April 30: Day 3, Cortegana-Almaden de la Plata

After yesterday’s longer day, I planned a shorter one today. Also, it’s Sunday. Also, the heat is getting me down.

Almaden de la Plata was 6.5 hours away, and there was a 4-star hotel available for 50euro. Yes please! That four star rating is probably self-evaluated, but it’s got to mean hot water in the shower, at least.

The place I was staying didn’t provide breakfast, and absolutely nothing was open (it was a Sunday) and the supermarket didn’t open until 9 so I had a muesli bar and got going. I did a quick search for cafes/restaurants and the nearby town of Jabugo apparently had some. (Some places must not provide their hours online - there were some restaurants that closed at 0100, and surely wouldn’t be open when I searched a bit after 8!) It was mostly on the way so I tweaked the route to go through it.

The first section was much like yesterday: on a road with occasional cars, going either slowly uphill or having to brake on a downhill; neither of which I like. The turnoff to Jabugo was an unpleasant reminder that there’s no elevation info in Google Maps … because it went uphill, and Jabugo was apparently another 50m above the road I was on. Well, I have strong feelings about breakfast so I got on the way.

There was a cafe/bar open, and it had a few people in there and I could hear a coffee machine, but it didn’t excite me so I headed for the supermarket instead. Picked up an apple and some sort of cake/loaf thing, and ate them at a bench. After that the route went downhill with a vengance: past the metal globe sculpture, and then within 50m it went into the wild.

From left to right: lots of fog, hiding the sun, long may it stay. The bike, just before I got started: notice how the back wheel is on a step, to keep it level? Everything is on a slope here. Sun behind fog, this makes me happy. Random sculpture outside a huge modern warehouse. Very shortly after, we went properly offroad.

The surface was really good, much better than the 4x4-only section I complained about yesterday. It was well shaded, a good temperature, if only it was like this all day…

At one fork I misread the route, and took the wrong way. When I realized I figured it was quicker to keep going, the route led to a road and then rejoined a bit later. It worked, but it wasn’t easy: the route was a singletrack, quite rocky, and I often had to get off and push. It passed a lot of crumbling stone buildings and walls; it could have been a set from Game Of Thrones. There were barking dogs as well; seems like every house out here has some!

The route returned to the road, as the map showed. There was an awful lot of uphill though, which the map did not show; maybe I should look for a contour view mode or something, because it would be nice to be forewarned about the hell climbs around here.

A road cyclist cruised past, while I was in the lowest possible gear and making little headway. He said something in Spanish, which sounded positive; it was so steep that he didn’t have much of a speed advantage and I trailed him up the road for a while. At one stage I got off and pushed, just to add variety - the lowest gear is roughly the same speed anyway.

From left to right: the rocky singletrack. The road it led to, I see this view a lot. Me, at work. The route goes offroad in style.

I’ll spare you the whining of uphills and downhills: the route branched off from the roads, and went down a the classiest offroad route I’ve seen. A smooth flat concrete surface! It was just an access road for some farms, but it was exceptional.

Until I got to the end and hit stairs.

Stairs. Not impressed. The European Divide route has a reputation for going silly places, but I was not expecting this from a default Komoot route. I decided the first thing to do would be: lunch! Well … I’d planned to have lunch at a town a few minutes back, but got there earlier than expected, didn’t notice it was the right one, pressed on, and didn’t remember until now. So I had a break, including some ersatz Pringles. They were were ok but I wanted more salt.

After that I took the stairs. The fully loaded bike is still light enough to lift, which is not an accident: so the stairs were annoying and not awful. A few walking groups went the other way, it was scenic and the various obstructions are just a step up if you don’t have a bike. The final challenge was a fallen tree: the bike didn’t fit underneath it. I could have taken the panniers off but managed to lift it around on the side, it was a bit awkward but less effort than disentangling the bags…

The road stayed rural, through pig farms, and there were more hills. I’d somewhat lost the enthusiasm for hills by this point; I noticed I was pushing the bike up slopes that I’d have attacked in high gear on other days. Maybe the heat? It was forecast to have a high of 27 on the trip today.

Anyway, I pressed on, probably a bit slower than usual. More towns, more scenic outlooks, more uphills.

From left to right: nicely placed tree in one of the towns. One of the many scenic outlooks, after a long hot climb. A dam! One of the many crumbling houses at a plant of some kind.

The route went past a dam - unfortunately there was no option to go over the dam wall and have a proper look. From there the map said the route was a cycleroute, which was a neglected access road: it was mostly gravel and had some huge potholes, so I had to pick a course carefully between them. The route went through a discontinued plant of some kind - maybe concrete? Everything was crumbling, except for a shiny car from the security company.

And there was more uphill. I’ll skip to the good part, a mine!

Shortly afterwards Komoot tried to take me through a closed gate. There was a nice gravel road there, downhill even - but it wasn’t on the map for some reason. But it worked very nicely! Along the way I had a chat to two Spanish sightseers who were looking for the mine, and I could even help them.

I was feeling a bit better now, and was able to climb hills with a bit more energy. The only noteworthy part was the final section, which was a great asphalt road, and no cars at all! There were still too many hills, and the whole thing felt a bit like a rollercoaster but I was feeling good enough to accept it by now. Nearly came unstuck on one corner, had to fully brake to get the speed down.

From left to right: The only place in town that had a cold drink. The final segment, a great road. It even had a bridge! Almaden de la Plata appears. And this is the hotel.

As for the hotel? It has hot water. Four stars.

It’s also actually really nice! Normally I’d expect to pay more than 50 euro/night, but I guess this is rural Spain in the off-season.

I arrived a bit after 5, so it took a bit over 8 hours - somewhat more than the 6.5 estimate. So I definitely was slow today. I don’t like heat, and I don’t like climbs… maybe that’s all it is.

The route summary says 1570m of climbing today, and it feels like it. I’m ready for the lowlands.


What I’m listening to: Key Engine, but Luca Sestak: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B2xrLoBwk0E
A classically trained pianist who took a hard turn to jazz and blues, and the world is a better place for it. Key Engine is some ferociously fast funk/boogie woogie, it’s high-octane fireworks but there’s a time and a place for that sort of thing, and if you ask me, it’s right now.