May 27, 2016

The observant will have noticed that our destination today is the same as that on the first day of the tour.  We will be retracing our steps for part of today and all of tomorrow.

We have another sunny day, not too hot, another perfect cycling day, with undulating roads but not too challenging. We pass through Fuente de Piedra where we stayed on our second day.  There is a saline lagoon here which is the second largest breeding site in Europe for flamingos.  Several thousand flamingos can be seen here earlier in the year.  We learnt on our river tour of the Doñana national park that the flamingos breeding at Fuente de Piedra have to fly to Doñana to collect food to feed to their young.  A round trip of 400 kilometres.  This explains why we often hear flamingos flying over our house late in the evenings (they make a distinctive honking noise a bit like geese whilst they are flying).  When we passed the lagoon a couple of weeks ago there was still a small amount of water left, but now, after two weeks, all the water has gone to leave a white salt pan – so bright in the sun it hurts the eyes to look at it.  It will stay dry now until the winter rain refills it and once again it brings the spectacle of thousands of pink, strutting birds.

We’re on home territory now, familiar roads that we ride all the time.  This part of a cycle tour feels like a bit of a chore – it is the challenge of the unknown that makes cycle touring so enjoyable.  I guess that is one of the disadvantages of a short tour like this one, proportionally there is more time spent on familiar territory.  On this particular tour we will have spent four days out of fifteen on roads we know.  Nevertheless, it has been an enjoyable tour and it has helped to get back some of our cycling fitness.  We just need to decide where we are going in the autumn – ideas on a postcard please?