To Olivenza

April 13, 2024

A visit to Olivenza has been on and off the cutting board several times in the past. I wanted to fit it in on our ride from Faro to Granada ten years ago, but we were still both working then and ‘only’ had five weeks to work with that autumn. I considered it for our ride from Santiago to Valencia four years ago but it didn’t make the cut then either. It’s the same story as with Jerez de los Caballeros, which was considered both times too.

The problem is with Extremadura and its Portuguese neighbor, the Alentejo. They’re both such fine cycling country, a target-rich region with many enticing places competing for your attention. Now that we’re here though, I’m glad we’ve waited until springtime to see it - because this country is so breathtaking right now. The colors in the fields and meadows just won’t quit.

Today’s ride is easier than yesterday’s, generally working its way to a lower elevation in the usual way - climb a little, drop a little, climb a little, drop more. The climbs are easier to take today, but gradually add up to something that gets your attention. And somehow, no matter how innocuous the next rise down the road looks it still manages to stiffen to 6-7% toward the top. And, it’s another hot day in the full sun, reminding us once again that we’d really be happier if we get ourselves out the door earlier in the day.

The terrain more than compensated though. The whole ride was excellent, but the twelve miles on BA-081 rose to a whole other level, the kind of epic ride that cycling legends are born of. Nearly all of this road passes through a vast dehesa - a savannah-like landscape of grassland shaded by scattered oaks, populated here and there by grazing or foraging livestock that are essentially free-range, contained only by this low stone wall that lines the highway. It’s one of my favorite cycling environments.

I kept a rough mental tally of what we came across in these twelve miles: one other cyclist, one automobile, I think maybe zero man made structures. One fox, crouched in the grass keeping a wary eye on me before he finally slipped off. Cows grazing, pigs foraging, wild horses, sheep tended by donkeys. Oh - and one guy on horseback, perhaps riding out to see if his three donkeys were keeping the sheep under control.

Wow.

Before dropping into the dehesa we climbed into a dense oak woods.

Somehow these innocent-looking rises ahead are always a little more of a challenge than you’re expecting.

Amazing. The third woodchat shrike in a week. It must be a more common species than I’d realized.

Pigs! There was a good sized gathering of them fairly close to the road until I closed in and scared them off.

So that was pretty great. About halfway through the ride it ends though when we come to a village, Higuera de Vargas, and our road merges in to a larger and modestly busier one, EX-312. We’re out of the dehesa now and into drier rangeland and meadows. Different, but still intensely beautiful and full of surprises: a purple cow, fantastic meadows, and two lifetime firsts for me: a cuckoo, a bird I occasionally hear off in the woods somewhere but never really expected to see, and an Iberian shrike.

I really love this purple. I’ll have to get a close-up of this flower before we leave the region.

Busier, but as you can see not really what you’d call busy. In the distance ahead, further off than you’d think because the shot is zoomed in, is the Castillo de Miraflores rising above Alconchel.

I’ve never seen a purple cow, but this comes pretty close.

Miraflores sounds like exactly the right name for a castle out here.

One last view before we leave it behind us.

#199: Griffon vulture, the first of what I’m sure will be many in the coming week. A better shot will come.

We don’t make it in to town until about two, and face what’s becoming the usual theme lately - the restaurant we planned on eating at is at least open today, but it’s fully booked. It’s too hot to do a lot of searching around, so we’re content to stop in at the nearest bar that can offer us a window table indoors where we can keep an eye on the bikes.

And then it’s straight to our room where we chill out for the next several hours. Olivenza looks like a terrific town, but that’s going to have to wait.

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Suzanne GibsonThat must have been a fantastic route! Map?
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3 weeks ago

Scott AndersonTo Suzanne GibsonOh! Thanks.
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3 weeks ago