Friday, May 19th 2023.
Lucena to Cabra, Montilla to Cordoba.
Back in the saddle at 8:30 am to navigate the narrow roads out of Lucena using the Google bike routes.
After a nice downhill coast (these historic sites are most often situated on the highest lookout point in the area for defence) we picked up out first Vias Verdes (Green Route) which are old railway beds either paved or in gravel, now repurposed as walking and biking paths.
I’m pretty sure I’d be faster riding one of these flashy bikes.
Not too far out of Aguilera de La Frontera after visiting the Alex Bike store to get the squeaky crank shaft serviced on Fran’s bike ( it didn’t help but it was a great interaction of trying to explain in Spanish what the problem was ) we headed downhill for a wonderful 4 Km jaunt through two clover leafs and on to the main highway.
Coming up out of the cloverleaf my bike chain broke into three pieces and spit itself out onto the pavement. After a few minutes of taking refuge under the shade of an olive tree in the field deciding what to do next, we tried to compile a message through Google translate to call a cab to pick us up to take us to Cordoba. Here’s our SOS attempt.
From out of nowhere, three bicycle amigos showed up and each one of them had a bike chain repair kit. Unfortunately, their repair kits are for a different size chain and we only get a hundred yards up the road before it breaks again.
I pushed my bike a couple of K up the road to a shady treed area and two of the cyclists drove 5 Km into town with my broken chain and brought a new one back from the local bike store and saved the day. We followed them to the store and paid for a new chain and bought some chain lube, thanked our silver haired bike saviours ( the youngest being 65 yrs old ) and carried on for the remaining 50 plus Ks to Cordoba
After a brief stop at a town for some fries, coke, and a beer, we were looking at a veeeeery long uphill just prior to the downhill descent into Cordoba. Near the apex of the road we saw a dozen or more Storks nesting high upon the hydro towers, each occupied by a mother and fledgling seemingly happy to be living amongst the fields of barley and wheat.
Finally, the downhill was within sight and I could swear we were biking through the rolling hills of Saskatchewan, other than the incredible highway system with a priority bicycle lane, Romanesque architecture, Audi’s, Porche’s, Mercedes Benz’s, and distinct lack of flag waving Freedumb fighters in lifted 4×4 one ton over-fueled diesel trucks. Ok, so maybe not Saskatchewan, or anywhere else Canada really, but rolling wheat and barley fields nonetheless.
Clearly, paying $2.20 a litre for diesel kind of puts a damper on things around here.
Well maybe not for some people. I can’t imagine this person asking what the mileage is like in this Ferrari.
If I could just put a bike rack on the back of that bad boy we’d be making some good time.
We rolled into Cordoba at 5:15 only 15 minutes off our mark to meet David at our BnB for what was an epic day of 74 Kms, a broken chain (and sore ass!) but we did it!
What an incredible place Cordoba is with three or more successive conquering people’s architecture and customs steeped in history upon themselves and situated on a river system surrounded by fertile soil. We went from sea level four days ago with palm trees to Olive orchards, to fields of Onions, Potatoes, high mountain plateaus completely devoid of agriculture and water to more Olive orchards on the lee side.
Descending for the next two days, we’ve discovered incredible towns along the way that rival the beauty of the large city’s and provide all the luxuries of modern civilization. The agriculture has now turned into KMs of olives, grapes, wheat, barley, sunflowers and oranges.
Being a very dry year, the crops are two months ahead of time and what would normally be orange trees convered in white blossoms throughout Cordoba, are now oranges littering the streets exhausted from the heat. The scent of oranges, roses and olives permeates the air amongst the infrequent rain showers throughout the evening.
After an evening of exploring by foot, we headed back to our casa just inside the historic center. Tonight there’s midnight fireworks kicking off a celebration for the weekend which should be spectacular in every way.
Buenas Noches