Day Forty Four: Leon to Astorga: An unexpected low point.

May 10, 2017

We had a careful look at the distances and altitudes coming up, not to mention the weather forecast. We want to position ourselves to be able to jump over the mountains early rather than late in a day, and we want to stay away from them, particularly descents, in the rain.

The first part of

the route planning seemed pretty obvious. If we would jump from Leon to Astorga, 50 easy km, then next day we should be able to start climbing right away, and reach the Iron Cross area in 40 km and 600 plus metres higher. Then we could zoom down to Ponferrada, for a total day of 52 km, and ending by going down. Leon to Astorga is a net altitude gain of zip, though there are some ups and downs involved.

So that was the plan, and even with rain possibly on the way, there was no reason to delay leaving Leon. What we did not know was that Dodie must have eaten a bad sandwich from the lovely Carrefour across the street from our hostel. She ended by being up all night, and unable to eat anything in the morning, or all day, for that matter.

Perversely, we took advantage of her not being able to sleep by getting going at 5:30. The concept of staying put until the team is well just does not seem to be in our playbook.

Leon did not help us any, either. Once outside the wonderful old centre, we were quickly injected into typical large city sprawl and traffic. Even 4 km, 10 km out, there was still nothing of any redeeming value. Worse, our sometimes friend the N120 was emulating an autorouute, with four lane traffic and steel guard rails. We put up with this for a little while, but Dodie eventually turned around and made for the walkers' trail.

Trying to get out of Leon. The way is clear but the roads are busy.

This launched a problem that plagued us all day. Use the walkers' trail and slowly grind along a gravel path, usually with higher highs and lower lows than the road, or use the road and have continuous heavy traffic with lots of semitrailers blowing (sometimes almost knock you over blowing) by.

Yeah, that's our friend N120, dressed up as an autoroute.

Dodie took to the walkers' path, but in the long run, this can not get you to Astorga in time.

Back on the road, for a while we walked facing traffic - can be terrifying.

The landscape of Leeon to Astorga is uninspiring.

Through this, Dodie felt very weak and sick. We assumed whatever the problem was would quite soon pass, but no, it hung on all day. At mid day a headwind came up, to increase the challenge. Dodie was soon walking the bike, even when on the road, and even on slopes that were essentially flat.

Now strong walkers around here can sometimes do 50 km, but actually 40km would be considered something of a double day. Could Dodie walk 50 km sick and pushing a bike? Not likely.

Although we had a booking at the posh Hotel Gaudi in Astorga, I gently suggested that we could jump into a hostal along the road and wait the illness out for a day. dodie rejected that, and I confess I was not really serious in suggesting it. We are both stubborn (or stupid) at times. Next ploy was a shelter of some type that we came across. I suggested a brief nap. But Dodie felt if she stopped she would never restart. After 5 minutes, we trudged on. Next up, a gas station. A taxi could easily find us there, and the attendant could phone. I was more serious about this one. At 3 km per hour, 50 km would take us 15 hours! Not so far beyond the gas station, Dodie got off the bike and sat down in the ditch. Ah yes, I had seen this before - in Texas. For some reason I didn't take the photo this time.

But again, in 5 minutes we were moving again. It turned out that the hill with the ditch was sort of the last hill. I have to say sort of, because Astorga has a short but killer one just coming into town. We pushed up that, and wobbled through town to the cathedral. The hotel we had plucked out of booking.com is directly across the street from it, and next door to the tourist information!

So quite quickly we went from in a ditch on a barren highway to looking out at a cathedral from a posh hotel. It had taken 10 hours to go 50km!

With mountains looming, we can not take any further chances, so we immediately booked a second night here. If strength allows, that could also give a chance to look around. right out our window is also the Bishop's Palace, designed by famous early 20th century spanish architect Antoni Gaudi. Then there is the cathedral and even a roman museum. Actual resting, though needs to be a big component, if we can figure out how to do that.

Almost at Astorga, this was an interesting display of shepherd and two sheep dogs doing their thing.

Almost at Astorga, these are cute but no doubt feral cats.

Just inside Astorga, a roman ruin includes some ancient mosaic

The Roman museum has a cover over the ruins

Today's ride: 51 km (32 miles)
Total: 1,995 km (1,239 miles)

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