Wow – I have just had the best and the worst day. I thought it was going to be shorter than yesterday, but it turned out to be longer (55km) and harder (over 2000m of ascent). 2 old war wounds in my left knee started to give me pain, and it was the hottest day yet. But I just took it really slowly with lots of rests and stops for photos and video…in all it was 5 hours of cycling and 4 hours of resting. I even had a doze in the sunshine at the top.
But what made it really worthwhile was the down-hill at the end – 1000m of descent over 20km, sometimes shallow but in places very steep, with every kind of surface. There was lots of lose gravel, some boulder fields, mud and a slate-like rock surface with the sharp grain pointing up at the tyres, threatening to give pinch-flats.
The views were as usual spectacular. Early on in the ride I came across a large vale high up, surrounded by hills; it was very lush and appropriately called Bonansa:
Further on I got amazing views of the Espadas to the north…this was what I could see while having a my lunch-time doze.
It was baking hot, and I used my water filter 3 times during the day to refill my water bottles – so I got through about 10 litres of water.
I spent so long on the trip that the sun was going down as I followed the Rio Esero gorge into Campo
But overall it was excellent, and I’ll give my leg a rest in Campo for a day.
You can get more info on the video diary as usual.
