Thanks for the input with the Madrid decision, although my web master doesn’t seem to have updated the main route yet (tut tut). I have re-routed to not visit Madrid and will have to come back another day. 🙂

Tuesday 21/01/2020 — Day 6

So the camping experiment was a success! I didn’t freeze to death and only had to snack once in the night to keep warm. I did end up over sleeping so it was a much later start then I wanted to… ah well I cooked a yummy breakfast (porridge) and got everything packed up. It was actually snowing! But it doesn’t really photograph well, and thankfully it didn’t settle.

So my route plan has been changed to follow the Camino del Cid, Exile route. It isn’t the most direct route at the start but I want to see some of the sights, which I have tried to capture below…

Ohhh it was a cold day! The wind was still strong but not the gale force winds of the days before. The countryside was amazing very atmospheric with nice mountains and interesting cities. I saw a few monasteries and lots of little villages, including one with a dinosaur underneath the church. Might have to zoom in to see it…

For lunch I ended up eating on the street as the bar/cafe I was aiming for was closed. Sorry for the blurred photo but it was cold 😛 I found a stamping point for the del Cid route card, but sadly there was no stamp. And more cool mountains from the other side. Sitting in the cold I decided I was not brave enough to camp and not feeling 100%, maybe coming down with a cold, so I booked a hotel for the night… hmmm.

I have really enjoyed seeing the wildlife, mainly birds, as I have been cycling. The are rather hard to photo but this one stopped really conveniently on a telephone pole so I could see it. And some other photos of interesting things along the way.

I was really happy with the ride this day. Got a good distance done and wasn’t too cold. At the hotel I also ended up meeting another cyclist, Julio, who is also doing the Camino del Cid!! Both as crazy as each other. We had a lovely evening together chatting about my trip and life, it was good. The photo is of us from the next morning.

Wednesday 22/01/2020 — Day 7

A good night’s sleep after getting to bed quite late. Breakfast was included with the room so I ate as much as possible to fill me up for the day. I kinda didn’t realise how much time had passed so slightly late start… this is becoming a (bad) habit. Said goodbye to Julio, went to get some bread, and got on the way again.

Today has been beautifully and sunny, still cold but less wind and more sunshine. The route has been rolling hills, although it did start with a climb which really warmed me up. I managed to ride it all and I am really happy that the knees seem to be surviving with out getting worse. I reached a tunnel which went beside an awesome gorge and I saw loads of red kites!

Stopped for a snack on the route to make sure I had enough fuel to keep going. Didn’t manage to find any other stamps during the day. There were loads of cool views and castles that I saw along the road, but didn’t stop to visit any (plus many places seem to be closed this early in the year). I had lunch in a sunny street out of the sun. I enjoyed it but I think I confused a Spanish lady with what I was doing.

Fun times — Julio caught up with me and took some photos of me actually riding 😀

Finally I reached Penaranda de Duero and made it to my hotel for the night. This has been a hard hotel to arrange as I had to email for it as neither of us could understand each other on the phone… but nice and safe in a warm room. Sadly still no kettle in the room (a disturbing trend, tea is essential!!) so I may have resorted to using my stove in the shower… shhh!

Plan for tomorrow is to start heading a little more directly to Valencia and wild camp. The weather has improved and it is now not below freezing 🙂 So I have hopefully identified a good spot that will work, and we will see how it goes tomorrow. Fingers crossed!