July 21, 2023
Day 2 - Arenas de Ignunas to Environs of Tudanca [photos now!]
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I slept very well - was tired from preparation, the ferry, and the rapid day yesterday. Being careful *not* to lock myself out (the Posada was unattended in the morning) I wandered around the small town, eventually finding the bakery down a tiny back alley. I also obtained an enormous thing of factor 50 sun lotion for 25 euros.
I set off steadily, passed under the autovia and small village of Los Llanes, and then began to climb almost immediately. My plan was to take the unsurfaced roads over the mountains around the abandoned Hermita El Moral - this would involve around an 800m climb up to 1000m, a little further than I thought. The climbing was mostly on the metalled road and actually felt pretty good. Half way up I came across an abandoned campsite, and filled my water bottles up.
At the end of the surfaced road I had a little navigation hesitation, but soon found the way. The rest of the climb was spectacular, the green mountains rising all around (photos soon). The only company I had was the occasional sight of a dirt biker. The route culminated in a long ridge section with incredible slopes on both sides.
At exactly 1000m I saw the tiny stone building of El Moral. I didn't investigate the inside - I think it's locked up at the moment - but had lunch within sight of it. Then I picked up what was signed as a BTT/mountain bike track, which was what I needed to take me down to the valley. It was a pretty ratly descent, but the bike and my brakes did really well. There were loads of opportunities to get water, springs were flowing out the banks all the way down. I drank the water filtered through my lifestraw (I was to become much less particular later on).
At the bottom I had another section along the valley road. Annoyingly the water sources had literally dried up, and I stopped at the Natural Park interpretation centre to see if they had a tap. Sadly they didn't, but I did see a girl in a flamboyant red dress hunting butterflies with a big net.
I picked up the off-road climb through the woods signed to Tudanca. This was very tough - loose surface, quite dark and no views. Annoyingly there were no water sources at all - I had about 1 litre in total, but to camp, cook and then continue next day was a bit of a stretch. After just passing the only other people I'd seen - a couple walking very slowly - at about 850m elevation I spotted a perfect glade for camping, and decided I was done. I stopped to wait for them to go by, but they dawdled for *ages*. Bizarrely, they then sat down on the earth track. This was in the middle of nowhere, a couple of hours walk from the road. In the end I shrugged my shoulders and plunged into the wood, thinking they wouldn't notice me anyway (eventually they did turn around and go back down. But even weirder, I then say them pass a *third* time, walking upwards towards the absolute nothing on top of the mountain, in late evening. The mind reels!).
It started to rain lightly so I put the tent up (and set up the pot outside to collect rainwater ... I think I even licked the drops off the tent). I didn't want to sit in the rain so got inside and before I knew it I was asleep. I woke around 8pm to an amazing ringing of cow bells - it really was a tintinnabulation. I genuinely wondered if I was imagining it, but eventually I saw the cows moving up the slope above me.
Seeing little rainwater had collected I took a *bit* of a risk and skimmed the clear water off the top of a puddle, sterilised it with a chlorine tablet, and then boiled it before making pasta with it. It was fine! (if a bit chlorinated).
Today's ride: 47 km (29 miles)
Total: 213 km (132 miles)
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