Day 66: Torrenostra to Castello de la Plana

October 31, 2023

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The clocks moved back in Spain last weekend, something that always ends up confusing me. But however this works, we now have light as we are trying to get on the road, and we don't cycle long enough to run into a lack of light at the end of the day. For the record, at this latitude and time of year, the sun is up for us at 7 a.m., and the light fails around 6:30 p.m. That's just how it seems to us. Officially, sunrise here is 7:27 a.m. and sunset is 6:00 p.m.

Sunrise on the Mediterranean, taken today at 7:38 a.m.

Our apartment facing the sea was really good, with lots of space, a table to type at, somewhat ok wifi, and a good place for the bikes. In the photo below, the bikes are in the garage just beside the door of our yellow building. Exactly on cue at the arranged time of 8:00, Miguel opened that garage, and we were off!

Of course, we could not leave without recording a bird in the street.

In contrast to yesterday, which had some highs and lows but on net was one we were wishing would end, today was just straight great, all the way through. It's interesting for us to think about what, for us, goes in to a rating like that. And for sure, other riders would not weight things just as we do. But here is what today had: Marked (usually green or red) bike lanes from beginning to end. Fruit trees (oranges, pomegranates, figs, quince) to ride by, wet lands to look at. The sea to look at. Supermarket with salad, with spinach empanadas, with good pain au raisins, with coffee flavour flan! Many bike shops, to feel secure looking at. Many other cyclists on the path. Many makes and styles of bikes, mostly ebikes, being ridden. A via verde to follow. A hotel to end at, with bike storage room and free coffee, hot chocolate, and juice all night. And despite what the track seems to say, no climbing! What a list!

The day began with a ride through a wetland. Ditches beside the path were water filled. This was a bit of a frustration, because some wild pomegranate trees, unreachable over the ditch, were loaded with large red fruit.

Darn, can not get over the ditch to the trees.

Yesterday during her slow trudge, Dodie kept mentioning the number of rabbits. I had earlier seen one rabbit, so I knew she was not totally hallucinating, but I did find it suspect that she referred to these as green rabbits. Today we did find rabbits again, but the photo shows at least one to not be green.

While we were in the wetland, it felt as if were in a very remote area. The impression was compounded by passing the very few dwellings, which seemed just as small and tumbledown as the poorest ones we have seen in Mexico. But when we left the wetland, we had suddenly broken out into another strange world. It began with a giant campground of some kind, but soon we were passing just scads of giant apartment buildings. According to signs around, these were vacation properties, and sales offices advertised in German, French, and English, in addition to Spanish.

All the residents must be back in Germany or UK at this season, because all is quiet.

Fanciful camping. The place is called "Oasis Camping"

Mercadona is our new favourite supermarket. This one, at least, had make your own fresh orange juice. 1/2 litre of juice like that can superpower two riders for up to 40 km!

While watching our bikes outside the Mercadona, I watched customers come and go. Most arrived by ebike, and it was fun spotting the various famous European brands.

Between Oropesa and Benicassim there is a Via Verde called the Del Mar Greenway. It's only about 10 km long but it does run by the sea, also through some tunnels and a spectacular cut through a hillside.

The via verde ends as Benicassim begins. Lots of cyclists use this way.

This is the sweep of the bay/beach at Benicassim. I would guess it to be about 10 km (6 miles) long. When I worked in Cayman Islands, they had a thing called 7 Mile Beach and it was a big big thing. OK, "Long Beach" on our own Vancouver Island is 16 km!

Something they sure don't have on Long Beach, Vancouver Island is condos all the way!

We stopped for lunch on the bench at left and looked way back around to where we had entered Benicassim with the Via Verde.

Opposite our bench were palm trees, so common here. But they are not common to us, and seem so colourful and exotic.

Lots of people are coming here by camper ("caravan" to Brits, "wohnmobil" to Germans) from northern Europe.

We don't like big ones much, but how about one of these?

We turned inland to go find our hotel at Castello de la Plana. We have come to know the "B&B" brand of hotel as a budget one with very small rooms. But maybe that was France. Here, our room is large and bright, with an elevator large enough to hold a bike. Despite that, we put the bikes in a ground floor storage room. There was only one beef. See that curtain valence? It cuffed me a good one about five times, before I somewhat learned to avoid it, and we also moved the bed over. Surprisingly, Dodie stopped offering much sympathy after I walked into it the second or third time!

Today's ride: 44 km (27 miles)
Total: 3,297 km (2,047 miles)

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Janice BranhamIsn't it wonderful when everything clicks into place? Glad to read about your terrific day!
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