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!