30st March 2002 - 19.27 GMT

Back to the roots - Part 2

3rd day - 26th Feb 2002

House in the country

Camp3 - Monterrubio de la Serena - Belalcázar - Hinojosa del Duque - Camp4 near Peñarroya Pueblonuevo

The morning was rather uninspired. I started pushing up for almost 1 kilometer, then one pause after the other. The landscape had nothing special, annoying wind, the bike making some nasty noises. The morning dew of 3 nights was enough to turn the once shiny bike chain into something rusty red. Arriving in Monterrubio I needed to get some lubrication and found it at a gas station. The guy was nice and I realized, that it was my first conversation with any local since the start of my trip. Off I went and had a lot of pleasant kilometers; the usual picture with ups and downs, sheep, cows and bulls, no traffic and no people. In the permanent struggle to avoid the waste of valuable resources I had an idea to get some water for washing purposes (public fountains are very rare, I saw only one with drinkable water - near Barrancos - and only two other places for washing water - near El Hojo and in Hinojosa-), as I didn't wanted to use my expensive mineral water for that. People have the very bad habit only to drink cold water in summer, so it's common that they through half full bottles out of the car and that's where I came in.

Open spaces

After 10 minutes of scanning to the left and the right of the road I had already enough water (around one liter), to take a shower. Well, on this day the landscape, as mentioned above, had nothing special to offer, and even worse, I missed 2 times directions. That's why I drove as far as Villanueva del Duque rather then directly from Monterrubio to Fuente Obejuna. These mistakes "cost" 30 or 40 kilometers of detour, but also gifted me with a very nice stretch of road. Leaving Villanueva roadwork were in full scale, so a large part of the road was dirt track and, as usual, almost non-existent traffic. Ah, sweet memories of old times. All the good feelings came up and I realized the freedom and independence the bicycle can provide. For the night I was offered again this beautiful new, spacey sewer tubes. I could choose from three, one better than the other. An enormous full moon came out and I prepared for dinner.

4st day - 27th Feb

Camp4 near Peñarroya - El Hojo - Fuente Obejuna - Camp5 near Alanis

After a pleasant and quiet night, I woke up with the birds and soon after roll-out I reached Peñarroya, where I bought some coke and Tuna. To avoid the traffic I choose to ride into the direction of El Hoyo. Soon I discovered, that it was something like a mountain hamlet. On this climb I was lucky to spot a fountain besides the round with plenty of fresh water pouring out. "Fuente "La Herumbrosa" se inauguro el año 1910" ("La Herumbrosa", founded in the year 1910) A great chance to finally wash my hair and some stinky clothes. The following kilometers were slow, to much wind and some lack of inspiration, but again wide, open space everywhere. Reaching Fuente Obejuna meant, that it was time to do some climbing again, because now it was time to cross the Sierra Morena.

Entering Sierra Morena

Man, this uphill was real fun. The road was so tiny and twisted, it felt almost like cross-country. Nobody around, an old bridge, abounded houses, forest everywhere, some falcons. Real nice. But it was getting late and I felt that soon I would be rather exhausted. Things could become tricky, because to the left and the right only abyss , fences, trees or bushes. And going up. So, when I saw the first possibility for a camp, I pulled over and finished the day. It was a small dirt road and to my surprise I found there a bulldozer. He provided me with some wind protection, fixing points for the bivack sack and the oil to lubricate the noisy pedals.

Camp Alanis

5st day - 28th Feb

Camp5 near Alanis - Cazalla de la Sierra - El Pintado - El Real de la Jara - Camp6 near Stª Ollala
Light rain begun to fall in the early morning and again I tried to find some protection under the bivack sack. It was all gray and pretty obvious, that I wouldn't gain anything by sitting around.
So I packed my stuff, got visit from two mechanics, which were looking for the bulldozer, had a chat with them and learned, that it was national holiday, dia de andalucia. Should this be a problem to get some food or water ? I was running pretty low on stock and had to re-supply sooner then later.

Camp Alanis View

Alanis was pretty dead, I just called Ros at home, and pushed on to reach Cazalla. This was pretty easy, because the road after Alanis is very good and has nothing to do with the roller coaster through the sierra.
Cazalla was real cool: open shops, plenty of supplies and I spent 2   alone in sweeties.
The weather continued to be cloudy, wet, but not really rainy. A lot of easy kilometer followed after Cazalla, until I reached the El-Pintado-Dam. Really impressing to look down from the edge. Then the climbing started again, worries came up, if I could leave the sierra behind and find a good camp for the night.

El Pintado

The humming of the power lines sounded like heavy rain falling. That deceived me more then once.
Getting near the pass it became unpleasant, fog came in - or was I actually in the clouds ? - and vision was around 5 or 10 meters. This was a real handicap on the way down, because I had to brake all the time, too afraid to slip in a corner. What a relief, when I finally exited the clouds and pick up the speed.

In the clouds

Leaving El Real behind, I started the search for a nice dry, camp. During the next kilometers I was looking for a comfortable sewer and had to check out half a dozen until I found a suitable one. A 1995-model, so I had to clean spider webs and some dirt before I could make myself comfortable, cooked some garlic tuna rice and went to sleep. Around 4 am it started lightly to rain. Well, and I was lying in a sewer...
Fortunately there was some sand left in the sewer from former rainfalls. It formed some kind of island, where I retreated until the break of day. I called this camp later "Sonho meu no esgoto" or "My dream home in the sewer".

Sonho meu no esgoto

Read Part 3 HERE