Day 60: Tabernas Desert (Cycle)

I was stupid but, somehow I also made a good and a not so good decision today.

The good decision was to cycle the ascent to Calar Alto (Elevation 2101m) from a starting elevation of approximately 271m.

As usual weather was a key concern of mine. Especially wind speeds throughout the duration of the ride and the summit temperature. I shan't bore you with all the details, except to say at times it was very windy (at one point a gust of wind nearly blew my off the road; grabbing hold of the safety barrier stopped this from happening - fortunately I was climbing, so was not going very fast!!); and at the summit the temperature (according to my Garmin) was -0.9°C.

A better decision would have been to delay the ride's start.

The reason it was -0.9°C at the summit was because it was shrouded in freezing fog and the wind was a howling headwind as I approached the summit. Visability was low, but the ground and trees were covered in snow/ice, which would have made for a nice winter wonderland kind of photo. However, that was for someone else to take: there was no way I was stopping for photos. On reaching what I thought was the summit of the climb (the Garmin indicated there was no more climbing to be done: I did ride on a little further just to make sure - the Garmin often lies!) the gradient remained at zero, and there were turning signs for parking and a view point, etc, I was happy or, should I say, desperate to get out of the fog, wind and cold.

At this point my hands, and the right side if my face, were numb with the cold.

On the climb, approximately 7.5 kilometres before the summit, I came across Mirador "La Merendera" (i.e. a view point). At the same time, I could see that I would shortly be moving from sunshine into cloud and so decided to stop and tog-up. Putting on additional layers of clothing was the easy part. The hard part was putting on my winter gloves. This is because they were in my van! Yes, this is when I discovered I'd been very stupid! All I had to cover my fingers were summer gloves: under the circumstances, as much use as "tits on a bull"! By the time I reached the Puerto de La Venta Luisa (Elevation 1970m) - Dear reader I hope you'll forgive me for not providing photographic evidence - my finger thermometers were indicating very cold!

So, numb with cold I started my descent. On reaching the aforementioned Mirador, where the sun was still shining, I dismounted my bicicleta, and laid down on a medium sized dark stone, which had kindly absorbed the sun's radiated heat and was now, in accordance with the 2nd law of thermodynamics, warming me! Perhaps there is a God afterall!

I'm not sure how much time past before I re-mounted my trusty steed, but my hands were in pain for a while as they thawed out and I did manage to eat some food once the nausea subsided.

After that, it was plain sailing back to the van! Whereupon, when I looked back up to where I'd come from, I could see the observatory bathed in sunshine! Perhaps, there isn't a God, but a Joker instead!

And that is why I should have had a Sunday lie in! (Hindsight and all that jazz!). This post would certainly have been much shorter!

Oh yes, in case you were wondering: no, there is no way I was turning back on discovering the glove situation: I'd already climbed for approximately 31 kilometres; this old man was not for turning (to misquote the Tory Witch).

I remain convinced I made a good decision to climb Calar Alto today: not having winter gloves with me was an oversight!; and, if I'd left a little later the skies would have been clear at the top: Unfortunately the weather gods weren't so kind to me as they could have been today! So it goes. Perhaps it was just that I climbed too fast! But unlikely!

• Distance driven: 0
• Distance cycled: 78 km
• Weather: Mainly sunny (except for summit when I was there!), quite to very windy, temperature rising to 16°C.

Today's route (Next time I'd start in Gergal and do a loop through Calar Alto, rather than an out and back again. Especially, as the section between today's start and Gerbal is, perhaps, best done once, at most).