The weather forecast was clear about one thing; tonight that massive rain front will start moving into Western Europe.
Luckily in my part of the world it should move through rather rapidly. My idea is to move north towards that bad weather, but to stay
sufficiently far enough south to remain out of the deluge. This should allow me on Sunday to continue my ride just after
the front has moved through.
So I have plotted an easy 450 km ride north towards
Cuenca into the GPS - with roads like they have out here,
that should be a piece of cake. The initial scenery is quite impressive this morning:
The haze however should be a dead giveaway that is has turned out to be a scorching hot day today. By noon even at 1000
metres the temperature is at 25 degrees centigrade. Luckily I saw that coming and my route always stays above 600 metres,
so I am mostly fine.
120 km before my intended destination the GPS reports "mains power lost" once again - fuse number four must have blown again.
There are only three items connected to that fuse (which is the one providing constant power even with the ignition off); the GPS,
the dashcam and the power plug on my handlebar. The last item I use to occasionally plug in a transmitter ("Biketraveller FM")
that lets me listen to music via the built-in FM receiver of my Bluetooth headset.
Given that fuse number four is a 10 Amps unit, none of these three items can suck so much power that it would make the fuse
blow. There must be an intermittent short circuit somewhere.
Never mind, the internal battery of the GPS will hold out those last 120 km and providing that I get a room at the hotel I
have chosen in Cuenca I shall have a parking garage available to look into this.
By 1730 hours I am at my destination. There is a noisy wedding going on at the hotel, but yes, they have a room and I can park
the bike in their underground garage. After a quick shower I walk out to the local McDonald's for a quick supper - there is no
time to wait for Spaniards to open their restaurants somewhere shortly before midnight, I have work to do.
I re-wire the GPS bracket and disconnect the radio transmitter and the dashcam entirely. This should hopefully
fix the problem until I am back home the week after next for an intermediate bike service. I'll fix it properly then.
I am down to my last spare 10 Amps fuse, so hopefully this did the trick.
Funny how a "piece of cake" ride ends in myself coming back out of the garage at 2100 hours sweating like a horse and being
completely knackered. Let's hope that at least my weather plans work out without any hiccup.
The checkout time from this hotel is 12 noon. And on Sundays they offer what they call "lazy Sunday"; checkout time at three
in the afternoon - try that anywhere outside Spain...
I need no lay-in, my weather gamble has worked beautifully; the streets outside are still wet, but the rain is disappearing to the
north-east which is the direction I have plotted into the GPS for today - follow the bad weather.
When I set out (late at 10.45 pm, in true Spanish Sunday style) I notice that my late shift yesterday doing repairs not only
fixed the mains supply to the GPS, but also sorted out the problem with my second headlight; both eyes on my Tigger are
shining brightly again. One thing is sure, the bike electrics will need revision during the intermediate service that I've
scheduled for next week.
The rain last night has nicely cooled down the air, and given that I am biking all day today between 800 and 1700 metres
(2600 to 5500 feet) it is no wonder that I wear an extra shirt all day to keep comfortable. Here is a view from the loneliest
part of the ride near
Villarroya de los Pinares on the A226 road:
During the entire ride on this road as well as during my break to take this picture not a single other vehicle was out and
about here.
When I reach the Ebro river valley near
Tortosa at about 1730 hours I have caught
up with the bad weather; heavy showers are
surrounding me, so I call it a day and end the ride after 390 km in the town of
Benifallet. All in all a very enjoyable
ride and the bike runs perfectly and without any further electrical mishaps.
As the small hotel I am in has its rest day today (yes, small hotels in Spain often take a day off, the hotel however is usually open
and it is just the restaurant that is closed) I have to consult my laptop to find out what eating places they have in the
village. And yes, after some research I find there is a hidden Catalan gem just half a mile down the road. The place is
unrecognisable as a restaurant from the outside, but yes, the barman confirms that from 2030 hours food will be served.
The food then turns out to be absolutely spectacular. What a great finish to a great day of biking.
I slept like a rock, but had wisely set the alarm for 0730. Rest day for the hotel means no breakfast, so I can have an "early"
start and be on the road by 0930. The wind is blowing from the north (does the wind ever blow from anywhere else these days?) and
it is bitterly cold. I'm wearing a lot of warm clothing, but after 50 km and being only 700 metres above sea it is
only 11 degrees centigrade and it becomes clear that more warm clothing is needed.
I have to stop and put on my full winter gear. The place I stop is lined by palm trees. This is a novelty for me, I never had
to get into full winter kit under palm trees. I should have taken a photo of doing that, but at the time I didn't realise how
funny this scenario must look.
Wrapped up like a polar bear I continue my ride through cold
Catalonia, taking in the sights along the way:
I knew that it would be cold today, but my alternatives are a warm ride along the overcrowded coast of the
Costa Brava
or a wild and winding ride along empty (though cold) mountain roads, so of course I rather wear an extra wooly rather than
ride along the coast.
At Manresa
however I have the choice of facing the fresh snow in the high Pyrenees and head north into
Andorra or turn
east towards the less crowded coastal road into France. I have opted for the softer ride and head to the balmy waters
of the Mediterranean which I finally reach at
Llançà. Here is the obligatory pic of
Tigger on the beach:
The ride is very pleasant and the temperature at 21 degrees is perfect. The ride along the winding coastal road however is
not so great; lots of traffic, in spite of this being a regular Monday afternoon. Next time I'll battle the snow.
The wind is blowing a gale down here on the coast, so I call it a day after 500 km at
Narbonne and tell my GPS to guide me
to a nearby hotel for the night. The place is the "Auberge de Mandirac". However, the software inside the GPS is obviously
just as much in need of a revision as the electrics on Tigger; the "hotel" is in fact a campground. I ask at the reception
for a respectable hotel nearby, and the Belgian receptionist suggests that I might want to hire one of their chalets instead.
As the minimum rent period is 48 hours I decide on the spot to put in a rest day tomorrow and end the day like this:
The campsite is located at "Le Grand Castelou", the former Roman harbour of Narbo Martius a few miles south of the town. Two-thousand years ago this was a busy harbour, now the place is as quiet as it can get.
Winston Churchill
once said "The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of blessings; the inherent virtue of
socialism is the equal sharing of miseries".
Unfortunately this message has yet to percolate into the brains of some of the hardier members of the French
CGT,
especially those who are currently busy blockading a number of the French refineries providing the fossil fuel your humble
narrator has to burn in order to get from A to B. We will see tomorrow if fuel is available in France in spite of the
current industrial action. I am somewhat doubtful that
Monsieur Hollande
will have to drive to the
Élysée Palace on a
pushbike because of that folly, but we shall see.
In the meantime I had a jolly day at the campsite doing absolutely nothing in the sunshine at 21 degrees while watching Swiss
webcams showing grey, drizzly skies at 13 degrees.
It is overcast but dry today. The Belgian receptionist phones the local petrol station for me - I am in luck, they still
have fuel. I also have to stop in Narbonne to stock up on
the stuff that goes from hand
to hand but never gets warmer, so it is
not before 10 am that I get out of the town.
Cars are queuing at petrol stations in many towns and villages I pass through this morning:
On my way out I didn't ride through the mountains as it was too cold. This time it still is
very cold, but I won't care and head straight for the
Cévennes National Park and the
Massif Central.
The road goes right up to 1500 metres - and it is just 8 degrees up there. Southern France at the end of May...
In the afternoon however the sun comes out and it is about 15 degrees at 1000 metres above sea, the altitude I am biking
at for most of the day. I am also lucky with petrol and find another station at
Florac which still has petrol.
I finish the day after 400 km at a nice hotel near the town of
Le Chambon-sur-Lignon.
The heater in my hotel room is on at full blast...
I have two options to get to Switzerland for that intermediary service; the safe option is to head due west to Italy.
All areas south of the Alps will have fine, stable weather. However, this would mean to cross the Alps twice, first via
the
Mont Cenis pass into Northern Italy and then via one of
the alpine passes from Italy into Switzerland. Given that we had
9 degrees here at Le Chambon this morning at 1000 metres I don't really fancy riding over those mountains.
My second option is to head north through the Rhône valley, then turn eastwards and follow the valley of the
Doubs
river between the
Jura mountains
and the
Vosges and finally into the
Rhine valley. This northern route will keep me
in ideal temperatures, but the air up there is very unstable and rain is very likely over all mountains in the
vicinity. I decide to risk the northern route and set out at 0930 hours.
The ride is uneventful, aside from the odd stopover:
My weather gamble works out very nicely and I make it without getting wet all the way to
Longevelle-sur-Doubs,
a village somewhere between
Besançon and
Montbéliard. There is a Pizza van parked on the roadside, the
van featuring a real
wood burning stove - Health and Safety would get kittens outside of France. The Pizza is delicious and while chatting
to David, the Pizza guy, I enquire about some decent accommodation. He recommends a local "Gite", the French equivalent to
a Bed & Breakfast, which turns out to be very nice. Another pleasant day ends after adding 440 km on the bike.
And by the way, here is the Pizza Van:
Even before that pizza I had some inkling that I had a case of Montezuma's revenge brewing. This evening it gets me rather badly and I spend most of the evening on the toilet instead of chatting with the other bikers that have booked the place - all in all about 8 of them, all from Germany.
It is 15 degrees when I check on the bike this morning at 0800 hours. My insides are feeling much better and I enjoy the hearty
breakfast (a rather unusual event in France, but our host is from
Alsace which explains his own fondness of a decent brekkie).
At 0930 I am off on the last stretch of this part of the journey and by 1330 hours I am back home in Switzerland.
Time to call it a day early and put up my legs? Not for me, no. Two hours after my arrival back home the bike is cleaned of all
the muck, I have removed the wheels and drove them to my
local tyre shop to have the tyres replaced:
By 1800 hours I have also collected the new brake light switch and the process of getting that intermediate service done is well under way.
Below is the usual map with my GPS tracklog.