost didn't make the presses.

You hear of it happening to others. 'That could never happen to me' you say smugly. 'What were they doing with the phone there anyway?' 

You've found the 'little room' and locked yourself in for a bit of peace and quiet.You turn around and glance down. Nothing particularly unusual. Water and some evidence of the previous user. Then suddenly bang! clunk clonk splosh! For a second it fails to register, then the reality of the back cover, a battery and the rest of a mobile phone floating down to the S-bend appears. Then you realise it's not just a mobile phone, it's your mobile phone and all becomes horribly clear. Thrusting aside any thoughts of what you're about to do you plunge your hand in and retrieve all the pieces. Thank goodness the SIM card is still there!

Trying not to drop things you scramble for the toilet paper and start drying everything, pushing to the back of your mind where exactly it is you've just had your hand. Someone outside is trying to get in; you've been there a while and you haven't even been able to do what you came there for. Will the phone ever work again? How are you going to explain this to your daughter, who lent you her phone so you could keep in touch?

Nothing to do but ignore the increasingly persistent attempts from someone to open the door and do what you came to do in the first place, balancing pieces of phone at the same time.

You've never been so glad to see that there's soap at the wash basin and you've never spent so much time washing your hands.

When you've finally convinced yourself that your hands are clean, you open the door and ignore the queue of angry-looking people waiting outside. Heading straight back to the bike, the first aid kit gets opened for the first time; the alcohol wipes will come in handy to dry and disinfect the phone. Everything is put in the (fortuitous) sun. Everything is reassembled and with not much hope the phone is turned on. It works! But then it doesn't. It takes the whole day trying to dry the disassembled phone but it still won't work. Luckily I'm in Burgos tonight. It's a big city and I can buy a new phone. I start to imagine how I'll explain this to my daughter.

In the albergue I suddenly hear the heating come on and have a brainwave: I'll put the disassembled phone on the heater to try to drive the water out. It's my last chance. First try, nothing. Second try,the phone comes on, then shuts down again. I leave the phone to cook (who will steal a phone in pieces from a heater?) and I go and do my washing for the day. When I come back, without much hope, I turn the phone on and wonder of wonders, it works!  Let's hope it keeps working!