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Cycling from Valverde del Camino to Zalamea la Real, Spain
After 10 nights it was time to leave Valverde del Camino. Something that I had already (almost) planned for but yesterday (finally ...) the policia stopped at my place to ask (!) very friendly how long I would stay. I immediately told them I would leave the next day, so today is the day.
But Murphy had heard that to and when I lateron went for a cup of coffee and a cold beer a woman made clear she liked me, or at least 😁 my camping next to the cemetery. She spoke "no english" and also "no espagnol" (how can that be ?) but her daughter explained they knew a nice room for me to rent. We met that evening at 20h00 to visit the room and it was a shared situation with a price of € 240 per month allin.
However, also allin was the 💢 extreme warmth since the livingroom was in the 💢 full afternoon-heat 💢 without any airflow and the bedroom had 💢 no ventilation At All, only 💢 just the door ... I hesitated shortly (1 second) but decided to not rent it since I would not be able to sleep there decently. Besides that it is now the cyclingseason and I want to explore Spain there where I was not yet before.
So this morning I packed, waved goodbye to some people that I met here at the cemetery, cycled into town to send some farewell-emails to several other people and off I went. I would cycle the Vía Verde de Riotinto and was curious about it's quality.
That Was 💢 Poor for the first 500 meters getting out of town ... Some "specialist" had "upgraded" this part of the graveltrack by using 💢 to small gravel where the bicycle dived into to come to a standstill. Pffuuuhhhh ..... But once out of town (!) the 👍 surface was getting better.
Cycling was oké here so this was promising.
But not everywhere ... This is more or less the average (off-)roadsurface of this via verde. There were also parts that were impossible to ride due to the soil that had been destroyed by cars and horses after some rainy day. A rainy day that easily can have been very many months ago ...
Click 🖱️ to open
After several kilometers I came to a crossing with the mainroad and decided to take that one to make some distance. That was a 🤝 very lucky decision, despite the distance being 13kms haha !!!
Then there where the via verde was re-crossing the mainroad again it was 💥 Blocked by a 💥 farmer who obviously doesn't like cyclists and pedestrians.
This huge gate is impossible to pass and if I had been at the via verde, so behind that gate, here I would have had to 💣 return some 3kms (x2). Besides that the via verde should continue here anyway but there remained only a very small (and somewhat elevated) path that to my opinion is not suitable to ride in a decent way. Pffuuuhhhh ..... So my plan to maybe cycle the via verde again from here on was also blocked this "way".
Thus I was forced to remain at the mainroad.
Looking back at one of the hills I had to cycle 💦 push.
Zalamea la Real is located high upon a hill and the village itself is also Very Hilly !
I was to tired to make the last kilometer and made a siesta at my little chair in the first shadow
available in 3 hours.
Then I cycled and pushed to the petrolstation and bought a bottle of cold water.
From there on I pushed into town and was lucky to find a cafe that was not closed.
I had marked the cemetery as potential place to wildcamp but I asked a guy whether he knew
a nice place to pitch my tent.
That guy was Ingo from Germany who answered that I could camp at the Caldera Vieja location, the appartmentcomplex of his mother, "just" 2 kms outside town. "First you get to the trafficlights at the entrance of the town(1), then further up that hill (2) and then down again (3). I will call her rightaway but am sure you camping there is oké to her. So you can pitch there and she will return there later this evening."
Those (1) and (2) ment Trouble because of the climbing, so pushing, and that (3) was
potential Trouble because of the bad offroad-surface.
The surface was so rough that I rolled (and bumped) down at a lesser speed then I would if walking.
But I just had to roll down since I was too tired to walk and hold and control the bicycle by hand.
However, after some 10 minutes my hands refused duty because of being forced to actuate both brakes constantly and at maximum force. I just had to "take a non-brake" to reactivate my hands again. Your eyes hardly see the difference with other roads but this "road" is in my top-3 of 🏆 all-time badest.
Full of doubts I struggled the OnTheRoad 4.0 🖱️ up the two in-town hills and then down the out-town hill. The speed was more or less the same up and down due to the very bad and steep offroadtraject out of the town. The location was "not the best" from the point of view of visiting whatever here and there. But once I was descending it was to late to change my mind.
But I got there and inspected the (👻 abandoned) location and it is very nice. However, since there was nobody here I hesitated to just pitch my tent. I rested a while but then decided to pitch the tent since it was getting a bit dark already. Finally the "lady of the house" arrived and she was oké with the spot I had choosen. We could communicate in the german language and that was a nice extra aspect.
It had been another tough day at (and next to) the OnTheRoad 4.0 🖱️ with just 22kms and 336vms in 4h41 in total of which 2h49 moving. Which makes for a staggering speed of 4.8kmh allin and 8.0 while moving. In other words : 💪, 👅 and 😁.
And this is the interactive map of today's YesTrip.
How will my stay here be at the very wrong side of those hills ?