S2 : Day 7 - Our first and only Via Verde

someone is a bit sleepy

The night before Shruti and I discussed leaving an hour early. As a part of being a team, i've kept a close eye on making sure people are either partnered up, are sort of sandwiched in the middle, or we do the cycle and wait method to ensure no one gets too far ahead. We also had a few additional thoughts around who holds the bike pump. We established that it should be the slowest. It sounds like we are punishing them, or using “tough love”, but it was really about placement in the line. If you are the slowest and get a flat and dont have the pump, you are going to be stuck there until we get tired of waiting and backtrack to come and get ya. Long story short i didnt like the idea of someone going out early morning, in the dark, alone. The plan was for us to wake up early and try to get as much distance as possible. As you can see from the picture and my extra squint selfie - I was a bit tired. 😊

Shruti got a nice one ... wow

So everything was going beautifully, we were making progress, taking way too many sunrise selfies, trying to identify the vegetables growing on the sides of the road, and of course we had to make one wrong decision that put us back about 30mins and have us give our bikes a hot shower.

road veggies

One of my glamour shots

First... the daily stats!

Ride Statistics
Date ....................... Friday January 13th 2018
Strava Link ................ https://www.strava.com/activities/1355420034
Departure City/Town ........ Los Alcazeres
Departure Time ............. 7:07AM CET*
Departure Temperature ...... TBD
Time in  Motion ............ 8:55:36 / 73%
Time at Rest ............... 3:22:01 / 27%
Total Time ................. 12:17:37
Arrival City/Town .......... Las Marinas
Arrival Time ............... 7:24 PM CET
Arrival Temperature ........ TBD

Total Miles Cycled ......... 89.4 mi
Total Elevation ............ 2,361ft

Steve Avg Pace|Max Speed ... 10 mi/h   | 28.6 mi/h
Matt Avg Pace|Max Speed .... 11.5 mi/h | 26.8 mi/h
Shruti Avg Pace|Max Speed .. 9.8 mi/h  | 23.5 mi/h
* Central European Time

Tour Statistics
I decided to be extra nerdy and keep a cumulative running total of some key stats. :)
Total Miles Cycled ......... 502 mi 
Total Elevation ............ 21,091 ft

Like i mentioned above, the first NNN miles were pretty smooth ... except for when we rode our bikes through a giant cement drain pipe, in the dark, to pass under a highway. 🤦🏻‍♂️

Then we took one of googles “satellite roads” which went through a farm, which wouldnt have been too bad, but it either rained or they hosed it down for 18hours and we experienced the cliche’ “stuck in the mud”. Not only was it so bad that we had to get off of our bikes and push, but it was so bad i had to carry my bike and then come back for Shruti’s! The mud completed filled the forks between the tires and the wheels wouldnt even roll any longer. I quickly finger poked the dirt so we could get rolling, Shruti captured it on digital media, we turned to each other and said that we couldnt... but really could believe that just happened... and then set off again on our route. Now all the while i was in communication with matt, giving him our location and telling him to take the long way around.

The morning mess

Thankfully we came upon a gas station and learning from day 1 i knew they would have a self wash station. Same as my dad used. So we pressure washed off the bikes with some hot soapy water, made a mess in the station store and left some muddy tracks... and i forgot my water bottle! 😐

Wouldnt you know it, coming down the road were the other half of our quartet. About 20mins earlier, daredevil leon was runnoff the road and injured his thumb... we wouldnt find out that the zombie looking appendage was actually fractured! Have to give him some respect for cycling with a fracture . We hightailed it to Fuente Alamo de Murcia and had a pretty good bfast. If i remember correctly it was a full plate of eggs, patates and ham for the two boys in red, lots of bread and jam for Shruti and i believe i kept to my standard tostada. I was also told by the waitress that my Spanish was bad. :|

bfast - it was cold and these smiles are forced :) especially after the mud

After we left breakfast we immediately started cycling on a Via Verde. What is a "green way" you ask, well let me take a quote right from the source:

Vías Verdes (literally, "green-ways") are old disused railway lines that have been recovered and reconditioned for use by walkers and cyclists. Exploring them is a different, enjoyable and environmentally friendly way of getting to know Spain, its culture and its landscapes. This is an alternative ideal for all ages, that respects the environment and brings together sport and the great outdoors. Sounds good? .

Here is a site: http://www.viasverdes.com/en/principal.asp

And I even managed to find the maps and link for the one we did: http://www.viasverdes.com/en/itineraries/itinerario.asp?id=86 

And the official Spain website [ i think :) ] http://www.viasverdesregiondemurcia.es/

Before we left for the trip we had reviewed this site and wanted to plug as many of these green ways in to our route as possible, but they were more inland than on the coast. I was really happy we were able to cycle at least one because it was absolutely amazing. This section was one of my favorite rides. Some great pix below and some nice videos.

We spotted this sign as we exited the via verde.

One strange thing about the trail is that we saw two dead rabbits... in perfect condition and perfectly centered in the middle of a cement roadway. The roadway in the via verde was one of the only onces that was paved like this too. We came up with a few theories after the fact. 

that gigantic rock looks so out of place

dramaaaaaaaaaaa :D

Matty Bhai ... #filtersssssss :)

Broccolli!! Everywhere

love this pic ... gopro takes some nice photos

We stopped in La Alcanara y los Bucanos for a tasty pork/ham infused lunch :) This was the first time I had a HAMburger that was actually made out of ham! I didnt like it. Tasted like some form of sausage patty. Booooo

Checking the Bucanos fencing schedule... en garde' !!!

We finished the day rolling the last 16 or so miles in to Las Marinas. The end got a bit sketchy as Shruti and myself fell to the back while the boys went on ahead. We had to make a few "bio breaks" before getting to the end. :)

Looking at the total elevation and gradient below I think it is a little misleading. While it looks like a tough climb, it definitely wasn't as tough as previous rides. 

Below is a video of a cloudy sunset with mountains trapped in between. Really cool.

we made it ... i think this was Shruti's longest one day total!

We finished the day getting our stuff in to the airbnb, I got stuck with the room that they used to hang meat in [it was so colddddddd ] We had some so so Indian food, it was good for a change and we were getting ready for tomorrow. Tomorrow would be a bit of a hybrid in that Matty and I would start out, I gave my dad a timeout due to his thumb and he looked like he was pooped, and Shruti would join us mid way, after the hard part, to finish off the day. 

Day 8 had everything a nice ride in the mountains, then a dessert, some strange Resident Evil factory, a city and some Spanish cola, huge steaks for lunch... then it rained on us and we had to go through tunnels and at the last stop matt ate cereal with blue milk at some type of Spanish Millennial kid hangout. Stay tuned!!

we finally found an Indian restaurante ... #smilessssss

You ... yes, you ... don't touch my rice

Sun is just peaking out

dont remind me =/

durti crank and durti shruti foot

S2 : Day 6 - About 100 miles of downhill

guess who was enjoying this the most? :)

After a monumental elevation gain over 30miles, we now had about 100miles in front of us to plow through. I was optimistic about it ( as usual 😊) because the elevation over our google mapped route was the exact opposite of the previous day. It had on the agenda a constant downhill to the end, with some minor climbs here and there. My biggest concern was the wind, even if we have a downhill and there is wind, it will still be a bear to bang out 100mi after the elevation we did the day before. Today’s ride would just be the boys as Shruti planned to take a break with Eric in the car, take selfies and eat. 😊

The night before, Matt and I were sharing a room and there was an extremely creepy painting hanging next to his bed, pretty much looking right at him as he slept. He took it down, but then reconsidered and put it up because he knew I would put it back up anyway as he slept. So I did the only rational thing and made these weird oversized cut out eyes out of paper and electrical tape and made it look like it was a possessed picture. I was really hoping he would wake me up screaming in the middle of the night. I guess his stiff upper lip took over and that didnt happen, but he did tell me he woke up in the middle of the night and got a bit freaked and did a double take on the picture. LOL! Makes me laugh just thinking about it. :) .... ahhh the little things 

Here are the stats!!

Ride Statistics
Date ....................... Thursday January 12th 2018
Strava Link ................ https://www.strava.com/activities/1353521430
Departure City/Town ........

red jackets ... UNITE!!!

Departure Time ............. 8:06AM CET*
Departure Temperature ...... TBD
Time in  Motion ............ 7:54:49 / 73%
Time at Rest ............... 2:52:01 / 27%
Total Time ................. 10:46:50
Arrival City/Town .......... Los Alcazeres
Arrival Time ............... 8:49 PM CET
Arrival Temperature ........ TBD

Total Miles Cycled ......... 98.12 mi
Total Elevation ............ 3,237ft

Steve Avg Pace|Max Speed ... 12.4 mi/h | 36.5 mi/h
Matt Avg Pace|Max Speed .... 9.4 mi/h | 31.3 mi/h
* Central European Time

Tour Statistics
I decided to be extra nerdy and keep a cumulative running total of some key stats. :)
Total Miles Cycled ......... 412.7 mi 
Total Elevation ............ 18,730 ft

The day started out frigid. We descended from our mountaintop airbnb nice and early as the sun was rising and by the time we made it to the bottom of that hill our fingers were blue and purple and we had to slap on gloves.

morning was chilly .. but secluded and scenic

Olive trees were everywhere

We got off the main paved road and followed googles instructions which took us on to some back road - what we referred to as farm roads. It seemed when google was working on their sattelite mapping of the streets/roads they didnt really check on the quality of the path. Who can blame them, i think that is probably an impossibility unless they have locals submit their take on the roads and use group analysis to provide a final categorization of the pieces of road. So in short, after the first day we were very wary, but we pressed on as it was downhill or flat and it hadnt rained ... what could go wrong? 😊

Thankfully- the paths were a bit bumpy and we did have to cut through a Spaniards olive farm to get to main roads, but that was about 15mins of the first portion before we hit probably the top breakfast spot we had had.

We stopped in the town of ... at ..... and i managed to use my Tarzan-esque Spanish to get out the best plate of food we had had so far. They had a hearth with a wood fire and were bbqing the meat in the place. It was about 9am and the place was packed. I could use a plate of that right now. 😊

I dream about these long paths to seemingly nowhere

As in other days' routes, Google thought that some farmers roads were ok to cycle on. We had a bit of a 15min detour trying to find our way out to a main road. The image below was taken right before we needed to make our way through some Spanish olive farmer's grove to the right street. 

disconnected from everything

best breakfast of the trip .... yummmmmmmmmm

We had a fantastic 30 miles after breakfast rolling to our next gas station stop in Hondon de los Frailes.

We didnt take many selfies, but I did take a lot of go pro video.

I loved these gas station stops

We were at about the 48mile mark and as you can see from the elevation graph below, we were in for one of the top 3 downhills of the whole trip. Below are a few of the videos I took of us rolling through.

and our afternoon breaky-poo

best pastry I ate in Spain ... and I had a lot!  ** burp **

dude selfie

dude selfie

This must be a thing in Spain. We saw at least 3 statue/monuments like this all along our route.

98 in the books ... 

Maybe ... one day ....

Ummmm ... eyes are up here.

siiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii

We made it to Los Alcazeres, contemplated riding around for another 2niles to get that century, but we decided we were better of just going to the airbnb. 😊 We bring up the bikes, do a quick cleanup and get moving to find some food. When we walked in to the restaurant we didnt know what we were in for. It just so happened that there was a flamenco school there putting on a show! The videos and pix say it all. It was a fantastic experience to see flamenco in Spain. I knew we would have paella at least once, but seeing flamenco for me was icing on the cake.

Before we went to sleep, Shruti and I decided to leave earlier than Matt and dad as a head start to try to make it to the next destination as early as possible. It was a great idea, and things were going well until we hit the wettest muddiest part of the whole trip!

Another 90miles was waiting for us!

i cant make this picture any smaller

Im glad I didnt see this pic until we were done cycling ... wld you trust these two in a manual car loaded with bikes and gear in Spain?? 

while we are biking .. Shruti is taking artsy photos

no day would be complete without capping it off with our teenage son struggling with something ** facepalm **