This was a long, very hard day and very hot, peaking at 104F. The first segment, the ride to Sentenil, was fine once we finally found the right road out of town. Due to a map error (we were still navigating with paper Michelin maps at the time) we had to double back through town and start over. Between that setback and some errands (to the bank, and to the pharmacy for more cough medicine) we didn’t finally leave Ronda until about 10:30.
Leaving Ronda. I think those hills must be the Sierra de Grazalema - not so far off, if we had just headed that way directly.
Sentenil is a very strange place, its old center a one street town through a narrow canyon, with houses embedded into the overarching cliffs on both sides of the stream that divides the town. We broke for lunch here, eating snacks from a nearby store while sitting on a bench beside the street.
The ride to Olvera was hilly and hot. The ride south from there , through El Gaston, was much worse- a succession of long, steep climbs followed by long, steep descents - in 100+ degree heat with no shade. This stretch ended dramatically, with a sharp kilometer-long drop to a dead end where the route on our Michelin map abruptly ended and disappeared beneath the water. Presumably the recently completed dam swallowed the highway here, and our map (dated 2004) was out of date already when it was printed.
Looking north to Olvera. We’ll bike more or less straight toward it before doubling back toward Zahara.
Looking down at the reservoir on the Guadalete. Our road dropped us down nearly to the edge of the water. It was a hot, steep climb back out once we realized our situation. Thinking back now, I’m pretty sure we were planning to stay in Zahara, and believed we were almost at the end of the ride. Nope - the hardest is yet to come.
This fortunately added only about five miles to our long day. A new bridge now crossed the river at the head of the reservoir, leading us to the final grueling seven mile, 2,000’ climb to Grazalema. We had a terrible time with this climb, stopping two or three times to recover from the heat and exertion. There were two compensating features on the way up though. The first, a small sheep drive crossed the road controlled by a whistling drover and his bull whip; and then, about two miles from the top, a mercifully cold spring.
The long, steep, hot climb to Grazalema. I think we were out of water by this time and were relieved to find a potable spring on the way up. Another indication that we were probably bound for Zahara originally and ran down our water thinking we were almost done for the day.
