After leaving the sweltering heat in Santo Domingo de Silos we decided to skip the rest of the race stages of the Vuelta a Burgos and just head north to our favourite campground Rio Luna.
It was a bit far to go in one day so we stopped for the night at a place we’d used before – a nice quiet aire on the edge of the village of La Magdelena.
Going past the reservoir it was very nice to see that the water level was a little higher – still well below capacity but at least not almost dry.
It was a fairly short drive the next day to the campground, where we managed to squeeze in – it was as packed as we’ve ever seen it, including many tents in addition to the other campervans.
After relaxing a bit we both had nice hot showers, did a bit of laundry and just hung out. One day we made the short drive to San Emiliano for a drink and a bit of grocery shopping.
The storks have been busy once again building their nests…
…I’m not sure how restful it is for the little ones when the bells chime but it seems to suit them.
We made our way back to the house in a couple of days, and enjoyed the pool more than ever.
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We seem to have an abundance of certain insects right now – namely stick bugs and spiders. Luckily the mosquitoes and no-see-ums don’t seem so bad this year.
Because I usually get up early I was able to see the full moon setting to the west as the sun was rising in the east – just beautiful.
As planned several weeks ago we drove to the top of the Calar Alto to see the end of a stage of the Vuelta a Espana. We’d re-conned the place already so kind of knew where we were going to park it. We were the first ones there – as we were a day early – but by the next morning the large area we were at was almost full and there were folks parked in lots of other places as well.
They’d done a really nice job of re-surfacing the road as well so at least the riders didn’t have to dodge foot-deep potholes on their way to the finish.
It took around 40 minutes for all of the racers to pass as it had been a very hard stage and not without a mishap or two.
After a second quiet night where we were we moved along to our next chosen stage watching stop just past the town of Valdepenas de Jaen. There was a campground just outside the town but they were fully booked, although they were kind enough to let us empty the toilet in their facilities. They also had a nice looking restaurant that we decided to try for lunch, although getting to it was a bit of fun. It was up a set of stairs, and the stairs were metal with no back part and the step parts had holes. There were two signs saying ‘carry your dog’ and we immediately knew why – Max simply would not climb on his own. Even though he’s not that big looking he is very ‘sturdy’ and seemed to weigh a ton. I managed to carry him up to the halfway landing and Colin lugged him up the rest.
At least the effort was worth it – the restaurant was very nice and both of our meals were excellent. I had the caesar salad and didn’t know what to expect – I’d tried one before (in France, I believe) and while that was a nice salad it certainly wasn’t a caesar salad. This one, however, I’ll give a pass to – it had lovely fresh romaine lettuce, chicken, homemade croutons and rather than bacon bits it had very nice crispy lardons. I managed to eat about a quarter of it and as usual took the rest away for the next day’s meal.
We then drove up the road along the route, knowing that we weren’t going to be able to get up the last bit of the next day’s stage to the top. In fact there was already a barrier with police blocking the entrance to the small road so we went back a short ways to a nice flat side road where we parked for the night.
As usual we had quite a few companions by race-time the next day and they were all very nice. There was a Slovenian couple in a campervan as well as several other campervans, and a large party of fans that setup a big tent and looked ready to party. They were in fact rather well behaved, although having a lot of fun at the same time.
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There was a rider or two in front, followed several minutes later by the peloton, including Enrique Mas who is doing very well hanging on to the overall lead (after the very sad loss of Pogacar who crashed out days ago).
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Once again it took quite a while for the last rider to pass, then we scuttled inside to watch the end on tv. After spending a second night at our spot we headed west towards the area of Seville, where we planned to catch another couple of stages, including an ITT.
We got to a very nice campground just outside the village of La Guijarrosa where we checked in for one night before going back into the village to have lunch.
Lunch was excellent, but they didn’t let Max inside so we had to stay outside – although we were under a large canopy it was still very hot.
After lunch we went back to the campground and had no energy for anything – I tried to have a nap in the back on my bed but it was so hot I felt like getting sick. Sitting outside was a little bit better – but there were flies. We endured the heat all night – every window and even the door were open to try to catch any breeze but it was a very uncomfortable night.
In the morning we quickly agreed that no stage of any race was worth the discomfort of the heat and headed back to the house to watch the rest of the Vuelta on tv. We were very happy that Mas won – it was well deserved and Spain, of course, was very happy to have a Spanish rider on a Spanish team win their biggest race for the first time in many years.
We took a small day trip to the coast for lunch, and ended up at the town of Agua Amarga – it was quite obvious that it catered to the british, but did have a beautiful beach and several nice restaurants. Our lunch was delicious and it was a very nice day.
Sally McKenzie's European Adventures 