Boats and Bikes!

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!

OK, hands up. I took my eye off the ball on the planning. Relative short distance today but as I was close to a Auto Via, the road quickly went from OK to a dirt track. Think all would have been perfect on a gravel bike, but on a road bike with thin wheels?  It was not great. Also lost control of the bike at one point when I hot some sand. I came off at slow speed but was still standing. No damage done 🙂

Energy levels now in a good place now I am managing to source meals !

The Plaza in Trujillo is a nice spot to kick off the ride. Food at the hotel was great, but coffee was not good, so it was breakfast at the plaza and I was then on my way.

Just a short distance from the start of today’s ride, I spotted the second Osborne Bull. There are quite a few of these across Spain. Originally to advertise brandy made by Osborne. In the 1970s, when I first visited Spain, huge advertising boards were erected everywhere. This was all stopped in the early 1980s but the bull survived. See Osborne bull – Wikipedia for more.

Looking back, you can see Trujillo and the Gredos mountains I passed over a few days ago!

Here I have to walk on the gravel (roughly 2 hours!) occasionally there was the remains of the old N 5 road. The alternative routed would have added 16 miles to the trip. Started to wish that I had gone the long way round.

And the route just gets worse for a mile.

Back on a decent road now. Local farmer is having a bad day!

And here is another farming picture. I am passing through a major tomato producing region.

Another day of climbing with over 1000m climbed. Whilst a relatively short distance, the combination of not enough food, climbing and rough roads in places made the day hard.

It was great to arrive at Trujillio. I found a place to eat and booked in for two nights. The hotel is an old convent that was renovated from ruins into a hotel. Tomorrow, I am taking the  day off to recharge 🙂

Just on my way out of town, there are these towers. Are they for water?

The N5 is a former main road and very quiet. Over the period of three hours, the number of cars passing me can be counted on one hand. A great road to ride on, but as traffic is now running up a Auto Via nearby, cafes and bars along the way have closed. So diversions are needed to source water.

##The Komoot planning tool risky. It focuses on taking cyclist along a quiet route, but the downside is the lack of places to top up water. So this is why I take a lot of care not to fully adopt the the proposed route plan!

A look back from the area I have just cycled through. You can see the twin domes of a nuclear power station which is able to produce over 2,000 MW of energy.

Further up I come across this sign. With low energy from lack of proper food, I called this place “Evil Hill”

At around 20KM of Trujillio, the N5 merges with the Auto Via, so I have a few KM of this! Thanks Komoot!

Finally its to the converted convent for beer and nosebag.

Out on the road, the weather is fine and settled for the week ahead in this region. The mountains of Gredos still visible and will only drop from view tomorrow when I reach Trujullio.

Whilst the ride was great, the opportunities for coffee along the way is limited. Water being an essential item for the ride, you can see that I made  a detour to top up.

Hotel was on the main plazza at my destination. Two restaurants in town but out of business. So food was bread, ham and tortilla from a small shop.

Check in was a pain. I had to cycle outside of town to collect the key (see second map!)

This is a farming area. Here we have tobacco and Chilies. I had no idea that baccy was grown here until I see a sign stating that one town I passed through was the tobacco capital of Spain!

Looking at this picture. I am longing for a massive bowl of Chile Con Carne!

Some more pictures of view along the route.

Sadly fires area issue in Spain. It looks like the firefighters were quick to contain the fire as this is only a small area damaged.

And finally, sunset at the town with no eating places.

So here we are, perfect weather and in rural Spain where its a rough road to start the day! After 5 KM, its a better road but the energy situation is not so good. Its a98KM ride ahead with over 1,000m climbing planned. I have a hotel booked for the end.

As I start off, I am thinking that I may just cut the ride short at El Barco de Avila and just check into a hotel and rest up. When I reached El Barco, I managed to grab some grub and decided to keep riding.

This is one of my most favorite places in Spain. (except the restaurant regime!). On previous trips, I have gone down the Jerte Valley. This time I have circled back on my route to take in Gredos national park.

As you will see from the pictures below, its amazing. Loads of climbing but you have to climb to see the views. I did not like the final hill at the end which took me to my hotel.

Rough road starting out from Casa Rural.

Apparently, I am not properly equipped for this area. But at 30 degrees Celsius, I think I will be fine.

A view along the road in Gredos region

Random flag.

One very welcome watering point with cool spring water.

Mountain (or Cycle) rescue on standby.

After all the climbing it will be a massive drop of 800m down the valley.

This is the start of the drop. But earlier on, the maximum elevation was 1568m above see level.

And down in the valley yet another Castillo. Shortly after this I encountered the sting in the tail for the ride. It was a steep 170m climb when I was completely out of energy. Good news. I found a place serving Tapas and scoffed a main meal at 2045!