A big day!!
And our first battery-stress day!!
It was a tough one! A full 70km up hill!!
Not a steep gradient…but…a strong head-wind made it feel a lot steeper than it was.
Certainly the longest relentless uphill of all my rides!!
Combine that with a rough gravel road almost the whole way…and yup, it was hard!!
We stopped twice for extended breaks and recharged…and at the end…Corey only had 5km of range left!! (..the new Lapierre going a whole lot better!)
So we are finally climbing up into the Spanish Sierras. Sort of cycling up behind the Sierra Nevada!
Lovely ride…
….but…! Here we are in Andalusia in May…with a day of full sun…and we both had at least three layers on all day!! It is still cold!! Having said that…the has finally come out…with not a hint of rain!
A few obstacles en route…as we were mis-mothered by Google down roads which had been long washed away!
After peaking at around 1200m….we enjoyed the afternoon descent to Baza, sitting at around 850m. We did not pull in though until around 5.30. A late finish to an exhausting day!
A much more interesting town than Puerta Lambreros…but we were both knackered…so early beers and food were the order of the day!!
We found a tiny wee bar…..and enjoyed our first really good (free) ‘pinchos’ session. First beers: Moorish grilled pork skewers. Second: beers: a delightful potato salad. Third beers: Chicken casserole. Fourth beers (& they were only small ones!!): Anchovies and crisps! (Corey nearly gagged!) So we had a fifth and bought more of the pork!! Apparently…the Andalusians are the best proponents of this generous art! No need for dinner afterwards!
And tomorrow….is even longer!! Early night required!!!
