Yes, I know I said I was taking a bit of a blog break - and I am. Still though, yesterday’s ride west on the Carrilet was a fine outing, as good as many others in the tour. Why not put it up too?
The Carrilet is the extensive via verde route that runs from Olot in the west to Girona, and then continues on east to the foothills at the edge of the valley. We rode the eastern portion yesterday on the way in to Girona, and today we rode it to the west for as far as time allowed. Since we didn’t get our lazy bodies in motion until nearly noon, time didn’t allow for all that much. We did manage to fit 40 miles in, but we had to scramble a bit on the way back to make it in before dark.
The ride was interesting and attractive the whole way. The western end of Carrilet has the same general character as the the eastern section - a good unpaved surface that generally follows the Ter River upstream for about 15 miles before breaking away and working through the volcanic hills of the Garrotxa. Until it leaves the river, the route is quite flat and passes through a diverse agricultural landscape. Much of the route is bordered by small, well maintained garden plots. I don’t know what the situation is exactly, but it looks like the plots may be leased out or function as a very large community garden. They all are about the same shape and size and don’t have any residences nearby, so people must come in from elsewhere to cultivate them.
We made it back to Girona just a bit before 5. As soon as we reached town we headed straight to Eat, Sleep, Bike to drop our bikes off for servicing. It should work out great - the mechanic speaks English well and inspires confidence. They’ll each get a good maintenance tuneup and be ready for their upcoming loop of Taiwan. After dropping them off we walked the half mile back to the hotel, and arrived shaking and quite chilled. Relocating ourselves down near the tropics is looking more attractive by the day.
Girona is very easy to navigate by bicycle, with a well developed cycle network. Here, we’re just leaving our hotel, biking the wrong way down the path beneath the elevated train line. Soon we’ll figure out we’re going the wrong way and turn around.
Signs of resistance are everywhere. I finally got around to researching what the signs and yellow ribbons are about: they’re in protest of the continued imprisonment of the leaders of last year’s independence movement. They’ve been in jail since last October, pending trial for rebellion, with a possible sentence of 25 years in prison.
Bruce LellmanI always say it's better to have a surplus of plane trees in your back pocket than a deficit. I'm actually surprised you used this image here. You could have put it in with Taiwan photos just for some plane tree nostalgia and to see if anyone noticed it wasn't from Taiwan. Reply to this comment 5 years ago
Scott AndersonTo Bruce LellmanGot it covered. I’ve been saving a few images for just this purpose, as well as a few wine shots (or is that shots of wine)? No beehives though. Reply to this comment 5 years ago
There’s about a mile-long stretch of the Carrilet that passes through a series of tree plantations, each of a different species. A patch of plane trees, a patch of alders, a patch of aspens, a patch of something catalpa-like.
Many of the agricultural plots that line the Carrilet have pyramids of giant cane stalks. It looks to me like this is harvest season for this fencing and gardening material - we saw several scenes of men cutting down and stripping cane and burning the refuse.
I was impressed by this colorful, fresh-looking bit of wall art in (I think) Cellera de Ter. And it really is fresh - the artist is still on site, putting on the finishing touches.
Amer, I think? I should have taken notes, obviously. It really might be helpful to have a dictation device of some sort to take notes with as we ride along.
