Day 65: Retamar (Cycle)

A relatively slow day on the bike battling high winds and traversing unpaved tracks and carreteras en mal estado (badly surfaced roads).
Here's the track leaving Retamar:

This is part of EuroVelo 8: The 7,530 kilometre Mediterranean Cycle Route.

It even routes on to the beach - with my 32mm slick tyres, I walked it! A Fat Bike would have been the weapon of choice in this instance!

After about 10 kilometres of unpaved track it was time for some paved roads for another look at the lighthouse:

Then it was on to the poorly surfaced road, which soon became a poorly surfaced road with a 13% gradient for about 1 kilometre! Here's a photo looking back towards the lighthouse:

At the pass, the "road" transitioned to dirt track for the descent, which I was pleased to see wasn't so steep!

After about 2.5 hours I'd cycled approximately 31.5 kilometres and was thankful that I'd finished the off-road stuff and, thus, I'd be cycling on smooth tarmacadam surfaces for the rest of the route!

If you look at the cycle route you'll see that there is a short 2.6 kilometre out and back that I included in today's ride because it is designated a "scenic route" by Michelin and, out of curiosity I wanted see why it was scenic. Well, all I can say is that it may have once been a scenic route but, now, any scenicness that may exist is obscured by the agricultural industrial units that straddles both sides of the road! So you needed both cycling yourself!

And finally, Liverpool fans at it again!

• Distance driven: 0
• Distance cycled: 62 kilometres
• Weather: When I awoke and checked the forecast there was intermittent rain in the offing. When I checked it about 2 hours later, it was good cycling weather. Well, almost, the winds were about 30 - 40 kph (approx. 19 - 25 mph). Temperatures out on the road was about 21 - 24°C (according to the Garmin (navigational aid)).

Today's route: