Dit zijn de afstanden die er per dag gefietst zijn. Dag 4 was de rustdag.Dag 5 en 6 waren de dagen dat we rond hebben gereden in de Veluwe zonder bagage.
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Spain - Day 16 : Windmills and gas stations
The men with the jeeps hadn't returned throughout the night. We drove over the hole filled path back to the main road. After 10 kilometers we arrived at a bakery. The lady asked where we had come from and where we were going. When we were outside we heard her tell someone else about us. The road went over a mountain. That was the first climb since the Pico Veleta, since there we hadn't been lower than 600 meters.
Bram at the Puerto de Los Pocicos.
Bart at the Puerto de Los Pocicos.
After the top we had left the hilly area and the route would be flat again for 100 km. The roads were very straight today as well, which was nice because that allowed us to cover a large area of the map. At least that way it looked like we were going fast. Today we were counting how many days it would take to reach the Pyrenees. On top of a slope we sat down to lunch. The windmills on the horizon showed that today we didn't have a headwind, for the first time in two weeks. As bread spread we had 'Dulce de Membrillo', pear puree. It tasted well on the fresh baguette.
Today's route passed through a remote area of Spain. Only once every 50 km we would pass a town. In La Roda we stopped at a gas station for water. The guy working there look suspicious at us. He first needed to remove the lock of the refrigerator before we could take out some bottles. We sat down on the curb and listened to some bad music. Every gas station in Spain seems to listen to a different radio station with bad music. I went to the bathroom to wash my hands and towel. It would be possible to just wash ourselves with a towel on in gas stations' bathrooms every day before camping in the wild, that way we might really do without campsites.
We were still at the curb and the boy there kept eyeing us. On the wall was a thermometer in the shade. The guy looked confused when I got up to take a picture. It was 33 degrees. That was around 1 o'clock. Usually it got warmer until 4. We were so used to it that we hardly needed sunscreen anymore.
33 degrees in the shade
We rode over roads that were straight for dozens of kilometers without a single village. It went so fast we had time to take an hour long break. We wanted to get a drink and ice cream at a gas station. A women arrived from a nearby house. Apparently she worked at the station but, because there were so few customers, she just sat at home looking out of the window. During previous cycling vacations the supermarket cashiers had nearly all been pretty. This vacation they were not, sometimes we honestly had a hard time figures out if they were male or female. This trip the gas station attendants were the pretty women of the vacation.
We had another look at the map and realized we wouldn't make it to the next campsite today. The second one was 100 km away, that would mean we would need to stop really early tomorrow if we wanted to stay there. We were three days ahead of schedule so there was time to take a detour. We could take a detour to another campsite today and then continue from there.
First we needed to cycle to Motilla. There we bought more food for breakfast. A liter of yoghurt each constituted a nice part of dinner. From there it was 18 km to Olmedilla de Alarcon, where the campsite was. There were a few tough hills along the way. Because we were counting down the last kilometers they seemed to take much longer than the rest of the day. In the village were again a bunch of old people. They were kind enough to tell us there was no supermarket. We headed to the campsite hoping there was some food available there. During the first four days of this trip I didn't have any hunger, despite not eating huge amounts. Now we were at a point that each of us could eat 1,5 baguettes and half a liter of yoghurt and would still be hungry. The lady at the campsite said she had 'cerveza frigo y bocadillos'. A while before she said something that sounded like 'bocadillos' to a boy holding bread, so we said 'yes' and hoped for the best.
This time we didn't get 'green grass', but a sandy area. Above the sand was a cloth to shield the sun. By the time that would be of any use to us we would be 100 km away. In the showers we first charged the GPS, camera, and phones. It was nice to shower after three days of camping in the dirt. The first water that ran off of us was very salty. Another nice thing was that we could wash our clothes. Bram had a problem though, he only carried one shirt and one pair of pants so he couldn't properly wash anything.
On the campsite in Olmedilla
After showering we went to the bar to order 'dos cerveze dos bocadillas'. We sat down on the terrace with our beers, nice in the shade. We could feel we were tired. The lady of the campsite came over to talk about the bread, in Spanish. We only understood half of it. She started making something that looked like a hamburger. She asked if we wanted mayonaise and ketchup. We said 'yes' to which she looked very confused. The breads taste very good. I put on as much mayonaise and ketchup as I could get my hands on so I would eat more calories. With the beer we received unshelled peanuts covered in salt. We didn't get the point of the salt, the peanuts inside didn't taste any different because of it.
I believe every paragraph in today's story was about food. That's because the route wasn't super interesting. Only more of the same nothingness, no high mountains. After finishing our beers we went to sleep.
The route of day 16.
Distance cycled : 179.38 km