La Mamola to Berja

November 7, 2021

Heading inland

Today was a transfer day, really. We started on the coast, rode along the coast for the first two-thirds of the ride, then turned inland and upward at Adra. And I only took one photo on the ride!

La Mamola has a beach street parallel to the highway. This is the restaurant where we took our meals; Hostal Onteniente is in a different building on the other street (the low-traffic highway).

I was thinking as I rode along that the greenhouses could be a good use of these arid, south-facing hillsides. Drip irrigation and holding the heat might mean a lot of produce could be grown here. Too bad they are so ugly--and more so when they are abandoned and the plastic left to disintegrate.

I'd copied Scott Anderson's track but, likely due to my and RWGPS fiddling with it (I'd reversed the direction when creating my clockwise circuit then changed again when we decided to go counterclockwise) there were some anomalies. The route seemed to want us to go through La Rábita, which we didn't, which wouldn't have been a problem. But then, just after El Pozuelo, it was directing us through a group of buildings on the side of the slope, above which I could see the Carretera del Meditérraneo, the road we were on. The map on my Garmin clearly showed the big hairpin the CdM took to get up there, so that's what we did. When we passed the point where we rejoined the RWGPS route, we could see that even Al would have been pushing and cursing.

Adra was an odd town. I guess it's busy during the main tourist season but there are so many nicer places along this coast if you're looking for a beach vacation. We were looking for lunch and found a bright yellow tapas bar on the roadside a bit out of town. We normally would have looked in town, but Google Maps showed us this place and it looked like the best option without going backwards. When we went in around 12:15, there were just a couple of tables occupied. When we left an hour later, the place was full. It was challenging ordering tapas from a printed Spanish menu. Did you know there are at least 3 Spanish words that Google Translate might say mean "anchovies?" I didn't. And looking again now, I'm getting "bacaloa" translating as "cod." Oh well, Al enjoyed that dish.

We turned on to the A347 for the last few km to Berja. This was actually marked as a cycling route, which was different to the signage on N240. On N240, motorists were warned to watch for cyclists and to give them 1.5m clearance.

The A347 was quite a bit busier than the Carretera del Meditérraneo (N240) which we didn't expect as it doesn't really go anywhere. But then, unlike the coast road, there isn't an alternative road to take.

The Ruta Cyclista ended just at the outskirts of Berja. The road ran between two rows of giant plane trees, each with its trunk painted white from 30 to 1200 or so cm above the ground. Unfortunately, this meant that cars didn't give us as much room as usual in Spain, but none came as close as they regularly do in BC.

And now for the reason we chose to stay at the only accommodation in La Mamola last night instead of choosing one of the many options in Motril, as the Andersons had done. I had been unable to book accommodation in Berja online. My research had shown there were two hotels in town, but only one replied to my contact by text saying yes, they were open, please phone this number. I can muddle through in French but I wasn't going to try it in Spanish. There was also an AirBnB but those usually want you to pay on booking and I suspected it would be awkward to change. (I'd changed the La Mamola booking so many times due to bike issues and then deciding to stay an extra night in Nerja.)

So I planned this to be a short day in case we had to go further. And we almost had to.

The Hotel Don Miguel Plaza, where the Andersons stayed in 2019, appears to be permanently closed. We rode over to the other hotel, the Hotel Restaurante Casa Palaciega XIX and were disappointed to see it was shuttered. I tried phoning the number I'd been given but no answer. The local AirBnB wasn't available and the next closest one in our direction of travel (well, sort of) was in Darrical. We were just looking up how far that was when a couple drove up and unlocked the hotel door. What timing! And what a classic place.

We took our bikes through this door, into the storeroom. That's our room above, with the drying cycling kit. The shade was like that, over the balcony rail. We've seen that a lot.

Inside the hotel. It's a restaurant too.

Our room opens onto this. It's clear where the hotel name comes from.

After cleaning up, we went for a walk around Berja. Not much happening on a Sunday. There were a couple of bars open earlier, but they were closing. Lots of closed businesses too.

Paseo de Cervantes was constructed to celebrate the beginning of the 20th Century. Presumably the town was doing better then. The plane trees aren't as big as the ones lining the road into town, but that's probably because those get more light and water.

I saw a few open doorways like this one. Inside, just an entry with a single inner doorway.

Berja street on a Sunday afternoon around 6.

This ends at the closed hotel. I saved my ride before discovering that we had to try elsewhere.

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Today's ride: 45 km (28 miles)
Total: 318 km (197 miles)

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Scott AndersonI’m sorry to hear Don Miguel is closed, but it looks like you found a great place. I’m puzzled by your comment about our track though, because the map is missing from our post for that day. Where did you find it?
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2 years ago

Jacquie GaudetTo Scott AndersonHmm. You’re right. I probably just put in a few points and let RWGPS join them. That would explain a few things!
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2 years ago

Scott AndersonTo Jacquie GaudetHuh. I found our route and added it to the journal. It shows us chopping off that horseshoe by cutting across what looks like a dry wash and through some houses. I’m suspicious though. I think if we’d really done that it would have made it into the journal. The route was the planned one, not the actual so I suspect we did as you did.
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2 years ago

Jacquie GaudetTo Scott AndersonSometimes I wonder about RWGPS…
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2 years ago