Day 111 – Seville to Pruna

Day 111                                           7th November

68 miles (Seville to Pruna) Average speed  11.1 mph Top speed 31 mph

A great start to the day with a brilliant brekkie at the hostel, buffet of cereal, toast and lots of coffee and orange juice.

I said farewell to Guy and set off east. A much colder day and my fleece was on for the first hour. I got to a junction of four motorways and couldn’t take the bike on any of them. So I turned on my phone and Google directed me to a river path full of glass and alongside a new railway track with thick mud and sand which clogged up my front wheel four times and I had to push for a bit.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then I found a road to Alcala de Guardaira where I took some photos of the footy ground and had a Fanta limon.

Eventually I found the right road: A 375. Long straight 30 miles of fairly flat road. I was overtaken by the army and fire crews who were heading for the base at Las Ramires. Was buzzed several times by what looked like an old fighter plane.

Stopped for a coffee and met Edward who showed me his bike and counted my gears and asked lots of questions. I’ve just seen a photo of us and he is looking at me as if I am crazy!

Really nice guy and when I asked if I could camp he said yes anywhere here! Heard Americans chatting and discovered it’s a US base camp. At this point the mountains were right in front of the moron and I could see it would be a tough couple of hours. As I was drinking coffee instead of Fanta it must also have been getting cold. I found out later that it was three degrees C. I climbed a little to get through Frontera de Moron and and the hard work began. (Ermintrude: I did wonder who you were calling a moron, now I realise it was the place not a person!)

 

 

I had tried to find a supermarket but it was 4.30 and all closed for siesta. Lots of big long climbs and descents. It was good to be back in the mountains but if I was going to make Pruna I was going to have to push really hard to make it before sunset. I stopped just before the junction for Villanueva de San Juan for a coffee and the very extrovert landlord filled my water bottles, as I thought I may need to wild camp, while his mother looked on from her table with an expression that I recognised as what is this crazy fool up to! It was now getting very chilly on the occasional descent and very hot in the many long tough ascents. I turned on my rear light but it didn’t feel enough so I wrapped my head torch around the tent and turned on its red light. I was concerned that my front light had nearly died but the moon was just about bright enough to follow the white lines.

I looked at a couple of wild camp spots but with only pasta, one rotten tomato and a sliver of cheese, not to mention the 3 degrees, I decided this was not an option, especially as it was already dark! My legs were feeling it and it was really tough to push for the last few miles. Then the road, or what I could see of it, opened up and there was a good hill down into Pruna. It would have been much better in daylight and I may have been able to see some of the debris in the road I bounced over. Never the less I had made it. I asked at a bar, where the day’s special was caracoles! (snails), for accommodation and she sent me to Bar Albu where I checked in. Had a fantastic boiling shower to warm up and followed it with pizza and beer.

Then I went to the bar next door, where I met Paul and David, brothers from boro (Middlesborough). We had a great chat and they even paid for my drinks! Beer and Pacharan flowed and I had a great time.

 

Hotel Albinilla €25