July 13, 2011

Thunderstorms in the night have cleared the air and the day starts out feeling fresher.  We are going across country on back roads to join a main road later on, which we hope will not be too busy during the afternoon (siesta time). 

The first part of the ride is a succession of hills rather than the mountains we have been climbing of late.  Without the challenge of reaching a summit or pass they seem a bit mundane, although the road is quiet and we pass through some nice little villages.  When we reach the main road it is not too busy and, like all the main roads in Spain, has a separate lane at the side of the road which we can ride in safely.  Although we are making good progress we stop at 73 km when we reach Jarafuel because it is marked on the map as having camping and it is a long way to the next place on our route.  Interestingly, there are two signs in the town giving directions to the camp-site – each pointing in the opposite direction – we choose the wrong one.  After a fruitless ride in completely the wrong direction we turn around and find what we are looking for.  There is no room on the site – all the pitches have caravans on them, although the owners are not actually there – they just use them at the weekend.  The man running the site does let us on though and tells us to pitch our tent on the roadway – our tent pegs now look like they have been struck by lightning after knocking them into a stone track.  Good job we’ve become accustomed to sleeping on hard surfaces.

We slip into town for dinner just as a funeral cortège makes its way through the centre towards the church with what looks like every resident of the town following (9 pm does seem a strange time to hold a funeral but maybe it is because it is so hot during the day).  We do find a bar open but the cook has gone to the funeral.  The barman suggests we wait as she should only be half-an-hour.  He then keeps running in and out of the bar anxiously looking up the road to see if she is coming back – he explains that the ‘el cura’ will take advantage of having more than the usual handful of people in his church and is likely to go on a bit!  She does turn up eventually after an hour and a half, which was a good job because if she had been any longer ‘el cura’ might have had another customer as the barman was on the point of apoplexy.  This eating and sleeping business is far more difficult than riding the bikes.