clairedavieswriter

It’s a bit misleading to talk about how far we climbed today because the more important figure was the 1,045m we descended. Sometimes we freewheeled for so long it felt like cheating:

There were some amazing views on the way down:

But long steep descents have a drawback: we were chilled to the bone by the time we reached the spa town of Baños de Montemayor. We limited our pampering to a coffee in the sunshine

And opted to warm ourselves up soon afterwards with an additional detour to Hervás, a tiny hilltop town founded by the Knights Templar in the 12th century.

These days, it is best known for its 700 year old Jewish quarter, and judging by the many guest houses and restaurants, it’s doing good business from tourism

By this stage, we had bade farewell to the vast region of Castilla y León, which we’d been cycling through since day one, and entered Extremadura:

We had also joined the road which will carry us into Andalucía. Once the main road from Gijón to Sevilla, the N-630 was rendered largely obsolete some years ago by the construction of a motorway. It’s now a popular paved route for cyclists wishing to follow the generally off-road Vía de la Plata

Because what kind of masochist chooses gravel when you can ride on tarmac as smooth and deserted as this?

The few vehicles using it generally crossed the centre line when passing us (I’m afraid the single exception was also the only British car we saw, an SUV towing another SUV on a trailer). We often used the broad hard shoulder, but unlike in the UK, when we rode side by side, no one objected – in fact it was officially encouraged

The Vía de la Plata is also the pilgrimage route from Seville to Santiago de Compostela, and there were quite a few pilgrims heading north on foot, as well as the first touring cyclists we’d seen

Landscape-wise, we’ve definitely arrived in the dehesa – think African savannah, but with dark-leaved oaks and cattle instead of thorn trees and giraffes

Lunch was a variation on Empanada Gallega – this time with the addition of egg. As cycling fuel, it’s definitely giving the tortilla sandwiches a run for their money

Today’s lunch venue was a little lacking in charm, but the tarmac was warm, the hard shoulder deep, and the crash barrier surprisingly comfortable as a backrest.

And did I mention the traffic?

Novelties of the day include our first orange tree, our first olive grove and our first sighting of oak trees with their bark stripped for cork:

Tonight we’re in the old walled city of Plasencia, that we know very little about. Just as well we’ve given ourselves another day off, to look around. Tune in tomorrow folks, to see what we find out.