Category: Trans Europa

Enterting Andalusia region, where we end up is a wee town nestled at the top of a hill. Castle, cave (UNESCO so box ticked), church, convent. Busy place for its 1800 residents. Perhaps a recurring theme: the town was originally Muslim around their castle. Which was built on in the 16C by this one.

Lots of places look refurbished, including the castle. Maybe tourism.

What wasn’t so pleasant were the pig farms we passed. You know those cute free range huts for pigs in East Anglia: happy pigs? These were tin shacks in the baking heat and solid ground. Not to happy, slowly cooking pigs.

The rest of the ride was through mixed farm lands on quiet roads. FIrst pistachio tree for me. Lots of pine trees. A fertile plateau.

Two other things of note. One was this huge spider. It watched with interest as Barbara ran her hand in the trough of running water. To cool it and try to alleviate the swelling from a couple of wasp stings.

Tonight we had pork…….

Our splinter group headed up to the Basilica.

Another place steeped in history. What a crass statement – like saying “Welcome to our historic market town“. Everywhere has history, just we care to invest more time in judgements about what is interesting.

The Knights Templar thought enough about this place to create a castle or two. Building on that already there from previous Muslim dwellings. Crusade country. A delve into the Knights (a papal army) 200 year history (religion, land grabs, money, ambition, deals) and the Crusades (Muslims vs Christians, Jerusalem) and you might be mistaken for thinking you’re watching a replay on our daily news.

No stitches were dropped on the tour of the Emroidery Museum. Which turned out to be a fascinating insight into the [continuing] May wine horse race https://youtu.be/v9XCSy9sOeg?si=dq0qscU7bVxQvSbt Now UNESCO listed. The horses wear 14 piece embroidery sets. Then men and horse run up hill. Fastest wins. It doesn’t say if the first horse shits or pees, to make it slippy, always wins. Maybe the way my mind works.

They are running up to the Basilica. Which hosts a [genuine no less, verified we’re told] splinter of the original JC cross. Embedded in another cross inside something else. All very sacred, making this the 5th most important Christian site in Europe. According to whom is not clear. People look at me without understanding when I say it was probably just a skelf.

Tommorow we head to Granada for the next 3 days. Should be dry.

The surprise of today was fields of asparagus. Google lens is very useful at times!

A lot of today’s route in a former sulphur mining area, though the roads we were on didn’t show the lasting debris. The main operations were in the 18 and 19C. The Spanish Monarchy claimed ownership – important for gunpowder. What a plot.

What we can see is quarries and fields of crops. One high plateau has acres of green fields and pine trees, in the middle of what is mainly desert. Must have a secret water supply!

Towns are few and far between, as is shade. We missed a Holy week drumming festival. Whew!

Caravaca is our destination. Fingers crossed for a restful rest day.

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.