It was a cool 69 degrees this morning when we left just before 8 am.  Not sure what we missed for the first hour or two as the sun was directly in our eyes and all concentration was on the narrow shoulder we had been afforded along the highway.  Did find a small pull off to glance back and get a photo of the water and our narrow highway.

When we found a chance to get off the highway and ride on a boardwalk, we took it.  We followed what seemed like miles and miles of condos and hotelswith very few cars and people.Though we lost our seaside boardwalk we could still see the water below;  the climbing had begun again.Homes were stacked on rocks, 

giving further evidence to the steepness of the roads.  As if the climbing was not bad enough, about 11 am a strong wind blew hot and dry off the ragged rock mountains into our face.  Luckily, in the towns, we were shielded from the wind, but the heat remained.

Way before noon we arrived at the edge of Malaga, too early to stop for the day, so we found one of the few shady spots along with many others

and had lunch.  On our way through town we passed one of the many “fish cookers”we had been noticing on the beach for the last couple of days.  We passed through a newly renovated harborwith a beautiful view of a huge church on the hilland the lighthouse.We still cannot understand why all the beaches are so deserted,

guess the season has not officially started yet, even though the water is perfectly cool in this desert heat.  Heading out of town, we continued to enjoy the sparkling Mediterranean.

The wind was now swirling, pushing sand everywhere and though sometimes it tossed us around on our bikes, it made for beautiful views as we rode.The climbing remained a challenge which we took on slowly.  We checked our map and decided to get over the huge hill we saw before us, instead of tackling it first thing in the morning.  We were rewarded with a tunnel that appearedhalfway up our climb.   Two miles later, we found a hotel right on the beach and enjoyed the place we had just come from

in a relaxing chair on our deck.  The dry 100 temps, hills and wind had took their toll today, but with no one on the beach or walking the boardwalk, we were perfectly content where we were.  That was until dinner!  Found a cool little beatnik kinda place and had a goblet full of incredible Gazpacho for appetizer and Rellenos for dinner…Fabulous!  We waited for the sun to set and then retired.

Amazing how good one feels first thing in the morning on a flat road with the wind at your back; and how quickly the euphoria can be blown away when the wind flies down from the mountains and almost knocks you off your bike as it smacks you in the face.

Though today’s start was close to the same temperature as yesterday, it felt much warmer, probably due to the warm wind coming from the hills.  We rode boardwalks

and beautiful towns

along the coast with only moderate climbing.

We were making good time despite a long conversation with Francesa from France (seriously), still biking at 78 years old; meanwhile I snapped pictures of a little boy immensely enjoying the beach.

The vistas of the sea the homes enjoyedwas incredible.

By eleven a.m. we were at our halfway point, unfortunately, the majority of the climbing would be the second half of the ride.  Hairpin turns

offered spectacular viewsas we laborously climbedand climbed.Seemingly deserted coveswere around every bend, it’s just every bend meant more climbingand even a couple of tunnels.The sound of cars coming through the tunnel is unbelievably loud and the inside quite eerie and intimidating on a bicycle.The tunnels saved us a little climbing, so we were happy, every little bit helps with the climbs are this brutaland the fly-downs were very short lived.  But we’d noticed the wind had eased and the temps had cooled so we were as incredibly drained as the day before.  We finally reached our last climb of the day and could see the town we were staying, in the distance.An hour later, after passing an old castle (we think) and crossing a dry river bedwe arrived at our destination.

After almost six hours on the bike, there was not much touring we could do and not much the town had to offer other than one of the widest beaches we’ve ever seenand a view back at the mountains still left to climb.

Ever since reaching Spain, we have desperately looked for restaurants that open at what we consider a decent hour, 7:30 has been the earliest.  Tonight we had to wait until 8:30…. really cramping our early dinner routine.  But tonight’s paella was more than worth it.

Had a delightful breakfast with fellow bikers, Jens & David from Denmark who had just come from where we were heading.

We traded war stories and each advised the other what to expect for the next couple of days.  We already knew we had a tough day ahead of us, so we pulled out at nine o’clock to a very brutal headwind.  Our first five miles was supposed to be the easy part, as it was the only flat spot for a very long stretch.  The climbing was long, slow and hard.

At our first tunnel we could feel the wind whipping through, making sprinting through the tunnel impossible.

Motril is the beginning of what they call “Costa Tropical” because of all the greenhouses; we heard the nickname is “Costa Plastico” We had been warned that the terrain would be filled with plastic covered greenhouses.  So at every bend we had the view of the beautiful Mediterranean or hillsides with plastic reflecting in the sun.

There were a few towns that managed to escape the plastic. This was a particularly pretty cove as was this one and this one with no road or walking path in/out, though the deer (bottom of picture) managed to find a way.

Our only break from the wind were the small towns we ventured through, note the steep rock on the left.  Since the interstate was not complete for this stretch, we shared narrow roads with cars and trucks.Three hours on the bike and we’d only managed to do 20 miles, twenty very hard miles.  Our wonderful break at lunch was sitting at the edge of the Mediterranean enjoying the view

but we could also feel the wind pick up; great, as if the 20 mph we had been facing all morning was not stiff enough.  But we still had a lot of miles to cover…..all up hill and into the wind, literally.  Unfortunately, the views

were still covered in plastic not that we took many pictures after lunch.  The climbing continued for three more hours with not much relief on the downhills; half the time we had to pedal downhill just to make forward progress.  The relentless headwind was full-bore on the roads that hung on the edge of the mountains we were climbing.  By 3:30 we’d reached our last peak and could almost see our pillows in the distance .

Our plan had been to have our last 20 miles flat as a reward for the mountains we knew we would be climbing.  But the incredible head wind was torture.  There was no place to hide from the wind (except behind Jerry), but there was also no place to stay at this point and there was no way to pitch a tent in this wind, so somehow we plowed on; there was what we thought to be a town ahead.  We found a fabulous two room apartment with a beautiful view and a washing machine (not in order of importance).  It was 5:15 in the evening and we’d been on the road since nine in the morning, six and half hours sitting on a bicycle….We Were Done!

BRUTAL.  As we look at the pictures from today, we wonder why they do not convey the pain we endured.  But at the end of the day, all we can rememeber is how brutal it was.  That is, of course, until dinner, which we start with some of the best calamari we’ve ever had and at least two baskets of freshly baked bread. Dinner was great too, but we’d eaten half of it before we remembered to take a picture.  We toasted our 54 BRUTAL miles and went to bed.

It was a beautiful cool morningand best of all there was no wind, yet!  We didn’t even complain about the two mile climb we had to get back to our course.  But as is usually the case, the climb offered us a nice viewof the sea of condos we’d just left and the hills we had to climb.  We were still surrounded by greenhouses loaded with vegetables.This one’s for Robyn.  You will disappointed to know that we have yet to see ‘chips and salsa’ on a menu, but we did find you plenty of tomatoes to make your own.

Finally broke free of the ‘plastico’ and once again enjoyed pretty townsand beautiful, yet deserted beaches.As we understand that is soon to change, the season opens July 1; in the meantime we will thoroughly enjoy the beach to ourselves (almost).We continued to enjoy great towns and moderate climbing despite the mountains that continued to loom around every turn.There were several tunnels that had maintained the original road

so, not only did we avoid tunnels, we also had great views from the edge of the cliffs.We had not packed a lunch, so enjoyed a the view from a beachside bar.Have we mentioned that today is a gorgeous day?!  Amazing what the lack of wind in your face will do to you demeanor.  In between a couple of towns was this wonderful boardwalkwhich we had all to ourselves.  We had promised ourselves a shorter day today, so we could enjoy a little rest.  So at 40 miles we stopped along the beach and checked into a ridiculously large hotel.  One 140 meter pool and the recreational pool that was so large it had an island in the middle of it.The rest of this is pictures of our Pig-Out, saladpizza

and a huge bowl of Bolognese, just too embarrassed to put that picture in, too.

Our friends from Denmark had offered us an alternate route with a map through a natural park that would save us a lot of climbing….perfect!  So we traveled away from the coast into the desert.At times it was tough to remember that we were in Spain and not in Nevada;many features remained the same.This desert, however, still had the trademark greenhousespyramids and what looked like old fortsto apparently protect against the cowboysand aliens (much better than the movie).Though the sun was hot, there was a cool breeze from the sea we could feel on the downhills.  Since we snaked through this plateau with moderate climbing,the wind was not a bother.

Thought this to be very out of place;

we felt we were in the middle of the desert, which we were, but the Mediterranean was actually not that far away.  Once we were offered very exact directions

through the desertand what looked like a vineyard, but these were olive trees.

At one of the crossroads, as we waited for the map to jump up and tell us “turn this way” a couple pulled up and said “go right, it’s much more beautiful”……this from someone in a car.  Actually, the ride down was fun, the homes along the way, expensive

and the beach beautiful.On the way into town, met a Frenchman on his way in the direction we just passed; Jens your map has been passed along.  We found a shady spot with a couple of chairs and enjoyed lunch

with an incredible view.As much as the two of us would have enjoyed this spotall day long, we still had riding to do.  Not sure how we manage to always have a climb immediately after lunch, but we do.  Actually, this is when the real climbing was to begin, we just didn’t know exactly what was in store.  The towns had become expensive and the views remained spectacular.We are continually amazed how they build the condos right into the side of the mountains.We have also noticed a lot of projects halted in the middle of construction, but this one was massive…. this is where the real tough climbing began.This was a beastwith beautiful vistas, if we happened to be resting at just the right spot.

There is no wonder that this is called the Sierra’s of  Spain.Aren’t I looking ever so casual about the EXTREMELY long three mile climb we’d just completed…NOT!!

As we came around a corner on our fly down we were greeted by the Mediterranean in front of us….the climbing was over, or so we thought.  We had a couple of more climbs before we would reach the town where we would rest, but luckily they were nothing like the four kilometer mountain.  Our reward around the last mountain bend was another beautiful viewand our stop for the night.  We dined outdoors along the shoreline with a very nice waiterand a delicious bottle of wine with a very interesting name.We celebrated our climbing, our 47 miles in five hours and Life!

The cool air, clear sky ride out of Mojacar was beautiful this morning.Miles of beaches and several interesting condos.We joined other bikers on moderate climbs through hills of slate and shale.There were very few homes along the coast, but the ones we saw had a paradise oasis carved out with a view of the Med.We passed old castlesand ruins of origins unknown to us.Not sure why the Romans, or whatever empire it was that found this desert area important, but there was definite evidence of their dominance.We were surprised the empires of today had not overtaken these majestic views.The winds remained light and the views spectacular.The water was so clear, it tempted you to jump in.This one if for the GoatHeads in Maine.This mountain seemed to follow us for several hours, but the watermelon crop in the foreground seemed to soften it’s starkness.  We dropped down to the beach at Aguilas, but we had barely done 30 miles, so stopped for lunch and decided whether to make it a short day and rest before tackling the mountain that was between here and the next town, 25 miles away or to move on.We looked for a hotel to no avail.  The tourist office suggested the next hamlet with three choices available.  Of course, this was another five miles away, UP a hill.  But with an end it sight, we managed the pedal on and dropped down to yet another beautiful beach.

Stopped at the first place we came to and they were closed, uh oh!  Two more choices and one offered Wi-Fi, so we pedaled up the highest hill in town and were able to check-in to Hotel Mayari. This proved to be an incredible find, a desert rose.  The view from the multiple terraces

was magnificent and the breeze that blew up from the sea, magical. We wandered down to the beach and enjoyed the afternoon as the locals do, with a drink by the seathink we’re getting the hang of this.  We strolled back up the hill to rest for dinner, but first a drink.

Our hosts, Joaquín and Alicia, had been gracious enough to fix us dinner, so we did not have to go back down (and up) the hill again.  They must have know we were hungry, as the plate they served us would definitely challenge our abilities even as delicious as it was, plus an unexpected treat of a local dish that was magnificent.  Though we could not quite finish dinner, we were able to find room for this most incredible dessert, another house specialty.  If you ever find yourself in this ‘neck of the woods’, we’d highly recommend a stop here.  We’d actually recommend going out of your way to stay, it is so relaxing and the owners are incredible….they will make your stay truly special.

We retired early to rest for the tough day we had in store tomorrow.

Gibraltar to Calabardina, Spain

318 miles