March 17th: Galaroza to El Real de La Jara

Today was a good day on the bike, headed out lazily from Guillermo’s place and had a companion puppy dog with me for the first 3kms… until I got a bit concerned that she was not turning around… then I walked her back a bit and she seemed to know what was going on and went back the way we came…

The morning started out with a bit of hike a bike on an actual hiking trail that really you couldn’t ride on, but I was feeling strong and relaxed and just took it… it didn’t last as long as the torture last week and the rest of the morning was a downhill cruise on a beautiful dust track…

The past few days, I have turned on my bike computer and then put it away so that I can’t see the kms/speed/gradient…. I think this has made a huge impact on my enjoyment factor and I think I will continue to do it going forward… just gotta remember not to lose the damn thing… 

Today was a decision making day… stay on the EDT which has been tough but rewarding as well, or go another way… north on a pilgrimage route called Camino de Santiago… I can literally feel my brain heat up trying to make this choice… and I still haven’t come up with a good reason to do either… I think I will go north because as much fun as the first 2 stages of the EDT have been, I’m kind of bored of it and eating from convenience stores and not being around people… my stomach also agrees that some proper meals would be a good idea….

So I’m gonna stop living like a heathen and find a balance between civility, culture and exploration… as well as some good riding… will be tough without a plan but fuck it, what’s the worst that could happen…

I also got news that my tenants are moving out of my apartment on the 1st of June… I was really hoping to head to London or something for the rest of the summer… I can make an effort to try to rent out the place remotely, or I guess the universe is saying go home for a while… these are too many decisions to make for one day… my brain is melting… going to try to sleep as it is 11pm and I’ve been in bed for 3 hours just fretting.

Edit (one year later): I remember this day pretty clearly. I couldn’t find a place to stay and I was racing against the sun. I went through a sleepy town and asked people about places around there to stay, and some of the locals helped me by calling their friends who ran hotels in the area. They were going for One Hundred Euro for the night and I really didn’t want to shell out that kinda cash. I found a hostel on Bookings.com in this small town called El Real De La Jara - it was a working town, a bit sketch but quite nice actually. I walked through it and found a grocery store and found some solid food to take back to my hostel. One thing I remember on my way to the hostel was I cycled down through this national park that looked like it had a campground… I explored and eventually couldn’t figure it out. I was angry at first for spending money on a hostel room, when there was a campground on the way, and then relieved when the campground really didn’t exist.

The guy running the hostel was this older Spanish man that didn’t speak any English. His name was Manuel. I had to call him to come open up the place because I was the only one there that day. I thought he would be a bit cranky for the effort, but he was actually completely the opposite. We chatted for a good half an hour, and he spoke to me in straight Spanish, but was so expressive and emotive that I could get a good chunk of what he was saying. He told me about the Camino, and that this was an Albergue… that conversation changed the course of my entire trip. I am so thankful for Manuel in El Real De La Jara….

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