Author: Grant and Barbara

As we’ve moved South, sunrise gets later. No riding in the dark, so we set off a wee bit later each day. It’s a lovely light early in the morning as the night clouds lift, the landscape wakens up and people start to stir.

We saw hords of walkers out early this morning – “normal” people exercising, more women than men. Presumably before being confined indoors by the heat.

The towns we pass through seem to be manufacturing – whether car part or textiles. Houses hang at impossible angles in the lee of the castle they once serve. Out of town the proletariat live in apartment blocks.

A diversion – we’ve not seen many, if any, Amazon delivery vans throughout. Maybe they use local carriers as they employ 28000 people in Spain and are the largest ecommerce supplier.

The majority of today was on quiet country lanes. aka deserted. The principle crop is wine – we’re now in Murcia. The 25000 strong metropolis we’re sweltering in tonight has 6 wine makers and a large solar farm.

We’ve seen more solar panels today than hitherto. With such wide open landscapes it is a tad surprising there are not more. Perhaps there are bats to think of.

It reminded me of the Outer Hebrides. Not the crickets /grass hopper type things playing chicken with the front wheels. Rather the number of old ruined deserted houses with new ones (though fat less in number) nearby. Makes you wonder what the transport was when they were lived in. Horses? Donkeys?

In Jumilla the tarmac and buildings radiate and amplify the heat. Siestas are there for a reason….

Valencia’s bustling cycling paths were a lot quieter on a Saturday morning. The city scape changed quite quickly from the “rich” inner city apartments to more humdrum multi-stories and dilapidated looking suburbs. The folks were just going about their business. Coffee and breakfasts everywhere.

After 20km or so we’re into the countryside, heading inland. A tower marks the El Cid Camino. Sounds like a film to me. The towns we pass through are thronged with people having a fiesta: tables of drink and food with noisy banter lightening the streets.

Later in the day it’s siesta time on a hot September afternoon. Only the cyclists braved the tumbleweed rolling down the deserted villages. These folk emerge later. It’s like the Marie Celeste inland.

The plateau we climb up too has larger manufacturing towns. Reminds me a bit like the Heads of the Valleys places, only in sunlight.

We go through a few gorges to the wee town of 550 people where we are tonight. They are all out partying. Cyclists head to bed.

It’s always a joy when public transport is so easy to use. Google Maps plots the route, tap n go pays the way. Bus shows up on time. Busy too: people going to work dressed to impress or can’t be arsed; tourists. A kind old lady asked someone to move so I could sit down. Been rude not to, though I am starting to get a complex.

A grand mass of apartments surrounds the old centre. After a flood in 1957 when 81 people died, they diverted the river. The initial proposals was to build a highway. Due to a public campaign it became an urban park, full of life and art.

Started thinking: today we think of a public campaign as something on-line, petitions, angry fb posts etc. In the 60s? Meetings, letters to the editors, public meetings? Was it more civilised? Or is it an example of early influencers influencing?

The old market is full of colour, character and people shopping. Queues at the fish counters. A convent converted to a cultural centre. A manequin store – they are used at a religious festival. Looked pagan to me.

The Arts and Science buildings show what can be done tastefully with adventure in modern architecture. Scale meets ambition. Fantastic.

Tomorrow head out to brave the psychopaths on the cycle paths. Wish us luck…..

Castello de la Plana may have a plan. We need plan A, B and C today to navigate some punctures.

What a great route: cycle paths or roads prioritised to cyclists and walkers mainly all the way. The drivers are 99% great: stopping where the paths cross the road as we approach – no matter how wide nor busy the road. The challenge is the 1% so you can’t take the stopping for granted.

Valencia seems to have thought about Active Travel a lot. You get the feeling they have given powered scooters out to everyone – and the younger you are the faster the model. We tootle along sedately- they cut in from behind, diagonally – I was waiting for one to go overhead. All to set the nerves jangling.

Balazs, one of the tour leaders, did a sterling job today – I don’t usually name names in this blog and today is the deserved exception. Not only did he cycle up with my forgotten water bottles, he helped get us going through a series of punctures.

My fault, I thought only yesterday “great 3000+ miles a nary a puncture have we”. 2 from a thorn – the first time we didn’t find it, so it kindly did a better job the next time to show us the offending spot. The other turned out to be a pinch puncture, aka too much rush on my part. All is well, and a useful reminder things do happen, so deal with them.

Into a rest day tomorrow and to test our understanding of how to catch a bus.

Spain has 3 main costs and 18 Costas. That doesn’t include the coffee shops. Though we haven’t seen that many “obvious” chains, barring Decathlon, Spar (francise?) and AleHop’s distinctive cow.

The concrete factory we passed leaving this morning will have a secure future if the amount of housing along the coast is anything to go by. Inland it’s pretty and old villages. Coastal it’s a large development. Pretty quiet today – if everyone was in it’d be chaotic. Maybe someone has shares in the concrete business.

The old service road we went on was lovely. Fields of oranges, olives, pomegranates, almonds. All in various states of ripeness. The fella knocking the almonds off has a good technique: he needs it to reach that high for a long time. A lived in face – maybe he modelled for the mural we saw.

The land is a lot drier than we’ve seen for a while, offset by stone walls with a great earthen texture. Who built them? Pre concrete days.

The way into Castello de la Plana is on a great rail-trail route. It must have been a lovely wee line. The main line is very active – the goods train carrying 3 decks of cars was 2 or 3 days long.

The clue we’ve left Catalonia is we head to Valencia tomorrow and into a rest day.