We finally made it to the 2nd break day. We completed 3 days of cycling, a break day and then 5 more days of cycling. In 8 days of cycling we put in 650miles and 31,000 ft of elevation! If you compare this to our first bike tour a year prior in India, the whole trip was only 450 miles over 10 days of cycling with close to 0 elevation!
There was a few options we were mulling over for the last break day. We were thinking of going skiing or hiking on the Sierra Nevada. It would have been really cool to ski near the Mediterranean Sea. The mountain range is in the UNESCO-honored Sierra Nevada National Park, has an 11,500 peak which is the highest in Spain and one of the highest in all of Europe. The other idea was to visit the country of Gibraltar which is connected to Spain on its South East coast. Obviously from the title of the blog post we went to hit the rock! You can read all about Gibraltar here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gibraltar We set out from the airbnb and headed towards Gibraltar. The overall trip would take us 90mins each way to drive. We stopped in Malaga to have some breakfast, pix are below. Once getting to Gibraltar, passports came out and with a few minutes to check out 00Shruti's passport we were in. We headed right to the rock, and started our climb after we determined that the chair lift was being cleaned for the next 2 weeks :) Before we get in to the pictures below is the strava link of our climb and the elevation profile.
We made it. This is from the road about 10mins from the Spain/Gibraltar border
Notice Shruti is the only one leaning cooley cross-legged on the cannon, my dad is fake holding it up and Matty bhai is taking the brunt of it as our sole UK rep
ello ello .. pip pip
Windsor suspension bridge
Matty was the master photographer of the monos
The Barbary monkeys were really cool to see. For some reason my dad kept trying to get them to climb on him. They never did. #awkward
A little blurb from wikipedia:
The Barbary Macaque population in Gibraltar is the only wild monkey population in the European continent. Although most populations in Africa are facing declining populations due to hunting and deforestation, the population of Barbary monkeys in Gibraltar is growing. At present, some 300 animals in five troops occupy the Upper Rock area of the Gibraltar Nature Reserve, though occasional forays into the town may result in damage to personal property.[1] As they are a tailless species, they are also known locally as Barbary apes or rock apes, despite being monkeys
After going through hundreds of pictures Ive noticed someone does an open mouth smile. :)
Climbing down ... #openmouth
#OMouth :D
Trafalgar Cemetary
we look very suspicious
pretty good fish and chips
PIc of the rock as we were leaving
On the way back we stopped in Marbella for the sunset and the customary pigging out :)
crepes, chocolate and bananas ... yes we are pigs
the crew ... #oneeye
and this is why you dont fall asleep in the car .. i think we have about 25 pix like this. #slumpy #flycatcher
We made it back and for the life of me I cant remember what we had for dinner that night. Maybe we made rice? Anyways... there are two days left to cycle until we make it to the tip of Spain and the southern most location of continental Europe. Yes, very cool :)
Lets do it!!
love these!
They love their pig products in Spain. This was JUST the ham section in one of the supermarkets
This was just one of those whacky days where anything and everything can happen. We started out with 3 of us riding, one of us swapped out and then I was the only one to finish! But first the ride stats!!
Ride Statistics
Date ....................... Sunday January 15th 2018
Departure Time ............. 7:24AM CET* Departure Temperature ...... TBD Time in Motion ............ 7:40:09 / 73% Time at Rest ............... 2:53:42 / 27% Total Time ................. 10:33:51 Arrival City/Town .......... Herradura
Arrival Time ............... 5:57 PM CET
Arrival Temperature ........ TBD
Total Miles Cycled ......... 76.2 mi Shruti Miles Cycled ........ 47.73 mi
Total Elevation ............ 5,494ft
Steve Avg Pace|Max Speed ... 10.1 mi/h | 35.3 mi/h Matt Avg Pace|Max Speed .... Missing In Action
Shruti Avg Pace|Max Speed .. 9.4 mi/h | 25.7 mi/h Dad ... not sure how i calculate "time lost" Eric ... not sure how I calculate "time crying"
* Central European Time
Tour Statistics
I decided to be extra nerdy and keep a cumulative running total of some key stats. :)
Total Miles Cycled ......... 649 mi
Total Elevation ............ 30,932 ft There was a new 3 starting the day off. Myself, my dad off a 1 day mandated break and Shruti. Matty needed to rest his knees along with Eric. We left Roquetas de mar in the morning and needed to make a beeline out of the city over to our favorite road N-340a. If we took the time to see what road we cycled the most, I would probably say 65-75% was on the N-340a throughout the trip and we probably could have stayed on it the whole way. So I was in charge of the routing, I dont know why because I am no good at it, but I gave it a go. I think on the day we made 2 wrong turns, the first was leaving the apartment and I was a bit turned around :) and the second was not my fault, but it did lead us to a bit of a climb which was painful. :) More on that later. So we head to the N-340 and thankfully most of the road leading there is along a bike path which was nice.
proof we found at least one site!!!
We made our first food pitstop 27 miles in, in the town of Adra which was quite built up, which is a bit further than we typically cycle before stopping, but it was comfortable. The weather warmed up and so far so good. Everyone was in good spirits. Not only were we making good time, we also took our first selfie with a "site"! The Wall of Adra. https://andaluciarustica.com/en/wall-of-adra.htm I point this out, because prior to the trip, we went through extensive planning and building timelines around our route and lining up sites to see and how long we could stop etc. That went all out the window when we started hitting horrible road conditions and crazy elevations.
blurry food selfie
After leaving Adra we peeled out down the coast. There is not too much to say other than the weather was gorgeous, we had to strip off all of our layers, the beach scenery was fantastic, we were making good time, taking selfies and the elevations were manageable. It was a really nice first half. The 2nd half we entered the twilight zone that ended up in Eric and my dad having to be picked up on the road. First some pictures.
The wall is about 50ft high with nothing behind her. This is where we almost lost shruti.
I half flipped out when she was on there. I went in to full #dadmode
i like this one ... and another site!!
another site!!
I miss these cafe con leches ... and my 3 azucars
cap thief!!
If i look you in the eyes, you will not see me stealing your carrot cake ... focus... fooooocuuuussss
So at the half way point, Eric and Matty bhai came and met us at the cafe. Eric wanted to give it another go on the bike and made a switch with Shruti. Matty presented me with a bike bag for our official FB friendship day. We only had about 30 miles to the end. What could possibly go wrong? Basically everything. The weather continued to be gorgeous, the scenery continued to be fantastic. We actually saw these mountain goat or deer up on the top. Was really cool. I am not going in to the nitty gritty of the painful end, but I will sum it up. Eric's teenage knees were not ready yet and he called Matt for a pick up. My dad got lost, cycled past the town and called Matt for a pick up. I stayed on a road that I shouldnt have, climbed a giant mountain in to the town and made it to the airbnb. The only scorcher to make it! Great team work by Matt and Shruti picking up the youngest and oldest members of the team. :) Tomorrow would be a break day which was well needed after 5 days in the saddle. We are off to another country and a really cool "wonder" of the world. Gibraltar and it's rock! Let's do it!!
the locals nicknamed him "el flato"
shruti was in pain because the fork was made froma very dense Spanish metal and actually weight about 14lbs
with all of the strength gained from lifting the heavy fork, Shruti ripped
off the leg of one of the tables and was going to beat matt to death
Matty snatched it and peppered his pizza
Matt and Shruti taking artsy photos
Matt and Shruti taking artsy photos before they had to save my dad and Eric
When someone challenges me that I cant get in to a childrens
toy car ride in Spain, I take that challenge very seriously!
We are all happy tomorrow is a break day! Off to Gibraltar!!
There was a few options we were mulling over for the last break day. We were thinking of going skiing or hiking on the Sierra Nevada. It would have been really cool to ski near the Mediterranean Sea. The mountain range is in the UNESCO-honored Sierra Nevada National Park, has an 11,500 peak which is the highest in Spain and one of the highest in all of Europe. The other idea was to visit the country of Gibraltar which is connected to Spain on its South East coast. Obviously from the title of the blog post we went to hit the rock! You can read all about Gibraltar here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gibraltar
