SE Spain cycling trip 2:colourful buildings and demolition

Day 6: Nerpio to Caravaca

Rather sorry to leave Nerpio and hope to come back with family for another encuentro de cuadrillas. I took some local advice on a track over the hills which I duly followed up a deserted valley, over a pass (a little pushing in places) and down to a village with ahh! a bar for mid-morning coffee! (making up for yesterday's ride on which I passed no such opportunity for this little luxury of cycling in Spain). After that I was back on the asphalt, in a landscape rather gentler and, surprisingly, greener than on the NW side of the mountains. I relaxed so much I didn´t look at the map, sailed past my turnoff and came out on the main road between Granada and Murcia. Not what I´d intended at all, and I would have backtracked if it hadn´t been quite a long way, and past a farm with some very nasty dogs. I´d outrun them on the downhill but didn´t fancy trying on the uphill. The main road had a shoulder, like most seem to now in Spain, so it makes for easy cycling even if not the most pleasant, and got me to Caravaca in a couple of hours.

Caravaca a handsome and historic city and pilgimage center, with this amazing building for the gruesome spectacle. Very helpful man in tourist information was enthusiastic about the Valle de Ricote (date palms, oranges and small but steep mountains), an area I was a bit dubious about after seeing the mess around Lorca.

Day 7: Caravaca to Blanca:

The stable clear weather has come to an end and some nasty stuff has hit most of Spain, with snow closing Madrid's main airport, but down here it only comes in the form of wind - a howling north-westerly.

Started off with about 30km of bike path following the old railway line between Caravaca and Murcia. The via verde, as it's known, was not always easy to follow and did a big detour round Bullas where I lost it completely. I'd been intending to follow it to Mula, but decided to strike north sooner rather than chase around looking for the elusive bike path. Bullas is a wine town, and I admired this bodega building on the outskirts.

The country north of Bullas was a big surprise - really rather beautiful, a mixture of almonds, arable and scrubby, steep mountains. Most of the farms had kept the old buildings, and the hideous villas were absent until near Ricote. Having a bite of lunch in the shelter of a wall in what seemed like the middle of nowhere, I was surprised to see 2 soldiers with guns appear round the corner. They were looking for a spot out of the wind to use their radio, and we had a pleasant chat. They were paratroopers, a man from San Sebastian and a woman from Cadiz, checking out a place to jump, but not today in this wind.

Approaching Ricote it suddenly began to change, with steep rather bare hills dropping down to the valley and its citrus orchards. Many of the houses are brightly coloured: particularly - yellows and pinks mostly, but some blue. This pic is not straight but the palm trees give you a clue why. Only place to stay is a fantastically luxurious but very reasonably priced converted manor house, not only shelter from the wind but makes me feel like a rock star.

Day 8: Blanca - Jumilla

Today presented something of a route-planning dilemma. There is a main road running pretty well straight to Jumilla, but the only 100% backroad route looked very long and up and down. So I compromised by doing a short stretch of main road, not so bad with the hard shoulder, and then heading off on backroads. The IGN 200,000 map proving very useful as it marks a lot of roads the Michelin doesn´t, and which are often not signposted. So far I´ve found it totaly accurate. As yesterday, todays ride was mostly through farming country (almonds, olives and, approaching Jumilla, vines) and between sierras. All looks very dry, and the spring flowers are nothing like as exuberant as in Mallorca. The farms that dot the country rarely have trees around them, certainly nothing you would call a garden, presumably because of the lack of water. Apart from the citrus in the Valle de Ricote and the odd fig tree, I´ve also seen almost no fruit trees on this trip. At least round here, as against in the coastal ranges, the almonds look cared for. The fields (groves seems the wrong word for such small trees planted so far apart) are on a big scale, like the olives in Andalucia. Vines mostly very small and planted far apart.

Entering Jumilla I admired this bodega building. A sign further down the street advertises the "proxima construcción" of another mass of new houses. Not for the first time on this trip I find myself obsessively photographing buildings which might not be around much longer.

Day 9: Jumilla - Villena

Late-ish start after a mosey around Jumilla and visit to the very interesting archeological museum. A few km out of town I stopped into a bar next to a turnoff that I thought was the road I wanted, but no signpost (it was, in fact - thanks to 200,000 map again). A couple of old boys eating deep-fried cheese with their wine for elevenses, which reminded me of the tourist blurb about Jumilla gastronomy: ¨many dishes have a high energy content¨.

Back road for about 20km between 2 ranges until I got near Yecla, at which point navigation came unstuck, with too many roads and no signs. Gave up and did a 5km stretch of main road, hard shoulder as usual, and with the wind at my back I covered it bowling along at 40km/hr. Spain is the easiest country in which I have ever cycled: wide roads with hard shoulders (unless they´re so minor there´s no traffic) and courteous drivers who give you a wide berth and don´t hoot at you. On this trip I have not had a single near-nasty with a vehicle, and that includes riding in Barcelona, Palma, Valencia and in and out of several medium-sized towns.

Anyway, past that stretch of main road I turned off on a minor road to Villena and stopped for lunch in the shelter of a ruined farm as the wind still rather strong. Nice sky blue wash on the peeling stucco. A short while further on crossed into Alicante province, pretty much coinciding with a subtle but noticeable change in the landscape. It´s greener, and the farms often have trees around them - big pines, like around some of the farms in the Garrigue - and even some fruit trees. Looking further east the hills are wooded and it begins to look almost like Catalunya rather than southern Morocco.

Villena: I hadn´t been expecting much of this place after seing the usual curtain of high-rise from the train on the way down, but it´s really very pleasant. Some lovely squares with children playing, despite it being rather chilly; old buildings renovated rather than waiting to be demolished; restaurants that look like you might actually want to eat in them. It feels rather Catalan, but as I found out the following morning from a friendly man with a degree in archeology who was selling bread in the market, it's nothing of the sort. Administratively part of Alicante province, Villena is Castellano-speaking, though just a few kilmeters to the east Valenciano is spoken. It´s nice to finish wanting to continue: it would in a way be nice to carry on into the Pais Valenciano, but that is for another trip.

Its been a great little trip of 9 days covering 584 km through 4 regions and 5 provinces.