nbjtours

Near Vallanca,Spain

84 miles 3845 ft

At the start today we knew that we had two good climbs after initially following the river valley to the beginning of the first one.  

 This first climb  took us through two mining towns and past some mine workings, some old but one that looked fairly modern but still abandoned.  

 The hill continued for seven miles to 1408m as the picture below shows. We sped down the other side and then had another 3 mile climb back up to 1381m.   

  Chris had recovered well from yesterday and was pushing Nick along, I let the fresh legs take the lead and followed.  

 Down the other side we managed to find the camper for coffee after 29 miles. The next segment started an elongated run downhill alongside a river as far as Teruel, the biggest town that we came to today. We passed this shepherd and his donkey living the same way as they have had for centuries.  

  For much  of this part of the route an abandoned railway ran alongside the only remains being bridges , tunnels and superb station buildings, the stonework all in top order but the roofs caved in , which made us think that someone had come along and stolen the tiles.  

 We arrived in Teruel just as they were kicking kids out from school at 3pm and the parking chaos is the same as in the UK.  

 Finding our way out of the town, the lunch stop was just round the corner. We found Monica in the middle of surgery to Nigel’s shorts as he had a accident when getting his leg over my spare bike saddle on a quick ride into town for provisions. 

It is worth mentioning that the Spanish roads have been excellent, often with a good wide shoulder that we were able to use to cycle on. This kept us out the way, although in fairness the traffic was excellent always giving us room, the lorries often advising us of their presence well in advance and giving us wide berth. 

Coming the other way all day were hundreds of motorcycles all on their way to the Moto GP event in Aragon.  

 Nick found his own town although did not ride out to see it as it was all uphill  

The road continued down the river valley for 25 miles before we turned off towards the agreed wild campsite for the night.  

 Again we had saved the best until last with a climb going up and looking over a deep gorge.  

 Despite the fact that this road served but two remote villages it was totally resurfaced.  

Just passed the first village, we almost missed the camper tucked away next to a bespoke barbecue and covered picnic area.  

 Quick showers were followed by a fantastic barbecue and stewed blackberry and apple with some sweet bread and cream. 

Not only had we collected blackberries but the roadsides were plentiful and our bounty included almonds, walnuts, pomegranates, figs to add to apples and Dennis’s peaches. In addition there are plenty of herbs and todays pickings were rosemary and thyme.  

 As we had met hardly any vehicles along this road, for some reason the whole world decided to use this dirt track. A farmer with a bowser filled the Sheep trough next to the tents, and told Nick that 300 sheep would be along in an hour, another put up a sign saying boar hunt starts here tomorrow, two cars went up the track and came back sometime later and another farmer went passed on his tractor with the full olive tree shaker on the back, and yet another with a trailer load full of almonds.  

 The banter around the campfire continued for some time but much to Nick’s sadness the sheep he was expecting to keep him warm for the night were kept penned up and did not appear. 

Apologies for the very late blog we were really wild last night and had no comms.