Spanish Bikepacking Diary – Day 10

Amanda and Rhys continue making their way from Barcelona to Malaga, finding every obstacle possible and eating everything in sight.

Catch-up:

• Day One
• Day Two
• Day Three pt1
• Day Three pt2
• Day Four
• Day Five
• Days 6-8
• Day 9

Elche De La Sierra – La Platera

• Distance 133km
• Elevation 2,580m

I’ve woken up feeling rough. After time-trialling for over 100km yesterday to outrun a storm, I can now confidently state that I am terrible at flat, all out efforts. They are mentally draining as much as they are physical and yesterday has left me feeling both depleted and defeated.

So far on this trip, I have wanted to know precise numbers for the ride ahead of me. This is the first long distance, multi day journey I have been on and I am anxious about how tired I am, so having a countdown is (in my mind) helpful. It might be adding to the anxiety though… Maybe a point-to-point with a flight booking at the far end isn’t the most sensible approach for a first time bikepacking trip? Anyway, I check the route and it is the toughest planned day of the entire trip, mainly thanks to this ‘gem’ Rhys found:

Alto de Despiernacaballos from La Toba is a climb in the region Andalusia. It is 11.6km long and bridges 644 vertical meters with an average gradient of 5.6%, resulting in a difficulty score of 480. The top of the ascent is located at 1581 meters above sea level. – Climbfinder.com

The Morning

We say goodbye to our security Alsatian and head down the hill to the pharmacy. I have a headache, backache and a stomach ache so a drug restock is a high priority. It’s quite cold, but the storm clouds are nowhere in sight, so at least our hardest day shouldn’t have any adverse weather adding to the challenge.

Within the first 30km we’ve been blessed with some of the best scenery so far on this trip. A huge turquoise lake in the distance provides a brief spell of motivation to me, and we take the opportunity for a snack stop and stretch our legs. I drag out the break by playing a game of ‘I Spy’ with Rhys, having spotted a car that has fallen a long way down from the road to the lakes edge, but eventually he spots it and we’re forced to continue.

Early Afternoon

We’re climbing up a dusty white road through a nature reserve. This is one of the most densely green areas we’ve travelled through but I’m struggling to find any enjoyment in it. My battery has run out, and it doesn’t matter how I word it to Rhys, he’s failing to appreciate just how worn out I am. I keep needing to pee which is incredibly time consuming since I have almost all my clothes on. I’m too cold. I’m hungry for something specific but I don’t know what it is. I can’t push on any more, and I have the biggest breakdown I’ve possibly ever had on a bike.

It’s worth mentioning at this point that following our visit from Charles, Catherine and Flash a couple of days ago, Rhys no longer has any of his camping equipment. He offloaded it all into their van, believing that we’ll be credit card bikepacking for the remainder of the trip. So now, as I sit in a crumpled heap of merino and tears, I completely lose it with him.

Amanda: I can’t ride any further

Rhys: Well you have to, because we’re nowhere near a hotel

Amanda: I have everything I need on my bike to have a nap right now

Rhys: I don’t, so come on. We need to go

Amanda: I can’t

Rhys: We need to go

Amanda: I CAN’T RIDE ANY FURTHER

This goes on for long enough for me to find some fire inside me. Maybe I convert the anger into usable energy, and somehow I get back on my bike and crawl as slow as possible uphill. We’re due to be climbing for at least 50km so maybe a miracle will happen and I’ll die, and I won’t have to carry on. That is how bad I feel right now – death would be preferable.

Mid Afternoon

My Garmin is almost launched into the abyss after it plays a jolly jingle and changes the screen to the ClimbPro page. I guess it’s time for Alto de Despiernacaballos. I sob, pee, eat, sob, eat, and repeatedly ask Rhys where the alternative is. ‘There isn’t one’ is unacceptable, so eventually he shows me that the only alternative is much longer with an equal, if not higher, ascent. I guess I’m going up this 12km climb for 644m then.

Late Afternoon

I’ve actually found my sense of humour at last. And do you want to know what it’s taken for me to be so broken that I can’t fight it anymore? Snow. We’ve climbed high enough to see the first signs of that storm, and it’s bad enough to turn us on our heels and send us all the way back down. So that’s a large chunk of time, energy and resilience wasted. La la la la kill me now la dee da.

Early Evening

We’re attempting to make our way around on the alternate route, which is unknown in terms of exact distance and elevation, we simply know it’s a long way. My situation hasn’t improved much, but I’ve accepted my fate now and stopped wasting precious sodium on tears. As the light begins to fade we start feeling quite vulnerable. We’re basically lost, it’s cold, patches of snow appear more and more frequently making us question if we’re going to get stuck on this route too, and there’s been no signs of civilisation for far too long.

Evening

This road just keeps on going up. We’re approaching a higher altitude than we were at when the snow was impassable, but this road is slightly more trafficked than the other so it hasn’t stuck. Having not seen civilisation for quite a while, I’m relieved to see that the few cars that have passed were headed for a small patch of houses, and I wonder if we’re going to find a bed for the night. The usual reassurance and safety of seeing people is broken by the hostility from their huge barking dogs, and we continue moving forward.

Way Past Our Bedtime

We made it out of the nature reserve, peaking at 1,420m altitude, and it’s a 12km descent to a town with a hotel in it. Rhys got enough signal to get on Booking.com a while ago so we’ve got a carrot to chase now. Knowing that I don’t need to exert myself again today, aside from lifting my aching body into bed, I can finally stop worrying. We’re flying down the hill, taking the switchbacks as wide as we like with the security of no oncoming headlights. The road is bordered with some large blue reflective poles, I assume for when there’s deep snow, but with my Exposure light bouncing off them as I blast full speed through the centre of the road I feel like I’m going into warp drive.

Actual Bedtime

We made it to the hotel, and two flights of stairs later our bikes are in the room and we’re heading down for a stone baked pizza. Before going down I nip to the loo one last time, and finally realise what’s been wrong with me all day. The Womb of Doom has joined us, and since my monthly cycle is so bad it tends to make me physically sick, I stare into the bathroom mirror for a moment and try to decide if I’ve got the rest of this trip in me. I look ill, my face is grey, my eyes are dark and I don’t like how much of my ribcage I can see. I manage an eye roll and a brief apology to Rhys, go get a pizza and limp back up to bed.