Smooth Highway Riding

September 26, 2022

Huelva to Bencazón

So far breakfast in Spain has been just fine, and this morning was the usual spread. One real pleasure in the breakfast room was meeting the owners of the other two bikes in the storage room. They are from Switzerland. They reassured us that we weren’t the only ones who didn’t know about the bridge outage. We thought our experience was bad enough, but they biked from Faro and with the extra 35 kilometres rode 150 kilometres. Made our 89 look like a breeze. We discussed the brutal headwind too. They didn’t get to the hotel until it was getting dark. He told Keith they investigated the barricades on the bridge and next tour he is bringing a lock pick along to avoid that situation again.

Hey - what are you doing on the bike path? Your guide may need more training!

These guys piled out of their car in front of the hotel, and I was able to confirm there is no option to get into Huelva by bike, except the route we took.

Our hotel. Good thing we didn’t want to sleep in. There was major construction on the street below us. It was wonderfully quiet overnight.

Isn’t this civilized? A street for people!

Christopher Columbus, and the Spanish tour group. A tourist brochure I picked up describes Huelva Province as the secret Spain. Tourism is mostly dependent on Spanish tourists. Incidentally, Christopher Columbus left from Huelva Province in 1492, and the rest is history.

We knew today was pretty much all highway riding, and no beaches to admire along the way, so we discussed going all the way to Seville in one go. One strike against us was that we didn’t get away until 11:00. It was pretty slow going along great bike paths through Huelva. We decided to see how we felt and look at accommodation options further down the road. One of the first small towns we went through was San Juan del Puerto. A cute spot.

Our highway, A472, was so quiet. Here is where the traffic was.

While the CN was route checking I took these two pictures. Even a tiny town in Spain can manage a pedestrian street.

And a lovely square, directly across the way.

Our first stop was Niebla. We were prepared to be wowed after reading the Maher-Weary’s description of the town. Unfortunately for us the church was locked, so we didn’t get that experience, but it was still just an amazing place. It is quite a sight as you approach it with the ancient walls. It was originally a Muslim city and those influences in the architecture are still there.

Coming into Niebla after breaching the walls.

Loved the poster for an upcoming dance festival.

The blue of the sky had us asking ourselves if the sky is ever this blue at home.

We wondered when this was used. WW 1 perhaps?

On our way out of Niebla we stopped at a little Mercado and I picked up a couple of cold drinks for our lunch. We are really way out of the tourist circuit, and there is basically no English. A delightful woman and I were in stitches together as I played charades. The Coke part was easy, shivering made her realize I wanted a cold one, then came Keith’s lemon Fanta, and my sour face to indicate the lemon, since my pronunciation of lemon in Spanish was definitely off the mark. Actually, so was my pronunciation of Fanta. It was such a brief moment in the day, but such a fun one. I laughed my way out of town thinking about it, and it reminded me I want to read the book The Art of Travel by Alain de Botton which the Maher-Wearys recommend, where he talks about ‘the tyranny of the guidebook’. So often on bikes you stumble on these astonishing places and you are the only one there.

We stopped in Villarasa for lunch. Another absolutely beautiful community. We ate in the central square in the shade and felt pretty darn lucky to be where we were, doing what we were doing. The cafés were full of men having lunch and conversation. The woman were home with the kids I suppose.

The square where we ate lunch on a shady bench.

When you gotta go … you gotta go! Big honk by passing car!

The riding was rolling, and at one point Keith said it reminded him if Saskatchewan. I could really see what he meant. It had that same kind of wide open beauty. I did point out that would be Saskatchewan with orange orchards, olive groves, palm trees, pomegranates and persimmons. There were a lot of wide open fields too, all already harvested.

We saw a number of these hillside white villages.

We thought we were dodging oranges. Then the CN picked one off a tree and tried it. He thinks they were grapefruit and well beyond their due date

Early in the day I realized I had lost my favourite water bottle. It was a gift in Bamberg. I filled it this morning and forgot to move it from my pannier to my bottle cage. I don’t know when it jumped out to join some of the other plastic trash, but I was sad to lose it. It also meant a stop at a bar where I asked for water because I was out and it was another small experience with how kind people can be. Water and ice, with a smile. At this point we also decided to stop just short of Seville. We were about 35 kilometres away and the highway was so lightly travelled it was practically a bike lane. But we suspected the closer to a city and a tourist destination we were, the more hectic it might become. We booked a place 20 kilometres from Seville and will bike in in the morning when we are fresh.

So we find ourselves in a gigantic hotel in Bencazón. We had a killer hill to get here. So lovely at the end of the day. The bikes are very happy with their accommodation and we are happy with ours. Seville tomorrow!

It was a race to the top. Here comes Keith.

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Today's ride: 84 km (52 miles)
Total: 876 km (544 miles)

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Jane KyleLove Seville! Our host gave us the best advice...just walk, get lost, start over& repeat. Enjoy!
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