49km Cubillas de Santa Marta to Cevico Navero

An odd stop signWe made the most of our overpriced campground by sleeping in after our long trip the day before, taking two showers and doing some work on the bikes. The brake pads really needed replacing after so many kilometers. It’s only the second time we’ve replaced the back pads (the last being in Koblenz, Germany) and a first time for the fronts. We definitely got our money’s worth out of them. Around noon we cycled to the nearest town for some lunch and another shopping trip at the local supermarket. It’s amazing how much food you go through when cycling, and how many places you can find to stash all your goodies in the panniers. This time we emerged with muesli, lots of pasta, a bottle of local red wine (of course) and several tins of vegetables. We normally prefer to get fresh veggies but in this area the stores all seem to run staffed counters where customers can’t be trusted to pick out their own produce and equally the employees are never around to serve you. Cans of beans and peas will be just fine for a few days. It was early afternoon before we started going anywhere and the scenery was much the same as the day before: long stretches of green fields of wheat and straight roads, reminiscent of western Canada. We passed a few cyclists on the road and the occasional car but mostly we were on our own in the Spanish countryside. With the days getting longer we continued our recent habit of stopping in a small town to make supper and then finding a camping spot a couple hours later. This time we made our meal in the village of Cevico Navero, with several men watching from the bar across the road, and then carried on up the hill where we found a patch of woodland perfect for our tent. The rain started to come down just as we got the tent up and we crawled in to enjoy our wine along with some games of cards. It didn’t get dark until about 9:30pm, quite a change from our winter cycling just a few months ago when we had to be off the bikes and ready for bed by the early evening.