Cycling from Cabra to Fuente Piedra

A day with olives and hills

2018-11-10

This time I had to cycle on the main road. That is, on the shoulder. On the shoulder ?

To be or not to be on the shoulder, that's the Question.

I find it difficult to determine what is more save. Cardrivers use all the room there is to Not lower their speed. So cycling farest to the right is not that save as it looks.

I often cycle on the main strip, close to the line. That way I have the shoulder as an escape room. On roads like these it is the most dangerous if there is little room left. So the alternative is to have No room left. To my experience cardrivers have no problem with me being there. At least French and Spanish cardrivers don't. They always take the time it needs to have a save pass 👏.

Besides that the shoulder is quite often covered with stones (and sometimes glass) since cars don't drive there. So not cycling there is also more safe if it comes to punctures. Imagine what situation you will be in when you have to stop there, unpack, repair and re-pack ... If you on the other hand decide to walk on you will ruin the tire. And maybe even the rim (then the weight of the bike is about 50 kgs 💪).

Even on this main road it was a matter of a very highspeed downhill and then a very lowspeed uphill. However there was a hospital nearby, so no worries. Today I would cycle through Lucena, next to Cabra, which would be the only bigger town today. From there I would be in a very calm and rural area. Directly after Lucena I would be in the middle of nowhere. But those first kms were steep ... And the rest was also steep ... By the time I was in Las Vegas I was already to tired to gamble my money 😕. The surface of this road was partly extremely bad. I stopped at the only non-olive tree. Near an abandoned house was an orangetree that still did very well. It was full of partridges here but they were extremely carefull. I stopped to take pictures but needed full digital zoom (80x in total) to get "nearby". It was a cat and mouse game and I suppose they have a "good" reason to behave like that ... Once more the police was looking for me. And once more they didn't recognize me. They still don't realise that even criminals have started bicycling 😎. In a very little village ... I found a very little cafe. So I made a pitsstop and had this very nice bocadillo with jamon plus a refresca con lemon. There is a lot of erosion in a landscape like this with hills everywhere and very loose ground. Then I heard the noise of the machines that are used to "shake, rattle and roll" olives out of the trees. I stopped to have a closer look. Or actually I stopped to have a break. This team was very enthousiastic when I came over with my camera. I love that because it means people are having creativity, somehow. The machine has a long stick with a hook at the end. The operator hooks the hook to a branch and lets the machine run. The whole branch starts shaking awfully and the olives fall off. Hover over or or tap at this picture to start shaking !

The second man is looking for unwilling olives. He hits the braches with a long stick to help them fall off. But first they cover the earth around the tree with nets. That way it is easy to collect the olives.

I find it surprising that I almost never see or hear these workers while I am on the road. With millions of olivetrees there should be thousands of workers in this season ??? The machine has a combustion engine, so it has a rotating crackshaft, just like the engine in your car. A cranckshaft transfers a rotating movement into a lineair movement. That stick is connected to the connecting rod of the crankshaft. The crankshaft is running at high rpm and so lets the hook shake forth and back. I continued and reached Badolatosa. And there I saw a lot of tractors waiting at a factory. They all were heavily loaded with olives. I stopped and walked onto the terrain. The olives are weighed, cleaned from branches and stones, washed and then transported to large underground silos. They each hold 2000 kgs of olives that are floating there in water. Part of the process is to take samples with which the quality is determined and so the price. I was in the factory some 25 minutes I guess. And all that time this fan was waiting for me ! He hardly spoke any english and I don't speak any spanish but we managed. He was very interested in the OnTheRoad 4.0 and had a lot of questions. We "talked" about 15 minutes and then I left, maybe we'll meet again. The only "other" color for miles around. Another spot with huge erosion. The road I was on was threatened and would for sure be flushed away partly the next time heavy rain would fall. But there was another problem too. A (momentary) small stream of dirty "water" streamed from a very dirty looking factory into a small river. I suppose this happens all day and every day ?! And seems not to be a problem for those who live here or (don't) rule here. I entered Roda de Andalucia. And stopped to have another look at those beautiful orangetrees. I really love how they brighten up the streets !

But that "brighten up" did not last very long. I had to push out of town all the way and quite steep. I even had to rest after just about 1 kilometer because I was to tired then. Then I finally reached the roundabout were I would take the highway for the last 10 kms.

I had to push every meter to get on to that highway, even on the ramp. Then there was the Surprise of the Day ! There was a huge sign which said it was forbidden to cycle this highway ... According my gps there was no alternative at all. There were railways at both sides and nothing else.

I decided to cycle the highway, also because I saw that it was going down quite steep. Maybe that was the reason to forbid cycling here. Speed went up high. The sky was getting very "wrong" now. Then rain started to fall. Heavy rain. Lots of Rain. Mucha lluvia.

Because of the clouds it was almost dark now. At some 50 kmh I rolled down to the first exit which was the entrance to Fuente Piedra. I had taken a huge risk at the highway since I hardly had any sight in that rain. However I did not see that highspeed either 😀. But if some garbage or stone had been on the tarmac I might have missed it either. I mean seeing it on time ...

I stopped at a petrolstation to wait for the last rain to stop, to have a drink and ask for info. But the man told me there was no hotel or whatsoever in Fuente Piedra. I bought 2 (factory made) sandwiches there of the type I knew and like. I had no idea what the next morning would (not) bring me so having some stock is always a good idea.

I had put a poi (point of interest) in my gps of a hotel I had found online so I cycled there. It did not exist, I didn't even see anything there that could have been a hotel.

So I had to cycle through town again to visit the camping at the south of it. In the meantime the streetlights turned on ... I had seen online there were cabines available and decided to rent one. To my opinion it was (far) to expensive at €30 per night in this season but I was not in the mood for tenting now 👅. I would not even manage to arrange everything needed for that before it would be dark.

I unpacked and took a shower. To find out there was no hot water 💣. So I dressed up and went to the reception. The handyman "took a look" in some small electrical cabinet and there the hot water was. There was a restaurant next to the camping were I had a nice little plate. There was even a little bit of vegetables presented which is absolutely unique (in Spain) ! This is how the cabin looked by daylight. It is very basic but I could sleep there and sit on a very basic (and to low) chair. The big dog at the house one meter behind the cabin welcomed me all night. Today I cycled 65 kms with 743 vms. The trip felt quite tough and those vertical meters had caused that. The landscape I was in looks friendly and it is. But in the meantime it "eats" you ...

It had once more been A Day Not at the Office.

In the next blog you can read all about my stay here in Fuente Piedra.

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