nbjtours

Martin del Rio, Spain

88 miles 6132 ft

We had a choice, straight on down the bigger road or alternatively take a right on the hilly small road which was an extra 5km to the campsite making it 20 miles to go. 

The decision was unanimous, lets go long. It was a great decision as what followed was the best cycling of the day. Two climbs, a nice downhill stretch alongside a river and an awesome section in a river gorge, this is what cycling is all about.  

 This was rather different from our start on the edge of Zaragoza, where we had to circuit the city and find our way out onto a small road into the country. 

 This slow start was not helped by the fact I had a puncture after only one and a 1/2 miles. Before that Nick found he had put his pedals on back to front! Luckily Nigel sorted it before we left, although Nick had a practice later In case he did it again!

 It was not great cycling but needed to be done and done in a safe a way as possible, again running through industrial estates to avoid dual carriageways and even a rough mud track. At one stage we saw these old steam train engines that must have been rusting away for decades.  

 Finally getting to our road out it had been upgraded to serve three kilometres of new industrialestates that were over 50% empty.  

At this stage three Porsches passed going the other way, to which I remarked “probably a press test drive”   Whilst we were stopped for coffe break a bit later, two of the three with German number plates on came passed at full chat using all the road.  Whilst we could hear them, I do hope they gave sufficient space to all the many other cyclists we saw on that road today. 

 After that we then moved into rural Spain full of empty space and semi deserted villages. Sadly it really looks as though the communities are dying and many buildings are deserted and falling into ruin, but the real old world atmosphere they create is incredible still with a mix of Christian and Moorish architecture as here in the narrows streets of Azuara. 
 Or the church of Moyuela   
We also thought that the towers of the various religious buildings of Muniesa were leaning in different directions.   

We kept cycling well, and in general today was uphill for very long stretches of 10-15 miles with a short downhill section after, as we climbed up onto the Spanish plain. There were some other worldly views  of dry and barren hills too. 

 As usual, despite the addition of two extra cyclists Nigel and Monica still were able to come up trumps with coffee and lunch stops. One of them complete with its own almond tree, so another round of scrumping followed  and fresh almonds courtesy of a mole wrench cracker. 

  After our lunch stop, which as usual was nearer tea time at 4 – we have moved onto  real daylight time rather than clock time – there are four hours of daylight before twelve and eight afterwards so two o’clock has become our midday. 
It was now that we had that choice and started the first gentle climb. Thinking that we had got to the top Nick let out a whoop of joy but it was actually short lived, as the gorge that loomed ahead looked very imposing.  

 Surrounded by cliffs Chris was happy that it took us through a tunnel.  

 and Nick was more than happy with the bridge that spanned that rather deep gorge.    

At the same time the other lads yelled to me and said that there were some animals just above me and there was a mother and calf Iberian Ibex clambering as they do so well over the rocks.  

 Finally emerging from between the rock faces we had arrived at the top of the climb and then had a terrific downhill blast for 9 km to the main road where a short stint took us to the campsite, which was situated halfway up the hillside behind the town. 

As has often been the case we were the only people present and the owner had opened up especially for us ( I am pleased I had emailed him yesterday). In fact to save cleaning he only opened up the ladies. 

Adding some salty Spanish snacks to our evening beers went down well, although Chris had a couple of short bouts of cramp to which no one showed any sympathy, as on one occasion he hopped 30 yards away until it eased. Monica told him to put more salt on his bolognese!