What a day! Today was my official distance record on a zis fundraising tour. It was also the longest distance cycled without turns in my life. Boy, that was boring. To be clear, I do not cycle such distances (only) because I do not value the cultural treasures of Andalusia. There was simply not much to see other than about 100km of agricultural monocultures: Olives, oranges, lemons, pine trees … dozens of miles each.
I started off at sunrise. It was foggy and chilly. I was happy to have my gloves. After passing through the Western city El Rocio, I had to pay the price for my learning from yesterday. Can you see the detour in the map? Solid 50km!
First, I had to go about 80km northeast against a pretty solid headwind. Then I crossed the Rio Guadalquivir and finally realized why I needed to do the extra miles. On a distance of about 50km there was not a single bridge across the river. Wow!
Then I found a mechanic for Rosinante. After leas than 10 minutes I was back on the road and the gears were magically working again. There seems to be a unspoken law with mechanics that cyclist who are on the road get instant help and mostly for free! Thank you “El Motoriste”!
Finally, I turned south again and had a quick bite of tapas at a bar before I went off to Cádiz.
Insight of the day: When you have a wave of tailwind – ride it!