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Cycling from Baul to Baza on the
After the Via Verde I looked like this, and here is what happened ...
Looking back at the former Estacion of Baul. I left Baul after a nice stay, without any problems, except for one barking dog closeby.
But I was hindered by lots of bad gravel, sometimes more or Less acceptable and sometimes really critical. Extra problem are the shadows since they prevent your eyes (brain) to see dangers there in time. My (loaded) OnTheRoad 4.0 🖱️ superbicycle weighs some 67kgs and the more heavy the front is the more bad any vehicle handles. And then it is more then Important that you know How to steer on a 1-track vehicle 🖱️. Only then can you survive in the long end. Maybe.
All the way at the Via Verde I had views like these. This part of it is the land of the cornfields and oliveyards. So what are you waiting for ? Unfortunately I needed a lot of attention to not get stuck in the heavy gravel. Or even worse ... Although Old mountainbikers never die haha. The first "part" of the track actually ended at this tunnel. There is a scenery before and another type of scenery after it.
And my Mobius actioncam 🖱️ recorded these pictures. This is a serie of 24 pictures taken in a 30sec tact and played in a 3sec tact. So it represents 12mins of cycling in 72secs, which is quite an impressive speed with my 50kgs of luggage haha.
The reason I cycle mainly at the left side (at via verdes ...) is that my foodbag is sticking out on the right side. And there are quite some situations where it would hit the (to large) bushes at the right side that hang over the track. The reason why I don't hang it at the left side is that it then hinders me as soon as I have to push.
This is also the Land of the Windmills. The Valle del Almanzora narrows here so the wind takes up extra speed.
And here I almost felt like Don Quichot and Pancho Pancha 🖱️ along these huge windmills.
And in this video Sir David Attenborough explains how bees and other insects manage to visit exactly only those flowers that have new nectar to offer. In other words they do not spend there energy on "empty" flowers. Surprise, surprise, it is all about electricity.
A Tree to stop for, so long my friend, you are so beautiful, special and important ! And maybe you are housing that beautiful bumblebee to ? But no, you don't, then bumblebees sleep "on the job", so on the flowers they visit during the day.
Then I saw something moving in the far distance. A man with a donkey and a dog were passing by in the fields and I wondered what they were doing (t)here ? But then I heard a sheepbell tinkle, turned around and saw this large herd passing by. They are very reliable since they walk exactly the same route every day (once they know it). The shepperd has to be there just in case but has an easy job. I mean when it comes to the sheep, having a life like his is "different cook".
After having cycled that (very well lit) tunnel I was in a somewhat more civilized world. Here fruit and vegetables are grown by the millions. I made a longer stop in the shadow of an old building, looking out at the former Estacion de Zujar-Freila. And another herd of sheep arrived, and there friends the dogs were not really agressive ... Nevertheless did I feel lucky that a tarmacroad and the greenroad were inbetween them and me.
When the shadow started to fail I continued cycling. But suddenly today's YesTrip Ended (Here), but not as it is supposed to do, and not where it is supposed to end. One has to pass a highway here per tunnel but that tunnel is not available "for the time being". You can't see that tunnel anyway since you can't get close to it. I guess that the official via verde is actually climbing in an underground circle in that non-available tunnel.
Anyway, no information, not any sign, no instructions, nada, nothing, niente. There is another gravelroad going down very steep and the options are to have a look Down there, or to return on forehand and take the main tarmacroad to Baza. I took the guess and had a Very Big Problem, even two ...
It was no problem to cross that alternative tunnel, and there were even some signs at the other end (...) showing info concerning the Via Verde. The info was that there is a steep uphill (1). Yes it is STEEP, and it is 10cms of GRAVEL, so NO GRIP. I tried to walk up without bicycle but barely managed, however I decided to take a guess and walk all the luggage up first. But there is really no grip at all there and after having lifted only just the two most "lightweight" frontbags I had to give up ... No way that I would manage to get the remaining bags and the bicycle also up there.
I repacked and then saw a group of young african workers take another track (2) that I had noticed but which was not signed in anyway. Before I could ask them about that they were out of sight already, but I guessed they were heading for the town of Baza. Then, just some 2mins later, one last african worker arrived, and I guess he was the new "kid in town" and had not managed to keep up with his colleagues. He stopped and looked desperately, probably since I did to haha.
I told him his colleagues had cycled and pushed that path some minutes ago
and that made him decide to do the same.
I saw him climbing up, walked up myself and saw that there is a last small part
of extra steep dropoff dropup of 2vms in the end.
Since I had no other choice to avoid the main tarmacroad I started pushing,
and I managed all the way up to that last 2vms.
but there I got stuck since it was to steep and I didn't have enough grip to make it.
I had to let the bicycle roll rearwards some 20mts until there was a bit more room to turn it.
Once down I crossed that tunnel again and then pushed all the way up again
to the more horizontal part of the track.
Some 10mins later I was on the mainroad ...
That "hillclimbing experience" took me way over an hour, but I did take some nice pictures haha. Very Luckily the tarmacroad was almost horizontal, and from a major junction on it was even descending quite steeply. I loved the high speeds again, and the cars had to wait behind me since it was a continues s-bend traject. But while speeding downhill I lost my sombrero, although I had "secured" it by pushing it down hard. I stopped at a small parkinglot, walked several 100mts back (up) but didn't find it. So that was one more job to do : buy a new sombrero (of the correct size) urgently ...
Some 15mins later I entered (fell down into) Baza. I have no idea why several towns in this region have a bicycle integrated in there logo. But at least the Baza logo warns that it might be steep so Here and There. But from here on the very long search for a stay began ...
Click 🖱️ to open
I cycled some 29kms and 191vms today (and I descended 249vms).
And this is the interactive map of today's YesTrip. Click here 🖱️ to open this map full screen in a new tab.
Unfortunately I couldn't find an acceptable campspot. So I visited all hotels I had marked and the last one (uphill again, called Murphy haha) had a room available, but just for two nights. The coincidence was that the hotelowner was the man I had met today already while at the via verde where he was at his mountainbike. My fabulous OnTheRoad 4.0 bicycle 🖱️ got a nice place in the garage, next to three mountainbikes (that were flabbergasted by it's experienced and superstrong looks haha). There it was save and sound and could rest decently.
It turned out that there was a famous festival those days but I have no idea what that was about. The posters about it were very unclear but very many people seem to come to join it.
So this situation was not promissing, but there was a nice bar closeby ...