Day 167
La ciudad no es para mi
Our time in Spain is coming to an end. Leaving Burgos brought that home to us, we felt as if we were no longer touring but heading for home. Spain though, hadn’t finished with us yet!
The first few miles were on semi-busy roads, safe but a little boring, relieved only by yet another puncture, my fifth, always the rear! Debs 5 / Tom 4! Shortly afterwards we left the road and joined the greenway, probably a continuation of the disused railway line we had ridden on to arrive in Burgos. We had a bit of excitement when we realized the line went through not one but two tunnels, then it was back on the road.
The road started to go up, and as we climbed the views got better. We were heading away from any villages, there was a good covering of snow all around, and when we turned onto a fairly narrow lane I started to get a bit concerned that we might get stuck. Spain though clearly has an awesome gritting crew, even on this tiny road in the middle of nowhere they had worked their magic. After a morning of slow but steady height gain my Garmin showed that the road appeared to drop off a cliff, and down we went! We hadn’t seen a soul for hours, then we spotted a guy walking towards us, as we passed, he smiled and gave us both a round of applause, what a nice man!
Tom spotted a small sign saying ‘Cascada’ with a picture of a camera. Such a great idea, making us aware of a great photo opportunity. So, we took a small diversion, and very impressive it was too, especially with all the snow melt water flowing. Tom was happy, he couldn’t hope to get a better waterfall shot today, or could he?
We stopped to eat at a second camera spot. The vultures were out giving us another stunning show, flying above the cliffs and over a vast canyon. We were cycling by the river Ebro, at 580 miles it is technically the longest river in Spain, as though there are two longer rivers, they discharge into Portugal. The rocks above it are made of limestone and over the centuries water had flowed through and over them creating stunning shapes. As we neared out destination of Escalada they became even more dramatic. This was surely the best views of the day! Well actually, no, the best was yet to come.
We were spending the night with a Warmshowers host, Sergio. We received a wonderful reception, though Sergio did say he thought we were mad to be riding at this time of year. After a warming drink and an entertaining hour or so with Tom teaching Sergio's two children a very amusing drawing game, Sergio offered to take us out to see a couple of waterfalls. Camera in hand, we headed off in one of those weird things called a car. No need to pedal! Just a couple of miles away lies the village of ‘Orbaneja de Castillo’, though any castle remains have disappeared many centuries ago. The village is considered to be one of the most beautiful in all of the Burgos region. Built into the hillside, with tiny paths linking the houses, and a stream flowing through the centre, fed from a subterranean river. This flows into a series of pools below the village and combined with the looming cliffs above, including a pair of kissing camels and other weird and wonderful shapes, makes for a fantastic setting. Today though it was beyond fantastic, the snow melt had turned the small stream into a raging torrent of water. It was flowing so fast that houses looked in danger of being washed away. Sergio explained that at one time the village had upwards of a dozen water mills, now replaced by bars for the visiting tourists. Tonight only a handful were wandering about. We climbed up to the mouth of the cave where the water was gushing from, in addition it was flowing from rocks all around, there was so much snow melt fresh waterfalls were being created all around. It was hard to leave, so we decided nothing for it but to try out one of the bars. It was closed but we were welcomed in and given a free glass of wine. We do love Spain!
Back at Sergio’s, after a guided tour of his village, he cooked us a fantastic meal. Home grown produce turned into food of the gods. We chatted over dinner, and Sergio explained so much about his village and life in Spain today. His village has over 200 houses but only 30 are lived in all year round. We have seen the same in all the villages we have cycled through. In Spain the village family home is often shared as a holiday retreat, and many more simply left to decay. This means more and more villages are losing their shops, pubs, schools etc. On a poster in Sergio’s kitchen were the words, ‘La ciudad no es para mi’ We completely agreed, let’s hope more come to realise this before we lose these precious village communities and a fantastic way of life.
