May 30, 2013

It is about 140 kilometres between us and home – normally a couple of days riding, but we´re up early (not wanting to hang around any longer than necessary in our hostal) and we discuss whether or not we could make it home today.  We have travelled between Cordoba and Malaga by car many times but always on the motorway and, from memory, we think that the first two-thirds of the journey are reasonably flat just leaving our local mountains at the end.  Just goes to show that driving along a motorway in a car really doesn’t give you much idea of the terrain you are travelling through. 

We’re once again using the old main road which we quickly find runs from hilltop town to hilltop town.  It is so frustrating because climbing our way into each town is really hard work and it’s not where we want to be – there is nothing to see, they are just small working towns.  Well, they were once.  One thing that has been depressing travelling through Spain from one end to the other is to see so many villages and towns dying.  Businesses small and large are closed or closing, leaving thousands of empty buildings with ‘For Sale’ or For Rent’ signs everywhere and absolutely no hope of anyone buying or renting them.  Two or three of the towns we ride through have been manufacturing furniture for generations but virtually all of the factories are closed.  In Lucena, one such town, Ken finds more evidence for his ‘film-set’ theory of life when he reckons we’ve strayed onto the set for Gulliver’s Travels (see photo).

By mid-afternoon we’re cycling in territory that we cycle often from home.  We decide we’ll see how we feel in Archidona, the place we stayed overnight on the first day of our tour.  We reach a roundabout  that we went round at the beginning of the tour and as we cycle by the turn-off for Sevilla Ken shouts to me “Want to do it all again?” – Yes, I’d go in an instant; it wouldn’t take much to persuade me to load the bike up and set off around the world.  

We arrive in Archidona at 5 o’clock and feel pretty tired – we’ve covered nearly 100 kilometres.  Still, the pull of home is strong and after a break, a drink and a chocolate muffin we decide to go for it.  One of the most enjoyable aspects of cycle touring is not knowing what is around the corner, not just from the point of view of seeing new things, but also in helping get you along the hard bits – you always think you’re nearly at the top of the hill.  Knowing the roads really well makes the cycling feel much harder as you know you’re nowhere near the top.  Nevertheless, the nearer we get the more the anticipation of getting home carries us along.  It is a strange feeling because we’re both sad that the tour is at an end, but equally we are both fed-up with hotels and restaurants and are looking forward to the comforts of home.

We arrive at 9 o’clock after our longest day, 138 kilometres, (which by coincidence is exactly the same distance as the final day of our last tour), already discussing where we’re going next time.