The Bikepacker: Bikepacking - Gavin to Undués de Lerda

Day #

State of Legs

:-|

	Distance (miles)	Distance (km)	Ascent (feet)	Ascent (metres)	Punctures
Today	80 miles	km	5413 feet	metres	0
Trip Totals	2078 miles	km	89000 feet	metres	0

Today's Route

Relive the Route

Route So Far

Travelogue

This will be a short report (you may be glad to know!) for the simple reason that I am completely bushed! So much so that I'm writing this piece whilst lying down, the only position my body will currently accept!

Yes, today was really hard and frankly it has to be the hardest day I ever spent on a bike.

The seeds of today's hard, hard ride were sewn yesterday. It was difficult finding accommodation for my first night in Spain. But for today, with my route heading west and away from the larger towns, it was almost impossible. The area I cycled through today is very sparsely populated and there just aren't campsites, apartments or hotels.

I normally look for something 50 or 60 miles along the route from my current position. But I was forced to expand the area to 70 yesterday before I found anything. And to compound the issue, my route planning tool which I use to assess the distance between points on the route seems to have consistently under-estimated distances on this trip. So the 70 miles turned out to be 80. And no, I didn't get lost. If anything the actual ride distance should have been shorter by a few miles because I deliberately cut a corner near the start. So, this is where the ride started to turn into something harder than I really wanted to take on.

But it was also incredibly hilly and has broken the trip record for ascent in a day by about 1000 feet! That I didn't see coming at all.

Anyway. The ride started well enough. Downhill and fast, heading south. Then I turned right and started my journey to the west. At around ten miles into the ride I entered a small village and it had a bar/restaurant with quite a few people outside it. I sat down, had coffee and got myself a bag of ice cubes for the hot-headed phone. It was a weirdly unfriendly place by the way! But I got what I needed.

But that was the last bar, shop or anything retail-related I saw for another 40 miles! There were very few villages and those that there were usually needed a detour from the route to explore them on the offchance they'd have something like a shop. You could usually tell instantly that they wouldn't because the village had half a dozen houses at most, for example.

By lunchtime I was starting to run low on water and so took the chance to cycle off route and up a hill to a small village. There were no bars or shops but there was a public drinking water tap, so I got lucky and filled my two main bottles mounted on the bike. I did still have my emergency third bottle in my camping bag.

At the fifty mile mark, it was me that was over-heating as I came to the town of Bailo. I could see a public swimming pool on the outskirts of the town, a mere 100m from the road I was on. Any town that has a public swimming pool must surely have a shop or bar, I thought. Better still, the swimming pool had a bar! So, I got a cold coke, had my water refreshed and got some more ice.

I was still expecting to cycle only another 20 miles at this point.

When I left the bar, the weather had completely changed in minutes. Instead of blue skies and hot sun, it was now overcast and very windy. Weird.

I continued and on checking the map, saw I easily had another 30 miles to go, not 20. It also got incredibly hilly, with climbs I thought would never end, made worse by the wind.

The sun may have been hidden by clouds but I was still drip, drip, dripping with sweat. And so I was drinking and drinking. Both bike bottles were emptied. I liberated the emergency bottle and took a drink before filling one of the bike bottles from it. I estimated I only had five miles to go but I wouldn't have made it without this extra water. And biscuits. My in-ride food was a packet of biscuits which did do the job just about. My legs did keep functioning.

On the subject of my legs, it became apparent very early on that they were really quite tired after yesterday's crossing of the Pyrenees. They never quit on me but they were tired and then very, very tired. With water, biscuits and a few psychological tricks which basically involve lying to myself about how far I've got left to cycle, I managed to keep them going and mission was accomplished.

I'm now in the teeny, tiny village of Undués de Lerda in the dormitory of a hostel. I've not used hostels on this trip before and frankly I didn't imagine I would. With Covid as the context, I can tell you that the idea of sharing a room with a bunch of strangers is not at all appealing!

But.....it was all I could find. And right now, I'm the only guest in this room. Let's hope it stays that way!

Update: it did not stay that way. I'm now sharing with six other people. Arrrrggghhhh! :-)

The village is celebrating its patron saint so there are apparently several days of partying going on. Since I arrived there's been non-stop brass band music, more or less under my window. I have ear plugs :-)

The hostel has an associated bar down the street. I went there at about 5pm and everyone seemed hammered already! I got drinks and a jug of water to rehydrate. I asked about food.... bocadillos (very large sandwiches) were advertised on a board. I was told they'd stopped serving food. But someone evidently felt sorry for me because they made me a queso (cheese) one anyway!

I'm probably taking a rest day here tomorrow. I'm officially worn out!

Update: I'm not spending another night here! The communal sleeping experience is not for me. Instead I'm cycling about 35 miles to a town called Tafalla where I've booked something in Airbnb.

Oh, and I've done more than 2,000 miles now.

Here's the profile for today, followed by photos.