Day 58: Tabernas (Drive/Cycle)
Today's goal was to climb up to the Collado de la Madera, elevation 1608 metres.
Yet another day with some off-road, which turned out to be less than forecast by my route planning App (ridewithgps). It should have been 16.8 kilometres, but was only about 10.2 kilometres. To be honest, I wasn't disappointed to have fewer off-road kilometres. Indeed, when I turned off of the main road and discovered it was tarmacked, I was pleased and thought to myself wouldn't it be nice if it was like this all the way to the summit. As you already know, it wasn't.
The main difference between this off-road section, and the previous ones this year, was half of the distance was downhill. Previously they'd been almost all uphill. I prefer to climb off-road than to descend: descending is very much more dangerous than climbing, especially when riding on 35mm slick tyres on loose gravel and dirt!
Cleaning my bike this afternoon I noticed quite a few stone chips on my carbon fibre wheel rims! I think I may have to reconsider the type of off-road riding I do.
Anyway, the off-road cycling to Collado de la Madera wasn't all that interesting, enjoyable, not even a decent view, or a Collado sign! Just this "level of danger of fire today is" sign:
But there was a mast!
I did pass a fire warning sign earlier on the climb, and it looked as though it had been used for target practice!
Earlier I passed through La Cerra:
And Senes
And here's a view of the climb that awaited me following my descent from the Collado de la Madera:
The it was just about downhill all way to Tabernas. Doubt I'll do the climb again, but it was on the list of climbs to do, so I'm glad I did it.
- Distance driven: 30 miles
- Distance cycled: 64 kilometres
- Weather: Sunny, light breeze, @ midday T = 25°C
- Location: Google Maps
Today's route: