Hi Simon, look like the party on saturday nigth was a nice one. Very nice pics indeed
I would like to stay there but I had the sunday booked.
Have a safe trip mate, it was very nice to meet you again.
Hi Ramón,
A pleasure to meet you again even though for too a short a time! The fiesta was great but left me feeling my age - the lovely Vanesa accepted my slightky drunken invitation to ride out as my 'paquete' (Sp. = pillion) on Sunday morning, but I bottled out on the day because I was so tired - what a dunce, she wouldn't have stood a chance twenty thirty years ago
See you again soon I hope - good luck with your new venture!
Simon
The best way to make your dreams come true is to wake up.
Paul Valery (obscure, dead French philosopher!)
OK, back tracking a bit to the rest of Monday morning after leaving Jan and Fuli:
Riding across La Mancha, the region to the south of Madrid, seems to go on forever - awe inspring rather than interesting.
Roads 'disappear' into the horizon .. .
isolated villages seem to highlight the loneliness.
Much of the plains are mega-agriculture but there is plenty of 'dehesa' - open woodland that in detail goes on equally 'forever'! After a few hours too much of this my mind began to wander . . .
No surprise I bagan to emulate a famously mad person - or was he! It was a genuine surprise for me to come across Don Quixote's famous windmills - or did they find me?
The best way to make your dreams come true is to wake up.
Paul Valery (obscure, dead French philosopher!)
The day was muggy and hot with a terrible sky for photography (this was to get mich worse!) so I only intended a bimble on the back lanes. But this trail was so lovely and inviting I decided to follow it until I encountered any even slightly difficult bits - I didn't even have any water with me let alone a useful map - then it crossed a pass into another valley with a view over to a village.
No doubt about it, this was a 'route'!
Back on the black stuff it got too hot for more trails and I was completeky unprepared, so I decided to do a 'recce' of the beginnings and ends of trails. There are hundreds around here - and only I know where they are, tee hee!
The roads aren't bad herwabouts either . . .
. . . better and better!
Culture vultures will like stuff like this - there's a new word for film location tourism that I heard on radio 4 this very morning, but I've forgotten it already!
That little trail looks interesting !!!! did you have a look ????
But I didn't do this!!!
Instead i did a bit of research and found this . . .
South of the Sierra de Alcaraz - and over the border into Andalusia - the Sierra de Segura is a 'serious' natural park region. All of the trails are closed . . .
. . . except this one! The forest rail starts in good condition - almost too good - for forestry vehicles. The only snag being huge potholes made by heavy vehicles in the otherwise hard pressed gravel surface.
But it leads into a wonderñand of limestone outcrops - my favourite landscape!
The main tragedy of the day was the terrible weather - broiling hot and humid conditions made riding really hard and the 'calima' cloud of fine dust from the Sahara totally absorbed a fantastic landscape I almost hated to take photos and I new that none would even hint at how lovely the landscape was!
The best way to make your dreams come true is to wake up.
Paul Valery (obscure, dead French philosopher!)
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