Day 104: Cazorla (Cycle)

Leaving Cazorla:

Through Qesada

All the way up to the Puerto de Tiscar, which is a great wee climb of about 11 kilometres with a steady gradient of about 6%, interesting geology and scenic views:

The descent is even better. I'd like to climb the descent and descend the climb!

Here's a photo of a "nice" bridge, I do like when I encounter examples of quality civil engineering:

A late lunch stop in Hueso.

Late, due to not awaking until 9 o'clock! (I tend not to use an alarm clock, simply because if I'm tired, I should be asleep! And if I'm not tired I'll wake up .... so there's no need for one!)

On leaving Hueso I could see that I was heading towards big black clouds, which is never something you wish to see when out cycling. Miraculously, as I drew closer to where the dark clouds were, the sky was brightening and, by the time I reached the wet, drying out, roads on the outskirts of Peal de Becerro, the rain had passed. The roads remained damp, to varying degrees, for the 15 kilometre or so to Cazorla.

And just before I arrived back at the van I noticed this rather interesting house:

I think that if I hadn't stopped to take this photograph I may have had my bike "put to bed for the night" before the rain came down. Yep, my luck had finally run out just as I had returned to the van and was saving the ride on the Garmin (navigational aid and recorder of cycling activity). As it was, by the time I'd, removed all the removable bits from the bike, secured the bike to the bicycle rack, double locked it, put the bike cover on and applied additional securing bungie rope, I was showered!

Oh yes, and by the way, according to the Garmin, I have become acclimatised to an elevation of 850 metres! ( That was yesterday, I just forgot to mention it!).

• Distance driven: 0
• Distance cycled: 102 kilometres
• Weather: Mostly cloudy, some late morning/early afternoon sunshine, dark clouds, some rain and thunder (there may have been lightning, but I didn't see any during my in van shower, when the thunder occurred) and from about 6.30 pm, it was nice and sunny! In other words, Scottish weather!

Today's route (I would definitely recommend cycling the climb to Puerto de Tiscar from either direction):