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Cycling from El Ronquillo to Castilblanco de los Arroyos, Spain
I stayed in El Ronquillo one more day after the long partyweekend so I would hopefully have a decent nightrest. That worked out, no more music and no more fireworks-explosions.
The next day I left and plan was to cycle north to Almaden de la Plata.
I didn't know I would first be heading for Ollala hahaha. Tip : ask any dutch person why this is funny.
Soon I was in the land of emptiness and I was in the mood immediately to wildcamp at this lake but it is completely fenced. Only few cars passed me, conquering the hills in a hurry, but the drivers are very polite and carefull when they see you on a bicicleta.
Surprise, surprise ! Obviously something had happened to Almaden de la Plata ! It had moved then the kilometernumber was changed ! So question was whether it was more close or more far for me ?!
One driver stopped to handover a much appreciated cold(er) bottle of water. A lesser aspect was that he warned me this road would be quite steep at the last 3kms to Almaden de la Plata. They know ...
I have no idea what these empty spaces are ment for. As far as I know they are ment to prevent fires to burn on but why are there two here, so close together and with such a strange shape ?
Or were they used to get heavy equipment in to cut all trees ???
Then, when I reached the steep downhill to a bridge, I took my chance ... The maximumspeed was almost 1kmh per kilogram of the bicycle haha.
This is (was) the Rio Cala which however was no rio anymore ...
It is the official border between El Ronquillo and Almaden de la Plata.
And here at this bridge I entered the Parque Natural Siera Norte de Sevilla. Several months ago I had planned to cycle over here to see that parque and be in it for quite a long time. So today is the day, I would cycle in this parque for many days, kilometers and vertical meters.
Shortly after a lot of my fans showed up.
They seemed quite eager to meet me ... Problem was I had no pencil at hand for the signatures.
Another lake, also completely fenced. It could be cows are living there what might be the reason for all those endless fences.
Then I reached this crossing and doubt filled me. The cycling (and pushing) was very tough today, and it actually was already for too many days. That cardriver should not have warned me but he had ... Besides that all I experienced today was actually just only the beginning of a traject of some 200kms in this parque that would even be quite a bit tougher.
I hesitated for at least 10 minutes.
Then I skipped the original plan and decided to cycle down, south to Castilblanco de los Arroyos. I then would still be in the mountains at a height of some 300 to 400 meters but only some 20kms away from the main flatland (euuhhh) at a height of some 100 meters. That flatland runs all the way south to the Mediterranean Sea. I then would (could) make my final mountains-or-flatland decision somewhat later.
Too Bad, a road kill of a beautiful bee-eater. I saw my first one when I was cycling the Ecovia 11 in Portugal 🖱️. Bee-eaters never drink since they can do with the moisture the food has. That makes them a lot more independ of the average landscape. But not independed of cars ...
And sometimes a bird of prey accompanied me.
Obviously I was very bienvenidos in Castilblanco but this sign was some 10kms early.
This traject from that crossing on was some 10kms longer then the original traject to Almaden. Somehow I was very tired, which maybe was caused by the 4 broken nights in El Ronquillo. Besides that I got completely soaked here during a 15-minute rainshower.
There is not any place to hide here anywhere, not even some leafes. Except for a very small abandoned micro-receptiontower near the closed entrance of a farm. Which I ofcourse passed after the rain.
Finally I entered Castilblanco and saw a garden with tents, caravans and shadows. It was a small, private campingplace annex partygarden but unfortunataly I was not allowed to camp there. However I did get a full bottle of nice cool water and I could rest there some minutes while sitting in the shadow at a small wall. I then explored the area at the other side of the road that also looked promising but there was no decent place to camp.
If I know I will have to wildcamp I prefer not to ask people for ideas on that since I think it is better lesser people know about me doing that. But I felt my "powers" were fading away and so I knew that I had to find a place to stay soon.
I had marked the cementerio municipal (graveyard) in my gps but that ment I had to descend quite far. It was doubtfull whether or not I would be able to return up if I could not camp there. So this time I asked several people for a location to camp and several of them told me to go to "the albergue".
"Just follow this mainroad and you will find it" was the advise. That albergue turned out to be at the most highest location of the town. In other words, it was located by Murphy ... I pushed up all the way through the town and had (to have) two stops for a nice cool lemon-lemonade.
I got there and was welcomed by Peter, a very friendly man from Germany who runs this albergue for the community. He offered me a cool glass of water and started to do the administration for my stay. But then he stopped and asked me if I am a member of the albergue-organisation. "No, I am not" I answered. "You must be to have allowance to stay here" he replied. "No problem" I replied, "how much would that cost ?". "You can only arrange that online" he explained "and only up to the day before you arrive".
At that very moment his neighbour came along, heard about the situation and suggested I would put up my tent in the small garden directly next to the albergue. I had a look, was not superenthousiastic about the situation but decided to do so. Which also was caused by Peter telling me I was free to use the buildings bathroom plus shower, the chairs in the entrancearea and the (non-used) room next to it to do some work and to hide during the siestatime. Oké, check, done !
And this is the interactive map of today's YesTrip.
I "produced" 35kms with 536vms today and it is a long time ago that I managed to do that. The change of plan to take a longer but more easy road (as I thought (remembered) it to be) didn't work out since that rememberance was false.
So Castilblanco it is !