March 13, 2025
Day 24: Sevilla to Lora del Rio
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We slept poorly last night, because of a series of problems each of which had come up fairly recently. The first, and most recent, was that the hotel room here is not only tiny, but has no window. I woke up around midnight, sweating all over. And I usually sleep under extra covers. I turned on the air conditioner and opened the door. (Dodie strongly opposes such a tactic, feeling the air conditioner should be left on its own to do its thing. But at this point she was asleep, so ha ha.)
I had been up earlier, desperately scrolling through a credit card account on the small phone screen, trying to figure why the extra funds (credit balance) we had deposited there had disappeared. The situation was complicated by the fact that the card had earlier been compromised, resulting in a pile of fraudulent charges, some of which had already been reversed by the card company and some they were still working on. We had cancelled one of the two card numbers on the account, and that was the key. The cancelled number was held by Booking.com to pay for a bunch of future bookings. But with that card number no longer valid, Dodie took the other number and paid for all the bookings right now. That helped evaporate a fair pile of money. But was our current balance correct or not? Without paper statements or in fact any paper (or pen) at hand, it can really muddle your brain scrolling that little screen!
Dodie woke up, with another problem on her mind. Spain had been hit with torrential rains, and these were forecast to continue. To what extent was our track coming up going to be on gravel road, which would now be mud, or water? We had looked at so many potential routes that we no longer knew the source of what we planned to follow today. Only "cycle.travel" has an explicit selection for paved roads only. So I dragged out the big computer (contrary to morning procedure), developed a route to our next stop (Lora del Rio) on cycle.travel and compared it to what we had had. All different! So I put the new route into the GPS phone, something that requires a fair number of steps.
Could we find anything else to worry about? Yes! At the Hacienda I had swapped out all the brake pads, but this highlighted the fact that Dodie's rear brake could not be adjusted. We knew the reason - there is a fluid leak somewhere. They need bleeding, and/or research see where a problem might be. In Spain we have found exactly one mechanic who has any ideas or parts for how to deal with Magura brakes. That mechanic is in Girona! Everywhere else we have ever tried is a complete blank. With the hills beyond Cordoba coming up shortly, this is a legitimate thing to lose sleep over.
We listened to the rain pelting on the roof of the hotel, and reluctantly admitted we could not go out in something that heavy. The forecast called for all sorts of on and off at various intensities through the day. We couldn't do any planning around that, so we just waited for the rain to let up, which it did quite promptly, and sallied forth.
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2 weeks ago
I had my choice of problems to run through my head as we set off. As it happens I chose the brakes. Specifically, I thought I would describe in the blog how yesterday on our way in through town I had been carefully watching for a bike shop. But nothing. "Well what kind of shops did you actually see?" I asked myself. I decided that restaurants/bars and hairdressers were the easiest to find. I mean, a photo like this is dead easy to get:
I was thinking about what kind of quip I could put in the blog about the value to me of a haircut or a beer, vs. a brake bleed, and maybe you are following along with me in this reverie, so you too will be jolted by: "WAAA! Dodie, stop, STOP!". We had just walked in front of a "Bicycle Workshop", with an open door and three mechanics standing inside.
My optimism was short lived, despite even the fact that one of the mechanics spoke some French. In any language, the message was that the guy who understood Magura would not be in until tomorrow, so no hope. Ian Satoor of Paris who first showed me how these things work -are you reading this? Can you believe these three had no clue? It's not really all that complicated, though you do need the Magura fittings to connect in the fluid.
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I took out the camera one more time, to record that we were now outside the city wall. That of course did not mean we were outside the city, which extends for another 10 km!
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The next hour and a half was spent fighting our way out of the rest of the city. There are some bikeways, to be sure, but they maddeningly switch back and forth across roads, when they are not following the median.
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2 weeks ago
2 weeks ago
We did eventually break free of the city, and were feeling pretty smug about our cycle.travel route.
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Our joy was short lived (again) because now it began to rain in earnest. That accounts for the complete lack of photos to illustrate the next several hours of cycling. And those several hours were, honestly, hell. The road turned into a very busy rural thoroughfare, with lots of dumptrucks, semi-trailers, light trucks, and cars. The shoulder was almost non-existent, and the road - particularly just to the left of the white line - was broken, patched, and re-patched. And of course, to the right of the non-shoulder was a ditch that one would not want to fall into.
I was in my traditional position at the back, where I would have the front row seat should Dodie hit the ditch, or get clipped by a passing truck. But I was also really impressed by how she handled the situation. This really required "professional" skills, to focus, keep a straight line, and control the bike in the bumps. The fact that I am calmly typing this now means she was golden!
For my part, I can share some of my musings. The cold rain was really chilling. But I mentally checked over my body. My legs were really snug in their tights and rain pants, and my Merino hoodie and rain coat were good, so my core was warm. So, I reasoned, my body should have plenty of reserve heat to send to my hands and feet. The problem is, I don't have good enough circulation to deliver that available heat. Dodie, always perceptive, stopped the caravan and dug out some of our precious supply of chemical hand warmers. The only thing, my hands were also drenched, and seemingly these things don't work under water. Oh well.
Our fortunes changed somewhere after Los Rosales, when the road became smooth and much less trafficked. On either side were glorious orchards of oranges, olives, or almonds, or fields of potatoes. The sun somewhat came out, but still not enough to record these glories I am speaking of.
After a while, I did drag the camera out a bit, so I can show some oranges and some smooth road:
From this point we quickly made our way to Lora del Rio, which turned out to be a quite large town. The Rio in question is the Guadalquivir, which is busy winding its way to Seville, and on to the Doñana park.
We found our apartment, and after the usual amount of struggle got the keys from the lockbox, the bikes inside, the heater and the wifi figured out, and so forth. So we are set for the night, and we have also pinpointed the Mercadona grocery, which will open at 9 tomorrow.
But now Dodie has checked the weather forecast on Google. Yes, Spain is suffering flooding again. And where? Guadalquivir, near Lora del Rio!
Google says: "By Friday night, Guadalquivir is expected to rise compared to tonight. Use caution if going near the riverfront." And where does our track go? You guessed it. We may have to re-route, and certainly to stay off of any low lying or gravel tracks!
Today's ride: 65 km (40 miles)
Total: 743 km (461 miles)
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