Bullas to Totana
After a poor night’s sleep due to sunburn and assorted noises from the street the day started with a complex route through town on what seemed to be market day.Our destination was the bike shop to replace my broken spoke and to purchase more for the next inevitable breakage. Fantastic service for the fix including a full wheel balance and 3 extra spoke for 12 euros.
Our route out of town proved too much for Mr Garmin and we had to retrace our steps before finding the excellent traffic free way heading east towards Mula..
The Via Verde (green way) Noroeste led us, with a little off piste bushwhacking to towards El Niño and on to Mula and Pliego. At some point on today’s ride Nick discovered that his pannier rack had cracked badly in several places.
An improvised repair with cable ties proved to be only a short term solution.
Seeking shade on the long pull out of Pliego
The biggest climb of the day was to be the 5.5 mile slog from Gebas up past El Berro to a highpoint up in the Sierra de Espuna mountains. I had considered bypassing this and meeting up with Nick further south, a plan almost guaranteed to end badly.
Foolishly I decided to do the climb, with dwindling water supplies and at the hottest part of the day I reluctantly decided after half a mile that this was a climb too far for me. Nick too, being worried about his rapidly disintegrating pannier rack decided that maybe the climb was for another day.
We found a bar within a mile to replenish our fluids but they were too busy with a function to supply us with any lunch.
Due to the heat we ate very little during the rides, I just had a bag of some salty corn stuff to try to replenish the lost salts. It was tooth breaking and almost indigestible without copious amounts of water.
The water in my drinking bottles was generally about the temperature of a warm bath, not at all refreshing but literally life saving.
By late afternoon we approached the outskirts of Totana. Nick had already tried to effect a repair to his pannier rack using sticks but he now resorted to rummaging in every roadside bin to acquire suitable materials for a more lasting repair.
On the edge of town we had to bypass the only hotel I was aware of because Nick wanted to find a Ferriterea (Ironmongers) to buy some bolts. A long hot ride into town brought us to a shop but we had a 45 minute wait before reopening time at 5pm. A 2nd and bigger shop was needed to finally supply the necessary hardware for a repair. The locals said there were no hotels in town so it was a further few miles in the searing heat to reach some accommodation for the night.
A couple of cold ones and the tastiest Albondigas (meatballs) tapa brought us back to some semblance of normality.
No respite from the sun is forecast for tomorrow and with the biggest climb of the tour in the heat of the afternoon the final day had an element of uncertainty!
2 Wheels and a Walking Stick 