Boats and Bikes!

This part of the tour I have done before two years ago. The ride was very good with some very nice sights along the way, but news from the UK about my house kind of ruined my day. Part of my roof party all fell, thankfully nobody was hurt.

So, now a plan B, I will not progress to Gibraltar. Instead, I will end the tour at El Chorro, have a few days chilling and go back to the UK early !

Bikers at the petrol station where I filled up with water. This picture does not really show it, but when the biker was sat on the seat, the load at the back was slightly taller. I guess he has everything including the kitchen sink!

Looking back over Cordoba

This is just a bit further up the road. Nice long easy ride to La Rambla and finally Puente Genil.

Hotel Carmen is a nice spot where I have stayed before. Great value for money. Nice rooms and a good restaurant.

A hard day of climbing! Destination is Cordoba to a 4 star hotel at a good price. Tough ride to start with on country lanes with steep bills. Eventfully I am on the N road for the last 20 miles. Oddly three drivers beeped me with some attitude, like I should not be on the road. Most odd for Spain as I was legally allowed on this N road!

Interestingly on the country roads leading to the N road, two drivers stopped to check that I was OK. A few days back a lorry driver stopped to check all was well. Generally people in Spain are polite on the highway!

Day starts of on flat country roads but this will not last !

And here is a shot across the valley I have just crossed – that house in the tree is halfway up this side and where a driver offered to give me a lift!

Hot day calls for cool fluid. This first pint did not last long!

Hotel gave me the VIP treatment! Free fizz in a bucket. Nice touch, but after riding its beer and water I need, not fizz! So this was gifted to the hotel team 🙂

Starting to push directly south now and picking up a following wind. Next stop Pozoblanco a small town.  Really nice hotel at the end of the ride!

The ride started off fine along some road I have traveled before. After about 15 miles, a quick coffee stop and a water top up. The next 30 miles was full of undulating hills and not place to refill with water. I managed to make the water last all the way and topped up a a petrol station for the rest of the trip.

The route planning app Komoot is great and takes cyclist clear of major routes, but attention is needed to accessibility of water. As a rule of thumb, if carrying two 75CL water bottles, a 25KM maximum distance should be set before the next water filling point. Maybe less for big climbs.

Puertollano – a nod to the mining history on the Glorietta.

Just before the coffee stop at Brazatortas, a picture of fire damage taken from a road bridge. Over the past few days I have seen a few areas where there has been fires. This one the largest.

And here is the highest point of the ride. Big downhill followed by a west direction ride into a head wind.

Not as misty as the past few days. Two days at the Parador was very relaxing. Its a government owned chain which started nearly 100 years ago. Whilst I did not know at the time, the Parador I cycled past in the Gredos Hills was the first one to be opened. Normally 4 star standard, not cheap, but always interesting buildings.

A flat start

Interesting “Glorietta” showcasing mile stones and construction plant.

So, there I was cycling along the road. Spotted a flock of animals. Then spotted a field of Melons (Have not seen melons being grown in Spain before). Then the flock started to march across the crops. In some countries, livestock damaging crops lead to serious  wars between tribes!

In the mist you can see big hills in the background. My destination is behind those hills.

I really hate big climbs at the end of a ride This was in fact an unnecessary hill as I plugged in a duff location as a waypoint, so ended up about 3KM from my hotel. Duh! Anyhow this is looking down over Puertollano and ex mining city.

Cant beat a good windmill to confirm my tail wind today.
They do not build hills in Spain like they used to. This was the highest point of my ride today and it looks like the engineers short changed the government of 2m for the 1KM hill contract!

At the destination and old world church. Dropped in to light a candle in memory of my late Dad.

Each evening, its beer assisted planning. Check weather, Hotel availability and book. fine tune the route (correcting the AI mistakes created by the Komoot planner) and write blog!

This computer is getting old now. Its been on all of my 10 road trips since 2013!
And here is the map of today’s adventure. Tomorrow, I am riding to the Parador.

Today was too easy! After the nonsense of the previous two days I planned a shorter route. I think I could have done another 40KM, but it is what it is.
Day starts off with nice coffee and upload of route to GPS

This is the N322. Nice and new and very smooth. Good progress being made. Just loving the lack of traffic. We can only dream of this in the UK. In fact we only had this sort of cycling experience in the UK during the Covid Pandemic.

Ingredients for my next bottle of wine right there!

For about 8 KM the old N322 runs alongside the new stretch. Not sure why this was done as the old road was perfectly serviceable.

And here is the map from todays ride

So, shorter ride planned today due to some bad weather forecast. Forecast was for thunder storms after 1500. So arrival planned for 1300. So no problem right?

So all starts of good. Nice long road with smooth surface. Big improvement on day 1!

And then this sets in at 1200!

So this lasted for the full duration of a 5KM climb. So whilst it got me soaked, it also kept me nice and cool. The other benefit is that when I am cycling up hill slowly on a hot day in Spain, flies are frustrating. But they don’t come out to play during the rain!

And when I arrived at village I had booked the hotel, I discovered it was 6KM away. The curse of the Booking.com dodgy coordinates continues!

So here is a map of the extra bit!

Is this a windmill or a watermill?  I will let decide!

The hotel was expensive as I nabbed that last room which was a suite. So when I am being charged €98 for a night, I was not pleased to be provided with a aircon system I could nit control. Room was 28 degrees. But as a cyclist, I have tools. Problem solved.

In at the deep end!  The going was a lot harder than I thought it would be. Due to various massive road projects and detours due to the damage caused by last year’s flooding in the Valencia region, I found myself on some very rough roads, so had to walk quite a few miles. The 60 mile plan reduced to 40 miles so had to cancel a hotel who appears not to have charged me for the cancellation. That was very kind!

This is just outside of the Ibis hotel in Valencia. Finding the entrance two nights ago was a challenge due to the “forever” road construction that has been part of this neighborhood for a few years.

And I am only just 30 mins into the ride and faced with a diversion!

After my second diversion, this is where a bridge used to be. A few temporary bridges near to Cheste which faced flooding.

And further up the road more damage along the river bed area.

This is the first time I have seen the Osbourne Bull on Day 1. As you can see I am following the path of a Motorway!

A common thing here in Spain. Many N Roads have been converted into motorways. So its a mix of smooth old N Road and THIS!  Result, miles of walking.

Today’s Map

And so it begin again, another road trip to Spain. At trip #10, I never thought I would keep this up for a few years. My first trip was meant to be bucket list item and a fundraiser for Merlin in 2013. But I fell in love with the Spanish country, culture and people, so I am back here again.

Some things have changed since 2013. Brexshit was imposed on us so, now I am limited to 90 days in six months. Banking has improved, I use Wise to pay for things and get great exchange rates. What has not changed?  Well I am still using the same toshiba light weight laptop which still has frustratingly difficult keys!

So tomorrow leg one departs from Valencia!