This 17 day series of Amanda’s first ever multiday bikepacking trip is exclusively available to Singletrack World Members. It gets more scenic as the journey unfolds, so stay tuned for more updates!
Catch-up:
Day Three: Corbera d’Ebre to Vilafranca
- Distance: 135km
- Ascent: 2,510m
If you’ve read the past two diary entries, you’ll know we’ve fallen behind schedule by roughly 25km. What I haven’t yet mentioned is that prior to getting on the plane over here we pre-booked accommodation in Vilafranca for a recovery day. Three days on, one day off gives us a chance to wash our bibs, replenish the calorie deficit, nap, and enjoy the local culture in these outlying towns we’re passing through. The only issue here is that we have no choice but to reach the end point today.
Stepping outside we realise that what felt like a hostile town last night is in fact a very quaint little place with beautiful tiles on most of the buildings, trees lining the road and a surprising amount of road cyclists passing through at a sporting pace. We make a beeline for the coffee shop that has cyclists littered throughout the patio and order cuatro cafe solo. The guy looks around, spots the laden bikes and realises we’re ordering two espressos each and brings us plenty of sugar.
I get away with a solid 10 minutes of being on holiday before Rhys gets regimented about our day and suggests we crack on to make sure we get to our accommodation in good time. I wince on the first few pedal strokes before my legs accept that this is our life now and return to a dull ache, and we tick off the first 50km with ease, distracted by endless fields of acorn blossom with a mountain backdrop. The caffeine has worn off so we find a pizza place to get a good feed to keep the momentum going. Today is going really well, so far. The views have been spectacular, we’ve had no mechanicals of bike or body, and the lure of our rest day has us both eager to keep moving.
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As I work my way through the pizza crusts that it turns out I have room for, I take a look at the remainder of the route. We have a reasonable climb out of this town, short descent, and then a really big climb, followed by a really long climb. Oddly, I’m not concerned about how much effort this will take, only how much time it will take. Rhys has taught me that ‘climbing is just pedalling slower’, so if we’ve got 85km of mostly uphill to do, we have a long day ahead of us. Given that it has just passed 14:00, we grab some cans of coke and continue our quest for a rest day.
Somewhere around half way up our first big climb, the roadsides start to become lined with snow. Naturally it gets deeper the further up we travel, and I suffer from what I dismiss as a sensory overload. Snow, sun, mountains for miles, farmland still rich with almond blossom with the added bonus of livestock, and eagles circling above. I find a switchback I deem safe enough to stop on and get off my bike, needing to feel the earth and be a human for a moment, not a bike. Rhys rolls toward me and I expect to hear him say we don’t have much time to play with, but instead he tells me that we’re doing great, the gradient gets easier from here, and once he’s put my mind at ease we silently watch the eagle.
In these moments, time stands still. We have no urgency, no worries, no desire to move on until the moment passes. I realise how fortunate I am to have found someone that shares my love for wildlife, right down to saying hello to passing moths or waving at goats. We may appear mad to onlookers, but fortunately for most of this trip we’re so far from civilisation there simply are none.
Back in motion, we make it to the top of The Big Climb and put jackets on for the descent and cut through the cold, high altitude air effortlessly. Our descent delivers us to a petrol station so we have our standard fuel stop picnic of coke, Aquarius, Oreos and whatever else has caught our eye. There’s a castle on a hill right next to us with all the houses built up to it. If it weren’t for the fact that I’m sitting on the dirty concrete of a remote Spanish fuel station eating an entire packet of Oreos, it would feel quite magical.
We now have 30km of ascending to do. The gradient isn’t harsh, but to go uphill for 30km is brutal at this time of day (18:00). I’m really tired now, I just want to get to the accommodation and have a bath. All I can think about is a bath.
Coming next
Is there a bath at the accommodation? Do we even make it there?
