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Cycling from Olite to Villafranca
Since the (situation at the) campsite in Olite was not very pleasant 💣 I left the third day.
There are no interesting roads from Pamplona to Madrid.
You have to use all the 400 kms of mainroad to get there since there simply are no secundary roads that could more or less
lead you in the right direction.
Unless you decide to make huge detours and be on this traject far longer (and do wildcamping since there are no campings either).
Point is that I feel a bit worried because of the weatherforecast, short term and longer term.
Temperatures are dropping and stormwinds with rain are active almost 6 days out of every 7.
Those winds are so strong that I simply can not cycle them if they are headwinds.
So I had to adjust my planning to avoid them then I could only travel with stormwinds from the north or north-east.
I therefore only cycled the mainroad and the kilometers were a bit boring and Noisy.
However, if you have the Right Eye (and keep on using your left also) there is always something interesting to discover.
And be aware that you have to Train Your Brain on that !
Then the eyes are the sensors but the brain analyses that info after which it presents you the decisions.
At km 13 (yes !) somebody had lost the steeringwheel. Luckily (???) one can do without here !
I cycled
and cycled
and cycled
and cycled
and I never felt bored.
I just love all those sceneries, they are so beautiful !
Take these windmills for instance : they are like a slotmachine and you have 5 out of 6 correct !
Yes !
So what is your price ?
A priceless memory !
Then I came along a restaurant and was happy to take a rest and to have something lekkers to eat (google that haha).
But ofcourse you can only have tapas as long as they are not finished.
After the tapas you can have (industrial) sugar, sugar, sugar and more sugar.
So no tapas anymore and I pointed to an industrial sugar "cake something" to have at least "some" fuel.
But then the waiter winked me to follow him ...
He walked to the end of the (very long) bar, kept on winking me to follow him and walked on all the way to the kitchen.
There he pointed me a very goodlooking casa (home) made cake !
He made (very) clear I should Not eat that factory sugar "something" but this cake !
So I did, and it was Very Tasty !
After I had finished this citron and chocolate cake and the lemon radler I made clear that I would like to have permission
to take some pictures in that kitchen.
The waiter brought me to the kitchen one more time but now 5 people were there working.
However, as soon as the chef understood my intension he was enthousiastic immediately and showed me all his dishes for the lunchtime to come.
A great situation and I was almost disappointed to have eaten that cake then I could not eat anymore haha.
Thank you all at Bar Restaurante Arlas for the tasty cake and another nice and priceless moment !
On the road that now followed I finally saw mais.
After the mais is harvested it is stored in those huge and high buildings from where it will be loaded into trucks
that will transport it to the buyers.
I suppose it is food for pigs then pig-farms are all there are to discover in this areas.
All this while knowing that 7 kilos of pig feed is needed to have a pig grow 1 kilo.
Were this pork meat costs about € 3 to € 5 maximum per kilo for customers in the average supermarkets (in the NL).
So per netto, sellable kilo that is.
How can a product be so cheap (including VAT) per netto kilo and still be profitable (for all that are related to the huge process of producing it)
if you need 7 times it's weight of another product to produce it ?
The answer is ofcourse subsidy from the EU to keep the business "healthy" and competitive.
By the way, I have not yet seen any big animal in Spain.
No horses, no cows, no goats, no sheep, no bulls, no elephants, no crocodiles, just nothing.
But I also saw some vegetables growing.
The Spanish don't need much since they do not eat vegetables at all, at least not in bars and restaurants.
Whatever meal you order here it will be without any healthy ingredients ...
Interesting is the dutch saying that one has to eat 250 grams of vegetables per day to stay healthy.
Were I think the spanish eat maybe 250 grams per month.
Besides that the spanish don't have dinner before 21h.
They more or less step into bed with the fork and knife still in their hands.
Which according NL specialists is the worst way to digest your meals.
But for sure there are Far More (2x) fat people in the NL then in Spain ...
Has that maybe to do with the smoking in Spain ?!
Or with the take-away mentality in the NL which brings so many industrial calories ?
In Spain you can hardly find non-homemade hamburgers, they almost all are casa made.
Although times are (slowly) changing.
The more flex a country gets (is forced into ...) the more fats the inhabitants get ...
Were flex and calories start in the biggest towns.
There are only few campings along the 400 km route from Pamplona to Madrid.
Just three to be more specific ...
You find them in Olite, in Villafrance and in Vera de Moncayo.
From Olite to Villafranca it is only 30 kms and from Villafranca to Vera de Moncayo is 70 kms.
So you can bicycle these three one after another in 2 days to make the total 100 kms inbetween them.
Or, if you are really strong, you can skip Villafranca and make those 100 kms in one day.
I am Not really strong haha.
So today I cycled only 30 kms.
Then I knew that the next stage would be like this ...
I failed the Superman test three times in my life and then gave up.
Doing these two etappes in one day is actually not possible for me (with this combination ...).
At the remaining 300 kms to Madrid there are no campings at all.
I searched intensively but really found none.
So I prepared my mind (and wallet ...) to sleep in hostals in the near future.
And that is ofcourse a luxurious situation.
But today I cycled to a camping just south of Villafrance.
That camping itself was oké but is situated only 25 meters (!) from a national route.
It is Extremely Noisy over there and I guess I slept maybe 1 hour in total that night.
That's why I (at 04h00 ?!) decided to leave immediately.
I packed very early and prepared to leave a message at the office then I had not yet payed for the first night.
Up to now I always had to pay for the first night at arrival but just not here.
But when I passed the gate I noticed the mercado (shop) was open and I could pay the bill there.
The lesson learned is (again) that I should be better prepared to do wildcamping.
That way I could have decided to cycle on and look for a stealthy place to camp.
Or just ask some person for a place to tent and see what happens.
Fact is that I have not even thougt about that idea ...
It turns out to be rather difficult to become far more non-civilized haha.
On the other hand it is actually very difficult to judge all this kind of potential "dangers" at arrival.
And on one more other hand the official fine on wildcamping in Spain is € 5000, so a 5 with 3 zeros that is.
This situation also implies that (since I didn't stay) there is no blog about my stay in Villafranca.
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Click 🖱️ to open
See you soon at a more quite place !