May 17, 2016

If you can’t feel good on a bike on a day like today, you’re never going to feel good on a bike.  The air is a bit fresher than yesterday when we start out from the hotel.  There is a slight breeze and it is in our favour.  The first 5 kilometres are downhill, after which the road stretches out across a flat plain in front of us.  The road we have taken once clear of the town is a real back road, obviously very little used by traffic.  It crosses little drainage ditches ever so often which are teaming with wildlife.

We make slow progress at first because we keep stopping; firstly to watch bee-eaters flying in and out of their nests in a sandy bank, next we spot turtles lying in the sun on a muddy bank, then we see black winged stilts.  Unfortunately, an adult bird is swooping over the road making alarm calls and we see that three very small chicks have been run over, such a shame.  We spot egrets, buzzards, rollers and partridge with a flock of tiny chicks, as well as all the normal songbirds.

As morning turns to afternoon the temperature rises steadily and the breeze disappears.  The effort to turn the pedals increases particularly as we’re back into undulating countryside.  There are no towns or villages as far as the eye can see, just big, traditional farms dotted here and there.

On the horizon we spot Carmona, right up on the highest point for miles. We’re going to need our climbing legs after all.

Once in the centre of the city we check into a 14th century Posada in the main Plaza.  Everyone seems to be out and about and in a high state of excitment.  Tonight is the night that the Romeria del Rocio arrives, a pilgrimage which set out from the city of Huelva, 200 kilometres away, with a decorated ox cart and a group of pilgrims and musicians.  It amuses us that there appears to be some sort of structure to how the townsfolk arrange themselves on the benches in the square – not sure what would happen if a lady sat on the men’s bench.

At nearly midnight the procession arrives – the oxen patiently wait as the celebrations go on around them, their work done for another year.

On the subject of patience, I have yet to encounter WiFi that works for more than two minutes at a time on this trip.