February 27, 2025
Day 10: Torrejon el Rubio to Caceres
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I began the day by facing down the "Stairs of Death" - the steep marble slope that the bikes had to come down to escape the building.
Even getting to the bottom of the stairs would not achieve a total bike escape, because in an infuriating practice we often see in Europe, the door to the outside had been locked.
Eventually the bar keeper unlocked the door, and was also ready to serve up the fairly meagre breakfast that came with our room. The hotel's bar was in the mold of bars in Spain, where some kind of food, as well as alcohol is on offer. Normally the clientele is male, and today this included members of the Guardia Civil, some environmental officers, and miscellaneous other townspeople for whom this must be a breakfast routine.
Still, our little hotel in the little town turned out to be fine, and all part of the travel experience.
Just beyond the hotel we spotted some very fast moving House Martins. They were tough to photograph, but I did manage to catch one:
A bit more observation, and we saw that they had nests under the eaves of a house. In the nests were cute baby House Martins!
Our route today was straightforward. All we had to do was to follow EX390 all the way to Caceres. It was a nicely paved road, often with some shoulder, and most importantly with very little traffic. For half the way, the surrounding land was dehesa. It's an environment we find very pleasant - not dense forest, not bush, not endless cornfields, but just well spaced oak trees, with pasture between, and sheep or cattle enjoying the whole thing.
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We think the oaks that make up the landscape are not cork oaks here, but rather Holm Oak (Encina). The Holm Oak has been proposed as the national tree of Spain, much like the Maple for Canada. One source gave these reasons:
- Spain has exceptional examples of 700 years or more, growing to gigantic sizes well above average.
- Because the encina is found in almost every province, and covers 25% of the forested surface area of Spain .
- Because it is an excellent producer of wood for charcoal and for parquet. It also bears immense quantities of acorns to feed our flocks and herds of livestock in the autumn, which most years are dry.
- Because it is the fundamental element of the dehesa , the rational form of agriculture of Dry Spain, making use of its fruit and its foliage and branches, and also helping to improve the poor soils which are enriched through the dead leaves and detritus of the tree.
- Because the encina provides an excellent environ for small and big game.
- Because it survives forest fires well, and easily sprout from stumps.
- Because the encina adapts to most soils.
- Because the tree prefers a dry clime, which is the norm in Spain .
At perhaps the half way point of the ride, the oaks disappeared, to be replaced by olives. Olive trees are nice as well:
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The landscape had a really dramatic change as we encountered a huge solar energy farm, that had carpeted the fields with panels. This was probably the Ceclavín plant. Operational since 2021, that one has a total installed capacity of 328 MW and is capable of supplying energy to a population equivalent to 175,385 homes. For comparison, back home BC Hydro once proposed a gas fired power plant for Vancouver Island. The output of that was to be 240 MW. Extremadura has other solar farms as well, but the Ceclavin one is the largest.
Our relatively calm ride took on some special interest and the road began a switch backed descent to the Almonte river. Of course this was followed by an equivalent ascent. It was a good test for us, and we found that we did it, if not happily, at least effectively.
A viewpoint near the top revealed the river and its bridge below. At the viewpoint we encountered a Dutch couple. They told us that they had come off of several years roaming around Europe in a camper, but that they had now bought a house, in Breda (south of Rotterdam - near the Belgian border). They were interested to see that our bikes had come from Apeldorn, and they were familiar with the bike shop chain we had bought from. On learning that we were from Canada, they expressed sympathy for our being so close to the U.S. We have yet to encounter a single European that thinks the U.S. is on the right path.
Our next excitement came as we rolled up to a scene in which a small herd of cows had escaped onto the roadside. Some motorists on the scene were herding them back into their pasture. There is nothing like animals on the road for increasing the fun. I made a video of the action and sent it to some of the grandkids.
The outskirts of Caceres were strangely (or perhaps expectedly) suburban. But eventually we landed in the old city, or at least at the plaza mayor, which is just outside the walls. The tourist map lists 98 churches, towers, and such that one can visit inside the walls.
We thought we had booked at a hotel, but our place turned out to be small apartment one street away from the hotel. We like it a lot, particularly for its three small balconies. Balconies mean doors that we can open to increase ventilation.
We sallied out to buy some groceries and postcards, but holding off on any major visiting of churches or towers. We have a day set aside tomorrow for that.
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From stuffed storks to real birds, we had a fun time today, snagging five new birds for 2025, including the Red Kite and the familiar Black Headed Gull. That brought the 2025 total to 105. Here are some of the birds we saw today:
Tomorrow we expect fewer birds to turn up, but more churches and towers. There is photo fun of some type every day!
Today's ride: 55 km (34 miles)
Total: 175 km (109 miles)
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