Buen Camino: Embalse Yesa (Rio Aragon) to near Tauste (Rio Riguel).

August 13, 2015

I had been on N240 toward Pamploma, surprised it had no shoulder; as usually on Spanish national roads, there's an ample shoulder; well, places had a narrow strip on the inside of the white side-line, but while the traffic was constant, both cars and trucks gave me a wide berth. Then after a roundabout most of the traffic went on a parallel autopista leaving the road near enough traffic free.

I camped for want of a better place in a barley field, now stubble after harvest and as most of the adjoining fields had already been ploughed in readiness for sowing a new crop, I intended to be gone early in the morning in case this field is to plough also, but the sky darkened over with thick cloud at dusk and there came on heavy rain with thunder and lightening in the night with wind buffeting the tent from side to side, resulting in the ground too wet and slipper for a tractor this morning, so there is no urgency in getting away extra early.

I wait until near eight to get up. The sky is cloudless. The road still damp but drying out fast.

I continue on N240 for nine kilometres to where Rio Aragon begins widening into a reservoir; here, I take a left upon A1601, a narrow little used road. The road surface old neglected asphalt, badly fractured and full of holes, making for slow progress negotiating around the rougher bits.

I climb a bit through pine forest with the green sheet of the lake opening up along the valley to the right. It's a pleasant road if only for the slow going. There are quite a few other cyclists on the road too. A group of mountain bikers paused at the end of a forest tail wish me "Buen camino!" So that's how cyclists greet in Spain. But more likely they think I'm cycling west on "El Camino de Santiago".

The way eventually swings left, climbing and the lake disappears out of view on cresting the hill. The other side is quite a steep winding descent toward a browner more arid country.

Down on the level the road widens and the surface improves somewhat. I press on wishing to make the thirty-two kilometres to Sos del Rey, before the shops close for the afternoon.

When I get as far I'm disappointed to find a hilltop village, meaning a sharp incline too, then hope to find a supermercado where I can buy food for lunch and dinner in the evening.

The town centre is an ancient citadel with narrow alley cobblestone streets and alive with Spanish holidaymakers. I find a small supermercado which doesn't stock very much. They've sold out of bread and the narrow aisles are full of teenagers making it difficult getting to the other few things I want. I've to alter my decisions on what I'd planned on eating and take what's there. Also, having eaten a lot of crisps and other rubbish yesterday, I need something a bit more substantial today.

I opt for potatoes and a can of chick peas, which I boil using the Trangia stove in the small square outside the municipal building.

I had a cold beer in this colonnade café.

The road on in the afternoon, A127 is wide with an ample shoulder; it climbs to start with, then drops down upon a wide valley plain. I seem to have a tailwind, because I bowl along reaching speeds of thirty-five kilometres per hour, making the fifty kilometres to Vea de Los Caballeros by five. Here there's a big commercial park with a Lidl where I buy the remainder of what I need for dinner.

The rest of the day is dead flat, still on A127 toward Tauste with fields of maize and Lucerne either side, a lot of the latter has been mown in neat green rows to be harvested for fodder. Not much scope for free camping, but there is always somewhere if you use your imagination. And sure enough, nine kilometres short of the aforesaid town, I ride off along a farm track three or four-hundred metres until I come to the main river through the area; here the track swings sharply to follow the river with a wide level space on the riverbank side of the track.

Today's ride: 108 km (67 miles)
Total: 8,712 km (5,410 miles)

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