Tuesday, May 16th 2023.
Malaga to Arroyo Coche.
Day one had us leaving Malaga towards the North West weaving across the city on one way and two way bike paths.
This city is incredibly organized for foot and wheeled traffic with crossing lights and proprietary bike paths where people actually stop their cars to allow you to pass.
We headed north on highway 7075 towards Arroyo Coche about 28 KMs over a mountain pass. This was a wake up call of what this trip is going to feel like each day since many of the ascents are between 8 to 12 degrees for several kilometres in a row. The walking gear option was implement several times since standing on the pedals on a Trekking bike with fully loaded panniers is marginally faster and takes a lot more energy.
This place is as dry as a popcorn fart and the “lake reservoir” in the Googly map didn’t quite look the same as it did on my phone. It was little more than a high mountain gorge with a retaining dam system and an alarmingly small amount of water to service Malaga. I suspect the flora of this region explodes into life with the first few drops of rain since we’ve seen little wildlife other than some goats, dogs, birds and a lizard.
We arrived at the town of Arroyo Cocho mid afternoon and took the “shortcut” into town which ended up being the long-cut with a huge push up the cobblestone lanes towards the only tienda in town. That last pushing of the bikes has expelled the last bit of fuel in our tanks. We finally found the tienda at 2:30 and saw it was open until 3:00 and then shut down until 5:00. So being the Canadian Boy Scouts/Girl Scouts that we are, we stocked up on water ( we were dry for the past hour ) and a couple of soft drinks, an amazing butter honey pastry and of course cerveza for our Air BnB just outside of town.
The Air BnB is a large goat farm with a huge main house, and the view from the back of the casa looks over the mountain at several other smaller farms that have several animals eking a living out of the land. The sounds of hundreds of sheep bleating and ringing their bells is quite wonderful. As is the enormous Queen sized bed that just magnetically attracted my tired ass to it for an hour upon arrival.
Now sitting under the shade of an orange tree listening to the bells and watching green and yellow parrots flying in tandem in the ravine while I drink a Victoria Malaga Cervesa surrounded by song birds in the olive and orange trees, I’m feeling that all of the lack of training I did the winter is starting to pay off 😂
After a couple weeks of food poisonings in Mexico, followed by a few trips to the ER for Myocarditis, Covid, and Shingles over the past four months, I felt this is the time to stress myself out and bike through the high mountain passes in Spain on a fully loaded Trekking bike in the scorching heat! My newly paired Garmin watch was shaking and baking in the sun saying “ abnormally high heart rate” a dozen times today as we ascended from the valleys. I figured that as long at the watch was shaking on my wrist then my heart was still working so I’d call that a success story.
Fran is looking for accommodations for tomorrow as I type this and the sheep just moved from their barn to pasture overnight and it’s about time to get some supper into us and call it an early night. Tomorrow will be a rerun of today but we should be leaving a little earlier in the morning with a temperature high of 23 degrees. It should be all downhilll tomorrow, until the next uphill.
Our host Lorena and her mother created a wonderful supper for us that was so fitting after our first day of riding. The freshness of the fruit in the salad and delicious cheeses were fantastic. Following this up was a lovely desert that was the accoutrement of the early evening.
Thanks Dan ,what a great report,so glad you two are enjoying the adventure! Great photo’s. The food makes one hungry. I thought you were travelling with another couple? Take care of that big heart huh?
I am a stem cell match for Dale so will be donating in July sometime. It’s quite involved but worth it as it leaves one cancer free. Apparently it is rare to find a match in the family and most people have to look to the general public for donations. Dale will have a whole new DNA, mine. 🧐😳Crazy huh? He has to stay isolated in an apartment next to the hospital with a caretaker who also has to stay isolated for 3 months ,Tough but worth it life is precious.
Just got off the freeway from Vancouver on Mon. At 1:00 am. Was sweet to be home. Had a good adventure, saw my son Judd, spent some quality time. Dogs had fun. Now I have to tend to my yard work which I love. I have a fiend named Carole here ,a little French artist who house sits and cat sits for me who hardly understands English but we manage. We go garage sales, museums and antique stores. Drumheller is cool.
My workshop was good,always surprises me how close a group of strangers can become in such a short while with the right environment and permission to be intimate and curious. I needed that!
So good to hear from you Danno, keep me posted 💞the banana