May 1: Day 4, Almaden de la Plata-Cordoba
Today's story began yesterday, when I thought it would be wise to check the route. I was looking at 9.5 hours to Cordoba, on a rather direct route, asphalt all the way. A longish day but nothing unusual.
It ran through mountain and forest: but when zoomed in the satellite views showed there was no visible road, only a dubious path! (The image shows the path outlined in orange.) Also the route took some very sharp turns which asphalt roads don't do. Scrolling along showed it often went completely freestyle, through fields and plains with no visible track. And there was also a 400m climb.
I've recently been caught out in the wild with night falling and hours to go, so I'm keen to avoid that experience again!
So I looked for other options. Google Maps suggested a route through Cantillana, which was a long way south, and added 40 minutes. (Well, 40 minutes longer than an unreliable underestimate of a route bearing no relation to reality.) The route stayed on actual visible paths all the way so it looks like the best option to me.
No breakfast problems this time: the hotel served toast with a thin tomato spread and orange juice. (I didn't have enough Spanish to ask for other options, and to be honest just going with the flow is a good philosophy at times like this.)
From left to right: Breakfast (better than it looks). The sun was out in force, even early. The bike, just before departure.
Unfortunately there was no fog today. The sun was preheating the pavement when I went out to get started ... hopefully it won't get too hot today.
From left to right: This is a great route. Until I got into the sun. And this is the countryside around.
One nice thing about the route: much more downhill than up. It started directly towards the sun, a potholed gravel road with generous downhill. The countryside was standard Spain: stubby trees, brown grass or barren ground. There was a very tranquil lake, here’s a panorama from the bridge.
And here’s some more images from the trip.
From left to right: selfie at the lake. A very nice downhill. Lemonade at lunch. Burger for lunch.
I arrived in Cantillana just before 12: making good time. Arranging lunch was harder than it should be: I went into a respectable restaurant and tried a few Spanish food words and got blank looks until eventually we got to “alimentacion” and then it all clicked.
I got on the move again about 1230. The rest of the ride was flat, thankfully; because the temperature was forecast to hit 31, average 27. I had started with nearly 7 litres of water, got it refilled at lunch, so I was as well prepared as possible.
From left to right: Cordoba 87km: about halfway there, by time. Got a craving for lemonade, and got some (although this probably means I was getting dehydrated.) If you have the right kind of eyes, you’ll see a lot of emotions in this image.
To be honest, if you’re cycling there’s always a breeze, so although the temperature was hellish I don’t think I really felt the worst of it. I did drink a lot of water though, so much that I didn’t like the taste any more – so I stopped at a service station and picked up a bottle of lemonade which was much nicer! Also cold.
The attendant was sure I needed water, and I had to show him the waterbottles before he understood. (No Lucozade or other sports drinks unfortunately; I was fairly confident I needed some salts and the lemonade does a good job.)
Komoot does try to mix up the route a bit; it likes to go through nearby towns. This time it went badly: the intended road back to out was completely closed by construction. On the image you can’t see me stop; but you can see me trying to go around the block, discovering that didn’t work either, and then having to retrace my path, since there was no other way out. At least it’s quick to figure that out with online maps. Try to imagine the rollercoaster of dismay, hope, more dismay, annoyance, and a lingering sense of betrayal and mistrust.
From left to right: A very nice arched bridge; I didn’t get closer than this unfortunately. Taking a break to refill water. Another dam! A picture to remember all the times I pushed the bike uphill. A distant castle; this is the best photo I could get - it deserved better.
Cordoba is really big; I cycled through the outskirts for what seemed like ages: because it was actually ages. They had a cyclepath, which I tried to use, but it was a bit of a mess: it would end unexpectedly, change to the other side of the road, and other weirdnesses. There was a busy road into the city but I was able to follow a quiet parallel route with the intermittent cyclepath.
I accidentally got a hotel in the middle of the tourist area! Was not expecting that; I chose one that was well reviewed and looked interesting and had a good price. In future I will not be so keen to stay in the bigger cities.
Unfortunately the Wifi was not working; other than that it was great. I parked the bike, carried everything up to the room, took a shower. I also drank a rehydration drink and I think that helped.
From left to right: The castle, which is outside the front door of the hotel.The door to the storage room, where my bike is stored right now. 65 euros in the end, and no Wifi.
The best internet I could find was a public Wifi; if you look on the lefthand side of the castle photo you’ll see the spot where I set up tomorrow’s route and accommodation. It was pretty slow so I didn’t get a chance to really check the route. Storytelling rules demand that things will go bad, as a result…
In short I’m pretty happy with the trip today. Started at about 0830, finished at 1910. The estimate was 10h 10min, if you subtract 45 minutes for lunch then I was slightly ahead of time!
Tomorrow’s ride is a shorter one, and the day after that ends the first section. Putting aside the shorter day 0, that’s a pace I’m happy with: finishing each of the 9 parts in 6 days with a 7th rest day is ideal. I have a few days in reserve, but 6 days per section is the target, and this was one of the longer ones.
