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Cycling from Cantillana to Alcoa del Rio, Spain
I was looking forward to leave Cantillana because I was sick and tired of all the 💥 fireworksexplosions 💣 and the nightly noise of the many youngsters showing up there "to relax". And also since I knew I would have to Climb immediately for the first kilometers 😉. A thorough warmup is always welcome. The temperature I mean, not myself 😬.
I just cycled
and cycled, it was not the most interesting landscape but it was quite quiet.
And the only poi (point of interest) I had marked along today's track, an archeological site, was not marked along the road, and there was no sideroad or whatever to even try to find it.
But as usual I enjoyed being an explorer. Although as written before real exploring was impossible, there was no way (...) to leave the main road to visit anything that showed up.
Then I cycled into Alcolea del Rio, aka Alcolea at the River. I had marked the cemetery as a potential spot to camp but it was not. But I did manage to fill up my waterbottles there, so I was prepared to camp "anywhere". Once again with 50C-water since also this watertap was heated by the Full Sun all day. It is therefor not suitable to drink "today" but it is therefor2 suitable to wash yourself.
Tip is to have several extra waterbottles of the 1.5 liter mercado-type. They are extremely strong and you can easily "crack" them ones they are empty. Then you can keep them easily by strapping them anywhere on your bike. So by the end of your todays trip you can take a lot of extra water to your campspot quite easily. As long as that is not uphill.
This "system" is the only* reason why I sometimes buy water in bottles. Most of all times there are fuentes (sources) available so you can tap fresh water without cost. However, sometimes there is not enough height to get bigger bottles under the tap. Or the tap is upwards. Then a bidon comes in handy. * Another reason is ofcourse that it is ridiculous that water is transported by dieseltrucks that easily drive 400kms for that. To then see that people visit the mercados to buy lots of ie 5 liter bottles of water to transport them home. Where they do have a watersupply.
So I cycled into town to have a look along the river which is the Rio Guadalquivir.
And there I saw a very promising area to set up camp ! First I walked several 100s of meters into the terrain to check the situation since I thought it wise not to be close to the boulevard.
The boulevard is about 6mts more high since this terrain can be flooded by the Rio Guadalquivir, the river that it is situated along.
Luckilly (not) no rain was predicted for the first months to come. But there was no suitable spot to camp there, it was either to unflat and/or was there to much garbage. So I put up camp under this beautiful Tree, and directly next to the boulevard.
And first thing that happened was a nice flock of goats passing by 👌.
Click 🖱️ to open
Nothing wrong happened. The goats were eating all they saw so I hided (all) my stuff and my garbage. And the shepperd waved his hand, and no police(wo)man did since I did not see them and they did not see me. I guess.
Lateron I walked into town, visited the supermercado for some supplies and a lot of extra water. I also bought 2 cold cans of cerveza con lemon which I drank outside at a bench. I then noticed all bars were closed for siesta (as usual) , returned "home", ate some peanuts and drank a lot of water, read some online news, returned to the centre lateron and had a good coffee and two good beers. On my way back I once more bought water since I could not find any fuente (source) or decent watertap to have some.
I cycled only 21kms (deliberately) and 307vms and it was an easy day without highlights. Which is also a highlight ! But this campspot is really exceptional !
And this is the interactive map of today's YesTrip.
And then I had a very good night's sleep, the sound of the river was (not) there to make me dream away ...