(Title picture is from yesterday in the Parque Natural Sierra de Castril, narrow single track only went for a couple 100m but a good occasion to take a photo and make me look like a badass)
A week in and it's been really great so far. I started in Malaga, stayed a day longer than i wanted to because it was harder to find a fitting gas canistrr than i yhought. The third Decathlon (at the airport) finally had one. I also picked up a windbreaker there because i felt that the wind was really cold but the sun really strong, too warm for my rain jacket. Was a good idea, used it a lot already. From there went into the mountains then down to Granada where i made an early rest day, had a pension for 25€ a night in the heart of the city and wanted to have a look around. Early rest day was also good because i was not in shape at all (last cycled in ocyober really, other than running errands at home), and the first days were pretty tough with lots of climbing and steep grades.
I feel like the grades here may generally a bit steeper than what i know from elsewhere, maybe i am imagining it though due to my form.
- Cycling out of Granada. If you enhance the jpg enough, you can see a crystal clear Alhambra
Went back into the mountains on what i believe is a part of the badlands race route, very lonely and beautiful. Went on through the Gorafe desert. It was drizzling
- Gorafe desert
In the desert there were quite some people, motorbikers, vans. Not too bad though. In the weird sandy riverbed (?) at the bottom of it seemed to be a small cycling race going on. After a river crossing i was all alone again for a good while in amazing landscapes.
Yesterday i went into the parque from the title picture all day along this hiking track. Only at the bottom of it i saw some hikers, the rest of the day i was aline. Slept in one of the refugios up there on the high plateau, it was so good because it is getting really cold in the mountains. It was drizzling, really windy and i was freezing. So happy that i have mu stove with me to eat something hot, also earlier just make a coffee break and wait out the rain. So good when there's no infrastructure around.
- My bike in the refugio. Somehow looks like great weather outside in this photo :)
Refugio also had a water pump. This morning it was real cold again, the nights in the mountains were like 3-5° which i did not really expect tbh. It was raining and i descended. Fucking ice cold hands, cold everything. After about 15km downhill i finally made it to a village, where i hung around in a cafe, eating tostadas con tomate and drinking tea and coffee. Rain kept raining and i didn't want to go back up on the hiking tracks, so i made up a new route to the next village on my original route where i could take a room. Cycled through the rain on mostly asphalt, which was nice for a change, the road was also super calm, met like three cars on 40 km of riding. Beautiful views too.
- Through the trees you can see the village where i'm at now. Every lemmy user here in Siles is invited to as much beer as you can drink, pm me for details :)
So i got a room here now. Somehow the sun is coming out, weather report said it'd rain all day, heavy in the evening. Next two days it's gonna rain too.
I am waiting for a restaurant to open, which is only ever after 8. So i have time to kill writing this post, haha.
The whole 'no dinner before 8' really is not great for my touring time table. Also the siesta fucked me over a few times. I hope i will get used to it.
Weather forecast yesterday said tailwinds, but felr like headwinds mostly, not much wind at all though. The ride to Zaragoza went further along the jalón, but the valley and the road were much wider than yesterday. Riding upna hill i was once again coughing, just when i flexed my right upper leg and somehow that made a crazy sting. I was thinking maybe a groin fracture or some shit? It's on the front of my hip kinda. The right side of my body feels a bit banged up now with the bruised rib and now this new sensation. It doesn't affect my cycling much, but walking sucks.
Riding into Zaragosa there were a whole lot of futbol fans around and i started worrying a bit about hotel prices. And what do you know. I took a seat on a bench in the middle of town, checked for hotels and it was 250 € and up. Yeah no. An old man took a seat next to me, i told him my troubles in broken spanish, he gave me some ideas for places to ask but they were all completo. The man left, i got tired and thought i'd go on the campsite then, 7km back to where i came from. Checked out the city for a bit, had some beer, city seems nice, lots going on.
Then i rode to the campsite. "Completo". She wanted to give me directions to campsites 50km away, i told her i'm gonna sleep by the canal then. She then was able to find some emergency slot for my tent.
Went back into town, no desire to spend more time than necessary in my tent tonight. So the futbol match today is a womens match, for the queens cup, barca vs real sociedad. The campsite staff seemed very hyped, womens futbol seems to be big here.
Looking forward to leave towards Huesca tomorrow, i'll try my luck with a room there. Also hope my newly aquired bad upper leg / hip will be better tomorrow.
The ugly campsite spot made me leave early towards Huesca. First i ate some churros in Zaragoza, then when i left the town i was on a bumpy gravel track meandering through farmlands. I found it kinda annoying. It was cloudy and there were a lot of little flies. In San Matteo de Gallego i got onto a main road and from there i stayed the whole way on the N330, which was marked in scary orange on the map, but there were very few cars, cars all went on the parralel highway. The route was not very inspiring, just like 10-15km around San Matteo there were stork nests on almost every electricity pole, sometimes multiples in one, that was nice to see.
Scary looking clouds were in the sky, but it looked like i would ride past them. But they were actually coming towards me and when i entered Huesca they were over the city. Easily found a nice room and a thunderstorm started. Feel like i've got to run out of luck escaping the rain at some point. Did a lot of washing and went around this nice town.
This morning i then started off late to the village that one french guy recommended, Riglos, cycling into the prepireneas. It is a climbers paradise at the foot of some crazy rock formations.
I was chatting with a spanish couple who were there for climbing while we were having lunch. She grew up in the spanish pyrenees and also has cycled all the big cols and gave me some tips, she wrote some down for me, it was a bit overwhelming since i don't know the area at all. They scared me a bit with a cold weather warning, while the french guy had told me it'd be super hot in the southern pyrenees, basically Riglos what he was talking about but it maxed out at 16° today.
I then went along a hiking track towards the village Agüero, i had seen a drawn picture of it in the hostal i was sleeping at in huesca and it looked incredible. Just spotted it on the map, very close to Riglos, also has a campsite, so that's where i'm now.
Reception seems to open on wednesday again, nobody picked up the telephone. Maybe i'll be staying for free, there's only two other guests here.
*edit: paid 8€ this mirning, nice. Riding away from agüero along this super nice and calm gravel track.
Bit muddy at times but non of the super glue clay that i had experienced some time back. A joy to ride, also the weather seems warmer today or maybe it's less windy. Forecast says it'll slowly get warmer in the coming days, yay.
What happened then? I was cycling through a nice lonely nature park again (i think) and then somehow ended up in Zangoza. The last twenty km or so i should have a super nice mellow downhill but i had a lot of headwinds, that was a huge bummer.
I wanted to make it to that town, i needed to go shopping and it was already kinda late. Then i found out there was a pilgrim albergue, for the camino de santiago crowd. The door was closed, i called the number that was advertised outside, ten minutes later a woman showed up and let me in, it cost me 5€ for a bed, kitchen, washing machines (not sure if they cost extra, didn't use, i'm a dirt bag). 5 other pilgrims to share the room with, four french gus and one german. Nobody snorred that night, they all were very nice.
Next day i had breakfast with them all, i thought it was interesting how their journey also seemed a lot like a social experience while i basically had been in solitude for the whole time. They would now walk for two days to Pamplona, i got there before lunch that day. Cycling is the best form of travel, ha.
Pamplona is full with pilgrims. I did not expect or associate that with Pamplona, the whole camino craze. I stayed again in some pilgrims albergue, this time it was abou 15 people and there were snorrers and people who somehow didn't hear their alarm clock in the morning, probably were wearing ear plugs against the snorrers. So, i was already kind of over the camino crowd.
The plan was to cycle to St Jean de Luz on the adriatic coast, across the border to France. Morning was real cold again.
By noon i was kind of pissed about how cold it was, but i didn't let the temperatures kill my summer vibes and make me put on leggings, no way. I've been going uphill for most of the early day and at some point the downhill started, some rail trail with an incredible amount of soggy tunnels. I was in the Basque country now and the vibe was very different, super green and wet everything. I was really happy having fenders, i was thibking about sending them home every now and then, together with the kickstand to shave off another kg. I'll keep them. At some point i got a pinch flat in my front wheel. Had become a bit complacent not getting flats on all the bumpy tracks i rode and hadn't checked tire pressure since albarracin.
I later got stuck in a bar, just hanging around and then decided to only go to San Sebastian, in spain still. Took a room there and got a bit shitfaced in the bars, that somehow went real quick. San Sebastian is really nice, like the vibe a lot, i just wanted to not go originally because i had been here before a couple of times.
Today i made kind of a rest day and cycled the last bit to St Jean de Luz. It was sunny and almost hit 20°. Tomorrow it should even get over 20° but the days after it'll dip down again. The route corniche along the coast was closed for all traffic, explicitly also for cyclists and pedestrians. I met a few cyclists and pedestrians on it anyway, was nice to know there won't be any cars.
I checked in on a campsite, went into town, hung out at the beach and bought some glue to fix my fork bags. They already have holes after a few weeks of cycling and the weather report for the coming days in the pyrenees is not looking all that dry. I also just found out that the big tour de france cols here are known to be misty and cloudy and wet. I had no idea, haha.
So with me being in France now i conclude this topic, even though i will enter and exit spain every now and then in the coming weeks. I will make another reply with general thoughts about touring in spain though.
My route through spain