Day 15: Sevile to south end of Dona a National Park (97 km)
Weather: 40's in the morning, warming to low 60's. Clear and sunny. No wind until end of day, then a steady headwind off the ocean.
Bike:no problems but I fear it took kind of a beating today with all the gravel roads
Roads: mostly dirt and gravel, maybe saw 10 cars all day.
Today's ride was mostly on gravel roads along an informal greenway along the Rio Guadalquivir- the very historic path that Colombus, among others, used to travel from the city up to the quite prosperous counting houses of Seville. Though this route was under-developed from a biking perspective, it still was pretty popular - I saw many bikers along the way, as European as could be in head to toe neon spandex and cheerfully shouting encouragement my way. The Guadalquivir estuary was hardly pristine, but it was very pleasant and filled with huge flocks of interesting wetland birds- cranes, herons, and if I am not mistaken, some sort of European flamingo.
The rest days in Seville paid off and I think allowed my body to consolidate the gains of the previous couple weeks of riding. This allowed me to beat my distance record and this time I was just a little tired. Granted, the route was pretty much flat as a pancake the entire way, but I will give myself difficulty points for the rough surface and the late-day headwind.
The later part of the ride was across a wide-open estuary with the wind tearing across it, so I pushed it a bit for a forested area I could see in the distance. This tuned out to be the tag end of Donana National Park, and its pleasant forest glade made for a delightful night of impromptu camping. It was nice to catch up on sleep lost from the hostel- my roommates were, shall I say, on a different schedule than I , as well as prodigious snorers. A quick dinner made on the camp stove and I was out!
Day 16: Donana National Park to Cadiz (80 km-though actually only 60 in a useful direction)
Weather: cool and sunny trend continues, with 40's during the morning, low 60s during day
Bike: Discovered a bolt had rattled out of the rear rack yesterday, was able to replace with one from water bottle cage. Also got puncture flat from price of metal midday. Also repaired. Actually found a real bike shop this morning, and was able to replace bolt and buy extra set of brake pads for later.
Roads: mostly pavement today.
Beautiful dawn today, and a little nippy (though to judge by the native Spaniards here you'd think it was Alaska). Munched on some cereal and made some coffee, packed up the bike, and then was pleasantly surprised by having the first 5 km or so be along a lovely little bike path through the sand and pines of the park. This spat me out right at the mouth of the now-mighty river, and after navigating through a small town just waking up, I decided to cut across the peninsula I was riding on in hopes that I might get in a bit early to Cadiz.
After lots of bumpy gravel road yesterday and a headwind, it was a real treat to get a stretch of brand-new smooth asphalt, very little traffic, and a nice tailwind for the next 20 km or so. Whereas my speedometer yesterday mostly hovered around a pokey 15 or 20, for a long stretch I opened the B-2 up to 30-35.
I then began some navigation misadventures through the towns of Puerto De Santa Maria and Puerto Real, which in my defense are made much more complicated by a twisted mess of natural obstacles- rivers and salt marshes. By dumb luck I did stumble on yet another nice dirt bike path through yet another park this one through a very scenic estuary of the San Pedro River.
But the big stumbling block came in getting to Cadiz itself, which sits out on a long narrow peninsula, and accessible only by two narrow bridges. I attempted my usual scheme of just blundering up to one and hoping for a miraculous pedestrian bridge, but this was rebuffed completely, and I found myself having to backtrack along a narrow shoulder on the wrong side of a freeway. (I suppose it was physically possible to go across the bridge on a bike, but since there was no shoulder at all, I would be riding for about 4 km in the middle of freeway traffic which seemed to me tantamount to suicide). Anyway, I employed my terrible Spanish at a nearby gas station and found that my only hope was to get on the light rail train.
More fumbling about trying to find the station (getting directions is hard for me, because it comes in rapid fire Spanish, from the generally loquatious people here- so what I understand is: "Oh, okay- what you want to do it go to the round about up there, then go left, then [unintelligible], but what you really need to keep in mind is [unintelligible], which reminds me of my Cousin Frank, old Frank, you know he always said that [unintelligible]. Anyhoo, after that third left [unintelligible], and you can't miss it."
But find it I did, and rode the slick new train into town with no further problems, found the hostel easily, and was welcomed into the fold once again. New friends, interesting conversations, and a massive dinner cooked by a ex-pat from Alabama who I did not trust was actually an American because he had never heard of "The Empire Strikes Back." Calories replenished and blog updated, sleep came easily.
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