Yegen to Órgiva

November 9, 2021

Cycling in the Alpujarras

Another beautiful day of riding in Andalucía!

We stayed last night at El Tineo in Jegen. There were two choices on Booking and we picked this one. We didn't book until we were about 10 km away since I wasn't sure at the beginning of the day yesterday whether I'd be able to make it up all the climbs...

We arrived at the same time as two German walkers, who were walking from Sweden to the southernmost point of Spain. Luckily they'd called ahead because El Tineo is also a bar, but the bar is closed on Mondays. Our host, a friendly Irish expat, welcomed us. She got the Germans settled and then described where to bring our bikes. It was so easy in English!

Like pretty well all Alpujarran villages, Yegen is built on a rather steep hillside and the buildings have entrances on different elevations. The building occupied by El Tineo is like this. The entrance to the bar, where we'd arrived, is on the highway. (I'm using the word highway because, even though much narrower and lower-traffic than any I've seen in BC, it has a route number, A4130, and other identifying signs.) The door to enter with our bikes involved a couple of streets and was about 3 stories lower. Our room was down here as well, and there were quite a few stairs up to the bar. Luckily dinner was available to the guests as I don't think there was anywhere else open in the village.

The thin blue line marks the route from the bar door to the lower door. We rode down carefully) but too steep to ride up this morning.

Breakfast wasn't offered this morning as our host had an appointment, but she referred us to a bar just up the road. Then we were off!

Well, we were but my Garmin wasn't. It's not defending itself from being replaced before the next trip. Once again, I've used Al's track for the map below.

At first, the scenery looked like this (though I'm not usually ahead of Al).

Apuljarran village. I can't remember which. We saw more and more trees as we got higher.

Al got a shot of me climbing slowly, the only way I climb.

Nice riding on A4130--or had we turned onto A4132 at this point?

Trevélez in the distance. Definitely A4132 here.

Posing at the mirador before Trevélez. We took this to send as a 26th birthday greeting to our son.

Trevélez, like most if the villages we passed through, seems to be a centre for ham drying (secadoras de jambones, I think many business signs said). The flapping banner is advertising a sort of festival of ham production in Trevélez later this month. But these are the only pigs we've seen that weren't already hams, and they're fake!

Approaching Pampaneira, where we'd originally intended to stay. But nothing was available there on Booking, only in Bubión and Capileira, the villages above (and I mean *above*). You can see them here (and Capiliera is the end of pavement, though there's apparently a gravel road up over a high pass and on to Granada). We decided to continue to Órgiva, an extra 15 km of mostly descending.

Pampaneira, like Treveléz, looked more prosperous than the smaller villages we'd passed through. There appeared to be a hydroelectric dam and power plant, though I can't be sure as it was such a fun descent I didn't stop!

Descending past a village, which I've no idea.

Our Garmin took us to the lower door of our accommodation here in Órgiva. Our host led us to the correct entrance so we could bring our bikes into the garden. Once again, I was communicating in my abysmal French, the best language we had in common.

Casa Jazmin seems very nice, though we weren't overly enthused by what we saw of the town in our wander around.

The view from our window. The pool, alas, is not heated.

From our other window: pomegranates. We've been seeing them along the roadside, like giant rosehips.

Making sure we can find our way back after our walk around the village.

We had dinner at a friendly Moroccan place quite near our accommodation. It was the only place we saw that was open and appealing. The food was good, though there was no beer or wine available to accompany it. This was the first no-alcohol restaurant I've noticed in Europe.

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Today's ride: 66 km (41 miles)
Total: 440 km (273 miles)

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