A wild day comes to an end, I was blessed again with a stunning sunset including heavy winds and I had to write down some of my recent adventures before I will actually cross the border to Portugal already tomorrow. You find me sitting in a very nice bar that you would also find in Portugal in the countryside, it is the living room of the people of the village. It is already a while ago since I left the touristic route of the Camino de Santiago which makes the bars more local.
I had just changed my route in order to be able to enjoy my ride through the mountains of the Serra da Estrella and so I will cross the border much earlier than I thought.
Burgos
After I had finished my calmer day in Burgos with it’s very cyclist friendly roads and many beautiful parks I continued into a very dry and agriculturaly heavy misused region of north Spain. It was already tough before, but this region had a specifically rough touch to it. It seemed to me as if the people were scared of trees because they were so rare and they were chopped down immediately when they showed up in a creek or on the sides of some crop fields.
I was very lucky when I saw a group of larger trees with some benches and a small roof underneath inviting pilgrims to have a rest and a picknick in the evening, it was the perfect spot for me to set up my tent for the night. After I had started cooking I got surprisingly some companions for the night, a couple from the Basque country that was on their way to South Africa with their tandem bike for the next 10 months. It was a great connection, we were around the same age and we spoke a bit about our shared current mission and got excited about each other’s cycling adventures. It was great to be around people with similar interests and we were happy to share the night so we would not feel alone. I was very happy to hear about their experiences especially with their tandem as I am thinking to offer a journey with one to a teenager I am accompanying.
a companion on the road
The next morning I got up early again, I wanted to get as many kilometers out of the way as possible and I was very happy when I by chance bumped into a young Spanish guy that had his first cycling journey to Santiago who I met the day before. We decided to cycle together and it made the way very comfortable as we spoke a lot and we’re happy about the rare company.
We were now sharing the path with the pilgrims and there were many of them. We had a very steep climb to master, it was only 1 km, but oh dear was it steep. It was the moment where you could see who had the legs to get through it amongst the cyclists.
It was nice, people who made it were cheering for the next ones to not give up until they made it.
We continued on and enjoyed the sunny and mild day until we passed a group of pilgrims standing on a bridge being excited about something in the water. After some clarification with my Spanish friend as I didn’t see what it was, I thought of a snake or a turtle, we turned around so he could show me what he was speaking of. My blood froze as I saw what the hustle was about, a deer fell into a deep concrete ditch with a strong current and couldn’t get out. The pilgrims helplessly tried to offer their sticks so it could ‘climb’ out, but the deer wasn’t a monkey.
I jumped off my bike and told my friend to help me and hold my feet so I could hang down into the ditch and get the deer out. A couple of Italian cyclists also did the same and so I found myself hanging upside down, relying on a stranger to not let go of me, grabbing the deer by its neck and together with the Italians got her out of the situation. People were cheering, but I was very sad and told them to not clap as the deer was in a huge shock. After a moment we also found out that she was with two kittens that got washed away with the current and nobody could help them.
We still stayed around her for a while so she could relax, and after a while we left with a light and a heavy heart, other pilgrims stayed around her. I was feeling very sad for her and that I couldn’t help to rescue her kittens, we were just too late at the place.
After a common lunch I had to say goodbye to my new companion and I left the main Camino and headed more towards the south. Leaving the pilgrims path also meant to leave a very touristic area that hosted many many pilgrims and entering into a more abandoned countryside.
That night I found shelter at a small ranch and was lucky to get a beer in the local bar.
After a good night I was again in a good mood, even though my but was having some issues with me cycling so many kilometers per day. I continued my ride and was looking forward to get my first cafe americano to get me in shape. Can you imagine, I had to cycle 40 kilometres in order to have my first cafe? I passed through many villages but they were all too small to have a restaurant or cafe.
After that ride I was sitting in an awesome town and enjoyed my cafe.
It had a beautiful atmosphere in it’s core and after I finished I was getting a few things from a local shop for lunch and wandered around the town. I stopped for a moment as I saw a beautiful golden bike standing in front of an old barber shop. I greeted the owner of the bike and we were suddenly in a short conversation. After 3 sentences we found out he was from a city in Switzerland where I once had a job in a school, in Liestal for those who know it. It was a great incident and we were happy for the short intermezzo.
After I had my lunch I had a serious issue. I felt as if someone had pulled out the battery from my system, I was very shaky and not feeling great at all. I layed down on the grass and took a nap and wanted to see how I would react to a bit of a break. Luckily I felt better but it was a sign I should take my day off soon, I had covered around 470 kilometers without a pause and it was time for a rest.
I continued a bit through the very lonely landscape and luckily felt a bit better, but I took it as a warning to not overdo it.
By chance I cycled by a very delightful pension that night and decided after some inner consolidation to keep the tent in its bag and have my first proper bed after a month. It was a blessing, you can’t imagine. I by chance got the suite without extra charge and could get a really nice, warm bath in the tub my room had.
I felt great after my bath and I had a very beautiful phonecall with my great friend Ludwig and his son, we exchanged our adventures of the past days and I fell into a great sleep after all that excitement and turbulences of my day.
After I slept in I left the pension at around 10 o’clock, people are always worried when they see that I only have a coffee in the morning and don’t eat a proper breakfast. But as it is since I started I felt great and cycled into the capital of the province, Zamora.
I had no idea what to expect besides a great architecture that you can expect in most of Spain’s bigger cities. I cycled around the old part of the city when I started to see people walking around in medieval costumes. They got ever more and at some point I found myself in a beautifuly decorated old part of the city where they were celebrating a medieval festival for 4 days. I took many pictures but for my blog one has to be enough.
I could have stayed for the festival but decided to move on as most of it was around food and drinking alcohol, both activities that were not part of my priority list.
I moved on and now I am sitting in a bar, typing my words, it is late, dark and cold outside. That road will lead me to Portugal tomorrow and I am excited to enter the last chapter of my journey.
I still need to find a good place for my rest day, also today I was moving on as there was no place that really met my needs.
Thanks for reading and I wish you a blissful night,
until the next one from Portugal
dusty road stories 