So, I leave Ronda feeling refreshed........shampooed and shaved and with my batteries recharged...literally. There wasn't any electric hook-up in the camping (plebs) zone so I trustingly left my laptop charging in the toilet block over night.
I can normally keep my phone and a Garmin GPS charged up from the bike hub generator but that doesn't work too well unless you can maintain 15kph for a few hours, a tall order if you are off-road or on a long climb. So, apart from doing what laptops normally do best it is also a back-up battery for the phone and GPS.
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| Now when you pick a pawpawOr a prickly pearAnd you prick a raw pawNext time bewareDon't pick the prickly pear by the pawWhen you pick a pearTry to use the clawBut you don't need to use the clawWhen you pick a pear of the big pawpawHave I given you a clue ?Jungle book 'The Bare Necessities' |
OK, the story is we bought some of these fruits at home......Maria peeled them with gloves and they were very tasty. The roadside is full of them here so I pick one, peel it without gloves and end up with these minute thorns stuck all over my hands, impossible to remove and very painful. Just glad I didn't get any stuck in my lips or mouth
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| Setenil de las Bodegas - a small town with a VERY steep climb out. Famous for these houses built into the overhanging rock |
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| I'm dropping down out of the hills but there are some big rain clouds about and the forecast is for a night of heavy rain |
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| ..........and then I'm on the plain and the rain is definitely starting to threaten. There is a strong tailwind and I'm bowling along but there is absolutely nowhere to camp, just miles and miles of open wheat field. |
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| As dusk falls and the first rain squall arrives, I drive into a large hacienda and ask a tractor driver if I can camp behind some/any building. The farm is actually abandoned and he says the owner is not about, so I go and shelter round the back and wait while the squall passes.Eventually the owner pitches up in a big 4WD. He must have felt sorry for me because he said no problem. I could have kissed him. |
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The next day, heading north-east I reach the other side of the plain and I'm running towards Cordoba. Sierra Morena is to the north with some very ugly thunder showers developing over the higher ground. If you are into castles this is the place to be, they are everywhere. This is Castillo Almoldovar del Rio.
I arrive at Decathlon and ride in to get fitted out with panniers and pack them with the contents of the holdall. The panniers were too big for the front low-rider rack so I had to lash them horizontally to get enough ground clearance. (not as shown in the photo. They are not waterproof so I lined them with bin bags.
As I am about to leave Decathlon to find the municipal campsite there is a terrific hailstorm and I wait until it passes over. It's near dusk when I get to the campsite after getting lost a few times. When I finally get there I am a bit annoyed that the the receptionista wants €28, the same price as a motorhome, to pitch my teeny weeny tent on their wet grass. I remonstrate..... I can stay in a cheap hotel for less than that. Ah but, she says, you can have two people for the same price. Oh that's useful, I'll just scour Cordoba and see if anyone wants to sped the night in a cold damp tent with me! The final straw was when she wanted payment in advance but wouldn't accept a credit card. I actually didn't have enough cash to pay for the night so I headed off in a huff and a puff to find a hotel in the old town, arriving after dark. The puff was because the back tyre was going flat again and I had to pump it up every couple of kilometres. In my hostal, which was cheaper than the campsite I was allowed to keep my bike in the room with me, which was a dimly lit shoebox next to reception. Actually there was nowhere else to put it in this tiny cramped accommodation. However this was useful as I have picked up some new inner tube's at Decathalon and needed to change that rear tube AGAIN. I'm beginning to suspect there is something in the tire that keeps causing the punctures but I have checked the tyre really closely. The first stop was to nip round the local chinese 'bazaar' and buy a 100W light bulb so that I could see what I was doing in the room.......I hate that, so stingy when they stick a 15W bulb in. Oh, and I bought a sink plug, in fact a set of 3.......sadly none fitted so I had to wash my undies as quick as possible as the soapy water rapidly disappeared.
The next morning I take the opportunity to visit the Cordoba Cathedral-Mosque..........it is huge!
It looked more like a mosque than a Catholic cathedral though
The room was so small I had to perch on the loo to take this photo. It was impossible to open the wardrobe doors facing because the bed was pushed hard up against them.. Better than working on the street though. The biggest disaster was that my new tubes had schraeder valve stems that wouldn't fit through the hole in the rim......ho hum......so I'll have to mend the puncture and it's back to Decathlon in the morning : \
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