Archive for April, 2007
Tuesday, April 24th, 2007
78km Elciego to Estella
The heat is really sucking the energy from our bodies. Our distance today wasn’t anything special – more or less a normal day on the bikes – but we struggled to get to the campsite in Estella, feeling shattered by the time we finally got the tent up and ate, near 8pm. Although the mornings are cool, the heat mounts in the afternoon and it stays hot until the early evening. Happily the numerous fountains in every Spanish town and village bring relief. We filled our bottles several times and stopped twice to wet our hair and splash our bodies with cool water. We are hoping that France isn’t quite so warm, quite a change from our first few days back in Europe when we longed for the heat of Morocco!
Despite the heat, we weren’t alone in pushing our bodies in hot conditions. Our route followed the famous pilgrim trail to Santiago and although we were travelling away from the shrine instead of towards it with the pilgrims we counted 20 people walking to Santiago and at least half as many again on bicycles before we got to Estella. One, a German on a bicycle, stopped to chat with us for a few minutes. We asked him where the path to Santiago started and he said it began “wherever you are standing”. Throughout the day we enjoyed seeing numerous vineyards and bodegas and wandering through the narrow cobbled streets of Elciego and Laguardia. On a hot summer days these tiny lanes must be wonderfully cool. Between the pilgrims, the picturesque towns and the attraction of the wine region, it seems this area isn’t short of tourists.
1 Comment » - Posted in Cycling Trips, Journal Entries, Spain by andrew
Monday, April 23rd, 2007
67km Tabladas to Elciego
Often on our bikes we joke with each other that the next stretch of road to the nearest town or landmark must be “all downhill” – in our dreams! Usually the reality is much less pleasing, involving at least a few hills to climb, but today we got our wish. From the time we got up in the morning and packed up our tent (after a very pleasant night spent near a reservoir) to when we rolled into Najera around noon we hardly saw a hill. Nearly the whole trip was a descent, aside from the odd flat stretch and the even rarer “bump in the road”. They weren’t really big enough to be called proper hills. It was a good thing the terrain wasn’t too tough as we’d neglected to plan properly and had run out of food, so we were rather hungry as we came to the end of the 40km trip into Najera.
Just before the town, in a small village, we saw a fruit stand set up in a market square and screeched to a halt. Bananas, apples, oranges and more than a few olives soon filled our panniers. The bill was rather shocking – nearly €7 – but it turned out that as well as finding one of Spain’s more expensive greengrocers, we’d also found one of the best. Everything we bought tasted so wonderful: sweet, juicy oranges, crunchy apples and perfectly ripe bananas. Obviously the man running the show cared about what he sold. We spent our afternoon in Najera doing our grocery shopping and a little bit of internet, along with what seemed to be hundreds of pilgrims in the town.
Unfortunately we get very little time to research our destinations, but it appears Najera – home to several monasteries and churches – must be a stop on one of the pilgrim trails as every time we turned a corner there were backpackers heading off on a trek, meandering in the old town or filling up the restaurants. For lunch we avoided the restaurants and instead decided to stop at a local butcher for some meat and cheese. Maybe he is is business with the fruit seller because his bill was also expensive, but again the food was top quality.
We feasted on sliced chorizo and salami and manchego cheese (a hard cheese, kind of like parmesan) along with a baguette from a nearby bakery. Late in the afternoon we set off from Najera and headed north, entering the Basque country in the early evening. It was still very hot and we found a shady bench for supper, before finally climbing a hill in Elciego to a deserted picnic park overlooking vineyards where the tempranillo grape grows to provide the famous Rioja wine. There we set up our tent and settled in for the night, once darkness finally fell, which is now after 9:30pm. Quite a difference from our winter touring just a few months ago!
2 Comments » - Posted in Cycling Trips, Journal Entries, Spain by andrew
Sunday, April 22nd, 2007
76km Covarrubias to Tabladas
We had a pannier emergency today: an oil spill all over the inside of our cooking bag! We’d searched for days for a half litre bottle of oil (the size of screw-top bottle we’ve bought to carry oil in) but we never saw anything less than a litre. Finally we gave up and bought a full litre but of course we were too frugal to throw half out, so for the last couple of days we’ve been carrying around the half-empty plastic bottle, trying to use it up. A disaster waiting to happen and this evening the top came loose and oozed all over our pots and food. A big mess to clean up, but at least we were near a lake so Andrew had lots of water to degrease everything with and the Ortlieb panniers are seemingly indestructible. So far anyway! Before our little crisis, we spent the day dodging cows and sheep wandering all over the road in the Sierra de la Demanda natural park. What were these cyclists doing on “their” road, the animals seemed to wonder as we passed. The scenery returned to the beautiful sights we’ve come to expect over the past few weeks, after a couple days which were frankly a little bland. The whole area was filled with rolling hills, woodland, fast-flowing streams and – after we crossed into Rioja – a valley with mountains rising up on all sides.
1 Comment » - Posted in Cycling Trips, Journal Entries, Spain by friedel
Saturday, April 21st, 2007
83km Cevico Navero to Covarrubias
Today it felt like we had all of Spain to ourselves. We slept in again – the result of late nights, we now have light until nearly 10pm – and only hit the road by mid-morning but even then we hardly saw any cars on the road. Only the occasional tractor passed us as we worked our way through endless fields of wheat. Although the landscape was very similar throughout the day, it was beautiful in its own right with blocks of colour that almost looked like a modern art painting: deep green fields, very straight roads and rich blue skies, with just a few fluffy white clouds to break up the clean lines of the view. A nice surprise was coming upon a little chapel named Ermita de Notra Senora de Garon, which seemed to be a pilgrimage spot and where the community had built a brand new picnic area. Unfortunately we were a bit too early to stop for lunch! Instead we had our midday meal in the town of Villafruela, a sleepy little village but where a few locals noticed us and said hello as they passed. Once again we wished we could speak Spanish. The town of Lerma greeted us in the early afternoon, a pretty spot with cobbled streets, half-timbered houses and a number of sights to take in like monasteries and a wall around the old centre. A group of artists seemed to have moved in for the day and there was someone on almost every corner painting the view around them. After a stop in a local pub (our morning coffee break has been replaced by an afternoon beer break), where we were served huge beers in frosted glasses, we carried on to another historic town, Covarrubias. With more half-timbered houses we could almost believe we were back in England! The ride between the two towns stood out in our mind for the cherry trees out in blossom and a group of at least 50 large birds, possibly eagles, soaring above our heads, obviously enjoying a draft. Finally we settled in the local campsite, getting our tent and tarp up just before a thunderstorm rolled through and poured rain down on us.
No Comments » - Posted in Cycling Trips, Journal Entries, Spain by friedel
Friday, April 20th, 2007
49km Cubillas de Santa Marta to Cevico Navero
We 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.
