nbjtours

Santaella, Spain

87 miles 6781ft

Although there were no really big hills today, it was very much a day of  up one hill and down the next. Most of the day we were surrounded by olive groves and it does make you wonder how much of the land is covered by olives and how much olive oil is made here. Only towards the end of the day as the hills got less vicious was there any variety with grapes and what appeared to be garlic and herbs.  Their scents filling the air. 

 After having left the olive grove before 9, we shot down the hill and started to go into Jaen at rush hour. We nearly had another misroute but I managed to stop Nick before he went into town. 
Leaving town, we then had our biggest climb of the day, which had the added bonus of being on the first cycle way since Zaragoza.  This cycle way took us off the road for a bit and up the pass and then down a green edge to the main road. 

 At the same time we came across a group of other cyclists who initially barged into us and when I said hello this lady looked at me for some time before saying good morning. Sadly they were not the friendliest of bunches, although we did keep bumping into them for the next few miles. We found one friendly one, but she was a supporter rather than rider. It turned out that they were Canadians cycling for bibles. Shame really that they were not a bit more Christian.    This view was back down into Jaen from the cycle path. 

  After this big climb the countryside became a bit less mountainous and just hilly. 

Here I managed to persuade Nick to pick some prickly pears, both Nick and myself tried one and I have to say they taste really superb, but we got some of the prickles in our fingers and lips which took a couple hours to work itself out of our skin!  

 At this stage we still had some way to go before coffee just after Martos,   where we can see Nick riding down the street,  luckily I missed the dogs which were in the process of mounting each other in the middle of the street ! 

 An excellent coffee stop of scrambled eggs, as well as chocolate croissant refuelled us for another tough stretch of ups and downs permanently surrounded by olive groves.  
 We started to go through more typical Andalusian whitewashed towns this was Baena where we stopped and just like the old Spanish men we have seen everyday,  sat on a bench and had a chat about colonoscopies!

We were very pleased to see the camper at the lunch stop, as we were all getting tired, after two days of hard climbing.  

 
After lunch the landscape began  to change with some vineyards, as well as olives, to vary the scenery a bit.  

  Montalban was typical in that it was on the top of a hill and required a really hard climb to get into the town so we rewarded ourselves with an ice cream.   

 Coming down out of the town we passed this unusual sight and with Nick using his native tongue were surprised to find out that these were grapes being sundried to make raisins.  Apparently it takes about one week to dry the grapes  and is the end of the season. 

Our final segment was the flattest of the day so enabled some good peloton riding.   

Finally and very exhaustedly we got to the campsite and for once we had a warm evening and open swimming pool and followed it by a meal outside completed by a glass of Pedro Ximemez. 

Another really tough day on tired limbs, but I now only have 180 miles to go, so am getting close, although know that these last two days are going to be as hilly as today, and with the sun expected to shine and temperature expected to approach 39C. I will need all the support and encouragement to make it.