Boats and Bikes!

I have to say that the route I have taken today is not my favourite part. There is a long stretch on a N road which is full of cracks and no places to stop for coffee and water. This is a section I seriously need to have a rethink about on future tours.

So with the ride complete, here are the stats –

1388KM cycled

106 hours on the road

12,130 meters climbed!

And here is a link to the full tour map. The 2026 Eclipse Tour | Komoot  In 2014, I completed a slightly more direct version of the tour in 9 days. This year I wanted to take more time to explore places more closely that I had discovered on previous tours.

Leading out of Paterna, its hills to climb, then I have this downhill segment. Great view. For the first few hours of the ride, it was overcast, keeping things cool. But it warmed up from the mid point. Headwind as well. The rain that was forecast did not happen 🙂

Another bit of downhill and then a big climb up to that village which is the last place for well over 40KM for coffee and water. So topping up is essential before moving on.

And the road continues to be rubbish.

And here we have a massive sink hole.

And finally, its Gib. This time with a difference. Today was my shortest visit to Gib, maybe less than 1 minute? As the rock has joined Schengen, there are no formalities. Border Police, Customs?  All gone. I cycled in. Pushed the stop button on GPS and then cycled to a bar in La Linea.

On previous trips, the stamp collecting in passports had become frustrating. So its great that Gibraltar found a Post Brexit solution. The rest of the UK need to make live easier by reversing Breshite !

And a final shot for this tour looking towards Algeciras. Looks like a search light!

Today was a short one as I managed to book a few hotels up front and somehow had a gap, so I just added a hotel where I stayed on day 18 as all previous bookings were not flexible. So short ride so a detour from the usual direct route.

Another warm day with a strong head wind!

This is Arcos, My hotel was on a lake to the right of this town on a hill. Striking looking place!
A few KM up the road is a dam which I will be cycling across.

On the other side is a massive lake. I think this lake is a reservoir as there is no hydro power here.

But there is a water take off for the solar plant. On previous trips I have passed to the other side of this area where there are mirrors concentrating sun onto pipes. (see pictures from previous tours).  The solar mirror fields can be seen next to the plant which I assume has some steam turbine system to generate power.

On the approach to Paterna, there are fields of standard solar panels and wind turbines. Spain is big on renewables. They have the land to do it and the climate to suceed!

Setting off from Dos Hermanas is a fair bit of urban cycling. However weather is good with a slight tail wind. The destination is Arcos and a nice hotel by the lake. The new wheel continues to work and hope it will cause me no issues as its a very cheap OEM model.

The route today follows a busy N road and then onto country lanes. There is also a heatwave again so I am expecting 40 degrees C towards the end of the ride.

The cycle track south is quite good, but somehow designers missed the bit about selecting the correct sort of tree. The end is just another 100m away, so this is a good time to join the road.

Coffee stop after 30KM. Stopped here in the past and it never ceases to amaze me about the prizes a small road café stumps up for a lottery. 12 Euros for a ticket See Paisano — Plataforma de Reservas 🙂

One of the frustrating things about Spain is the continuous litter on the side of the road. It goes on for miles up and down the country. 30% of the trash is beer tins and bottles. Bottles are a big issue as it can focus the strong sun to start a roadside fire.

How does all this letter get here? If its ejected from cars, then it would appear that Spain might have a major drink drive issue?  However, having spent many days on the road, I find Spanish drivers very thoughtful and courteous. I have also not seen any litter being thrown from cars at all! but with the volume I am seeing, I should. So maybe its just fly tipping and then heavy rains flush it along the road?  Who know?  But somehow people need to get a grip and stop this.

This section of the road has become so bad that they have stopped cars going through. I had a conversation with the chap at the barrier as I was a bit worried at the road closure. I am 8KM from my destination and to detour would add another 35KM! And I am not up for doing that in 40 degrees. He let me through and told me to go careful and carry my bike over whatever he said was there and take my time.

I have mentioned before, Andalusian are shocking much of the time and they clearly have a lot of subsidence.

And another bull. Possibly the last for this tour.

And finally, its the hotel. Nice pool, but rammed as the hotel opens to the general public (for a fee) so a quite afternoon poolside was not going to happen.

Today, less climbing. A lot of downhill and then flat until Seville where I have about 14KM of urban cycling.

The weather remains amazing. During the afternoon, it reached 37 degrees! Lots of up and down on the rolling hills to start with but just before the decent, I spotted another of the solar towers to the east. I am aware of the solar tower to the West. This is an amazing solar farm where mirrors direct the light onto a tower where the energy is used to generate power! Here is a link for more information. https://maps.app.goo.gl/vxEXn1J3nCjpFgsL9

And here is a warning to be on the lookout for a lynx. Hoping not to come face to face with a large angry cat.

Random road block to the north of Seville. Also the road is good at this point. 3KM of road blocked off because of a new flyover being built.

After two days of chilling in Montemolin, I am back on the road. The new wheel is doing fine and munching a few miles. My original plan was to head further to the east and take in Ronda. After looking at hotel availability at an affordable price, I could not make it work. So routing now is south via Seville. I did manage to find a new route so do not need to take the “N” road as that one has become too boring.

There are two things I don’t like on tours. 1. A steep hill right at the beginning before I warm up. 2. A steep hill right at the end of a days riding. Today I was presented with both!

Starting out, weather continues to be amazing. Some great views to take in.

Road surfaces in this part of Spain are really good. Extremadura is really on top of things (even though the Jerte Valley was rough in places. Even here in this spot where it seems that a flooding event has caused significant damage to a bridge. Road surface is good. A few more KM up the hill and its “Olive Country” a clear sign of being south and in Andalusia. And here is another aspect of the Andalusian experience…

..across the border this is what roads in Andalusia looks like. This is a very rough patch. The roads are marginally better but will be generally rubbish for the rest of this tour. (one reason why I did not take the N road south to Seville).

The issue with rough roads is punctures, but the added friction also makes the riding more difficult. In the case of the extreme damage, care has to be taken not to go to fast and sick significant damage to the wheels whilst going downhill.

After a day on the road, time to rehydrate. Cruzcampo is great here. But not too keen on the Cruzcampo they have staretd to sell in the UK (for a fortune by the way).

The destination today is another old favourite village called Montemolin. This will be my 5th Visit to a Casa Rural. Weather forecast states that rain is likely. But my first task is to get to a cycle shop to fix the wobbly wheel!

So setting off, the forecast is correct, signs of rain behind. But I managed to get to Zafra in the dry!.

This shop has great reviews on Google, but closed. Should have looked more closely at the time as there appears to be a sign saying that the shop has moved down the road.

The second shop was closed. Only open between 1800 and 2000 today. Not very helpful, but most cycle shops are owned by keen cyclists and they need to get out and cycle sometimes 🙂

And finally, the third shop I get to is open! Initially I was told that the wheel could not be fixed and they had no new wheels. The owner then asked his mechanic about what could be done. Luckily they had an order in for a new bike where the owner wanted to upgrade from the OEM wheels. So with the problem fixed, I am ready to cycle. But…..

…..its pouring with Rain! So 2 coffees and a 40 min waitF.

Forecast indicates that the rain will not last as its just a narrow band, so after cofee, all is good and I am back on the road to do another 40KM.

Another Osbourne bull along the way!

And finally I get to Montemolin. Now for two days off to explore the castle and chill by the pool.

Day 14 on the road was eventful! At about 40KM into the ride, the dreaded ping from the back wheel! Yes a broken spoke. Clearly the wheels are on a standard racing bike is not up to the task of long distance with extra loading. Regarding the load, I am not talking much. Its just a 25L back pack strapped to a bike rack. No more than say 7KG! As the wheel is expensive, the prospect of a fix is veery low. I am likely to need to replace the wheel.

Being in the middle of basically nowhere, there are no cycle shops nearby, but tomorrow, I will divert to Zafra where there are three shops to chose from.

So after using a sticking plaster to secure the spoke, I loosened the break calliper and proceeded to complete the final 50KM on a wobbly wheel!

This is what industrial tomato picking looks like. We are well into the crop season here and loads of trucks are on the road to take the tomatoes to processing factories. Nestle had a large factory near the hotel I stayed at.

This was one of the last factories I passed. A very large outfit. Kind of wondering what all of these factories do when there are no crops to be picked?

Wild fire alert. Luckily the wind is blowing in the wrong direction for this one to cross my path. There is activity and I suspect the fire will soon be under control.

Leaving the tomatoes behind, I am in another wine region. More hills and of course a wobbly wheel 🙁

Finally I arrive at the hotel during the afternoon. Got to the hotel before the rain got to me. So to fit into the local routine, its a beer at 1600 with a beer and then a snooze until 2000 when I get up for dinner.

For the afternoon snack, its Croquettes. Normally served on a plate, but this golden pig is just a ugly thing for serving food on. Is it a Donald Trump meme?

A nice dry day on the road with some good scenery along the way. As usual, the roads were not too busy. This is one of the joys of riding in Spain.

First picture of the day, just outside of Trujillo. Some hills ahead to navigate around.

And this is my first Osborne bull of the trip!

Last travelled down this road in 2014. Looking south, its fairly flat which gives an indication of what riding will be like tomorrow. Its an area of agriculture.

In Spain they grow massive tomatoes like this one. It even has its own birds nest.

And in this region its the tomato capital of Spain! Its now harvesting season. On the roundabout a few tomatoes have fallen off a truck on its way to one of the nearby processing plants. This is fairly common on bends where the drivers take things a bit too quick.

On a previous ride, I aimed my front wheel at these tomatoes for some fun. It was not long before I squished one tomato and it decided to explode all over my legs and bike. Fun over.

This is the Finca La Desa. My hotel for the night. On previous visits during 2014 and 2018, it was called La Torre, a basic hotel with 1980s décor. For a while, it was closed, perhaps a victim of the 2020 pandemic? There are quite a few places that never survived. But here is a good news story, the hotel has been completely remodelled as a nice new 4 star outfit. Great value for about £50 a night. Back in 2014, it was £19 per night as a basic hotel 🙂

The weather has changed in this part of Spain. With lots of showers in the forecast, I decided to shorten the ride from 90KM to 40KM. Here is the route. Another feature of the weather today was a strong headwind.

So, this is what I work up to. First task is to re-organise hotels over breakfast. As check out was set for 1200, I did some work and then set of just after 1200 as the weather had dried up.

A view of the hotel before setting off. This place was fairly quiet and basically in the middle of nowhere. I think its the sort of place that survives on running corporate events and weddings.

Soggy stuff not to far away. Managed to outrun this shower so my run to Trijullio was dry.

And along the way, some radon pigs caught my attention as I passed by. Most of the group ran away from the fence creating a dust cloud. This one stayed put doing what pigs do. Eat!

Departure from Jerte started out as a nice downhill ride for a few KM. Passing the café and pool I first visited in 2014! This valley is very green, possibly due to a micro climate. One of its key outputs is cherries, but I guess I will never see that as I normally pass this area a few months after Cherry season. 

Plenty of climbing and downhill featured in todays ride. 

As usual, I have my phone on standby to take pictures. For those interested, I am using a Samsung S23 Ultra smartphone. Really pleased with the results. Taking a full sized SLR on a trip like this is a bit too much weight and space to manage (If you seen the pictures of the back on the back of my bike, you will undertand)

So, last time I passed this way in 2024, I had planned to take the N road towards Placencia and turn left over the hills heading south a few KM before the city. On the last trip, at the point where I took the photo above, I turned back as this was a steep hill and I was being pestered by a cloud of flies! So it was a U-turn and back to the N road and a longer route. 

Today there were a few flies, but a stronger wind kept things civilised, so I was able to take on the 370m climb! Great views along the way 

This is the high point for the day. 833m as also confirmed by GPS. 

Not too far along from the peak, I came across this blue box consisting of a pump and some tools. I found the allen keys very useful as I was able to tighten u a loose bottle cage (need to change my Park Tool Hex set as it does not contain a key small enough for the cage! )

Attempted to use the pump to top up tyre pressure. This failed as all the pump would do is let the air out. So out came the hand pump. All is good! 

Opposite this work station was a tap with clear spring water. A normal thing for this area and as locals were using the water to take home, I topped up my bottles. Another 2 Euros I need not to spend! 

It never ceases to amaze me how many villages are built that cling onto the side of a mountain. This picture taken from the south of the North side of the Jerte Valley. 

Its Cowes week in Spain, but just Cows on the water and not Cowes on the water !

Wilf fires have been a big issue in Spain this year. This one small and very recent. Brought under control recently as people still on site to monitor in case of re-ignition. 

And finally, a few KM before the hotel, an area of man made lakes. Popular tourist area.