Today’s ride was lovely, although a little dull to begin with.
I didn’t leave the hotel until gone 10am and my butt didn’t hit the saddle until gone 11am – largely due to several hours spent in a wonderful Irish bar the previous evening and then stocking up on food supplies at a local supermarket before hitting the road.
Most of the morning was road cycling – smooth tarmac surfaces and mostly wide shoulders to ride took me out of the city. Most of the day’s ascent was in the morning, which I was glad of, sweating out several pints of last nights over indulgence! Once that was done though, there were some awesome long sweeping descents which saw me topping 30 mph – always fun on a fully loaded touring bike.
Today’s video is not too long – large expanses of similar looking roads have been chopped out! – the second half of the video gives a clue as to this afternoon’s riding;
About 25 to 30 miles out of Pamplona and google maps decided it had had enough of the boring tarmac surfaces and took me on an explore of some back country farm tracks, which actually I didn’t mind at all. The sun was shining, the route was mostly flat and I was out in the middle of nowhere, enjoying the scenery. I stopped for a bite to eat overlooking the wide plain of what I think was the Aragon river.
Probably the first real time on this tour I’ve reached that sense of peace that you get from being out there on the bike.
So tonight I am camping south of Villafranca, on the way towards Zaragoza and a date with a screen to watch the rugby tomorrow afternoon. The weather forecast is good, there is a pub about 100 meters from my tent and all is well with the world.