March 22nd: Monfrague to Guijuelo

Soooooo much happened today… let’s start at the end…

It’s 9:25pm and I just got off my bike about 15 minutes ago… I had planned to stop riding about 20kms ago, but the Albergue that I had on my map was in a deserted little town… I tried to figure it out but there was absolutely nobody around in this whole place… the local bar was no help either as they had no idea who run the Albergue or where they were… that was at about 5pm. I had just climbed the longest climb of the trip so far and drenched in sweat, I decided to keep biking to the next place… stopped at a tourist lodge type thing on the main road and the guy didn’t let me in, said it was closed and directed me to the next town where he said there was another Albergue… another ghost town… a few people, nobody was any help… at least the road was more downhill now than it had been all day….

Getting to sunset now around 7:30pm, I stopped at a potential camping spot off the main road… it was pretty well hidden, but I caught a glimpse of a few people at an industrial lot about 400 metres away… there’s no way they saw me, but had a bad feeling… got back on my bike and kept going… there was a truckers rest stop with a hostel and a bar run by a lady who looked exactly like what you’d imagine a wicked old witch would look like… she shoo-d me away saying she had no more rooms… fair enough but damn she really skipped the pleasantries.

Back on the bike, it’s fully dark now, I have lights but didn’t even know if they were charged… they were… also the most grateful I have to be through all of this, the drivers in Spain are freggin angels!!! They would slow down both ways, wait for me to give them a sign to go past and then go by at a safe distance and speed… thank you thank you muchas gracias! 

I reached the next town, it’s an industrial town and has a hotel, and they take me for a fair 60 euro (with breakfast)…. And that brings me to now.

Rewinding to the start of the day, which felt like it was 2 weeks ago… one thing about this trip is that time feels sooo elongated… even sleeping at night, I feel like the night goes on and on, and the days, they feel like full journeys. I mean here are some of the other things that happened today:

Best night of sleep in the cold camping in Monfrague, found a hose and washed my drive train in the morning, found a rip in my back tire sidewall and patched it with some tent patches and duct tape, coffee in Placencia, found a bike shop for a spare tire in Placencia, rode to 2 Albergues for stamps, had scrabled eggs for lunch in a small town, many gas station stops with ice cream and chocolates, nice gravel section into Beja… first proper switchbacks of my life on the way to Beja… a 20km climb into Beja and a full on 6km climb out of Beja that continued for another few kms after that, I mean I am physically, mentally, emotionally empty. That is all, good night!

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