March 10, 2022
A perfect day, in reverse
Day 20 - Bilbao to Elgoibar
That is, a really bad and unpleasant day, until the end where it picked up a bit. So bad I hardly took any pictures, sorry.
I don't know if any of you have been to London, but even if you have, you probably don't know Hanger Lane unless you've lived and driven into and out of the city. It's a huge roundabout-overpass monstrosity, in a bleak, grey, ugly, rundown outskirt of the big smoke. Basically, the first 40km of the day felt like cycling around it, but with more enormous steel mills, factories, and industrial zones.
I've totally lost faith in komoot. Getting out of Bilbao was Kafkaesque. Why are we going up this hill? Why aren't we going on this cycle path? Why are we taking this absurdly indirect looking route? Not to mention half the time now it doesn't update our position on the map, even though it continues to draw the red line of our progress the same way it's supposed to.
The smells, my god, the smells - some sort of industrial garlic? But slightly off, and mixed with a sickening resinous overtone. Miles and miles of burnt tuna melts. Quite a lot of piss.
So much traffic, of all sizes.
It rained.
We got divided by a train.
Then, as a treat, we turn off to a narrow paved road with very little traffic. Just a few kilometres of 5, 10, 15% gradients, which we had to push our very heavy bikes up.
There was quite a nice alpine descent after that, just a bit narrow and washboardy and scary without a crash barrier to enjoy properly.
And finally, honestly, the walking / cycling path between Eibar and Elgoibar was a actually pretty nice.
Giving some serious thought to just getting a train somewhere flat.
Today's ride: 55 km (34 miles)
Total: 684 km (425 miles)
| Rate this entry's writing | Heart | 9 |
| Comment on this entry | Comment | 4 |
2 years ago
(But in any case: I hope you get sunshine and tailwinds soon!)
2 years ago
I actually do use cycle.travel - it's brilliant isn't it! That's where the eurovelo 3 pilgrim route came from, and where the upcoming Pyrenean route came from, and will probably be where the eurovelo 8 Mediterranean, and all our other routes come from! It's just the past few days connecting things up it's gone wrong.
2 years ago