(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.

  • AchtungDrempels@lemmy.worldOPMEnglish
    0·
    4 months ago

    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.

    somewhere on the way to Zaragosa

    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.

    i had worse sites i think but thisvone’s up there. I guess my tent will be lit by that pole light tonight.

    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.

    • AchtungDrempels@lemmy.worldOPMEnglish
      1·
      4 months ago

      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.

      Three nests in one pole. The third one was also occupied.

      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.

      Riglos lies at the foot of these red rocks, they’re huge

      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.

      Agüero also lies at the foot of some crazy rocks

      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.

      agüero and in the distance the Riglos rocks too

      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.