April 14, 2014

Spain is a country of big contrasts. Today we set off onto absolutely pan-flat roads with vines as far as the eye can see. The weather seems to have settled into a pattern. Sunny, with pleasant temperatures in the morning, the heat building during the day making cycling after lunch hard work and then a cooling breeze in the late afternoon/early evening. We too have settled into our touring routine. We’re up, packed, breakfast eaten and supplies bought from the local shops for about 9.30am. We cycle until about 11am and have a second breakfast. Another couple of hours cycling before a picnic lunch and a rest somewhere in the shade. Then the last run to our overnight stop which we usually reach about 6 to 7pm. In all, we are actually cycling generally for about 5 to 6 hours a day. Today, we’ll probably cycle for less time because we’ll be able to spin the big gear for the first time this trip and get some speed up.

This is one of those times we wish we had our road racing bikes rather than the tourers – the dead straight, flat road is perfect for time-trialling. After a week of mountains and hills, cycling on the flat requires no effort at all. The road stretches ahead endlessly to the horizon just like those in an American road trip movie. We pass through only two small towns in 95 kilometres. The only excitement of the day was when Ken inhaled a sweet into his windpipe, fortunately not when riding the bike, whilst he had a choking fit he stepped backwards into a ditch – still, it shifted the sweet! Wish I’d had the camera in my hand.