{"id":4425,"date":"2012-06-15T16:10:28","date_gmt":"2012-06-15T20:10:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/tourdebocrie.com\/?p=4425"},"modified":"2015-07-02T15:08:45","modified_gmt":"2015-07-02T19:08:45","slug":"day-18-wednesday-june-13-motril-to-almerimar-spain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tourdebocrie.com\/?p=4425","title":{"rendered":"Day 18, Wednesday, June 13 – Motril to Almerimar, Spain"},"content":{"rendered":"

Had a delightful breakfast with fellow bikers, Jens & David from Denmark who had just come from where we were heading.\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

We traded war stories and each advised the other what to expect for the next couple of days. \u00a0We already knew we had a tough day ahead of us, so we pulled out at nine o’clock to a very brutal headwind.\u00a0 Our first five miles was supposed to be the easy part, as it was the only flat spot for a very long stretch.\u00a0 The climbing was long, slow and hard.\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

At our first tunnel \"\"<\/a>we could feel the wind whipping through, making sprinting through the tunnel impossible.<\/p>\n

Motril is the beginning of what they call \u201cCosta Tropical\u201d because of all the greenhouses; we heard the nickname is \u201cCosta Plastico\u201d\"\"<\/a> We had been warned that the terrain would be filled with plastic covered greenhouses.\u00a0 So at every bend we had the view of the beautiful Mediterranean \"\"<\/a> or hillsides \"\"<\/a>with plastic reflecting in the sun.\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

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

Our only break from the wind were the small towns \"\"<\/a> we ventured through, note the steep rock on the left.\u00a0 Since the interstate was not complete for this stretch, we shared narrow roads \"\"<\/a>with cars and trucks.\"\"<\/a>Three hours on the bike and we\u2019d only managed to do 20 miles, twenty very hard<\/strong><\/em> miles.\u00a0 Our wonderful break at lunch was sitting at the edge of the Mediterranean enjoying the view<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a> but we could also feel the wind pick up; great<\/strong>, as if the 20 mph we had been facing all morning was not stiff enough.\u00a0 But we still had a lot of miles to cover\u2026..all up hill<\/strong> \"\"<\/a> and into the wind<\/strong>, literally.\u00a0 Unfortunately, the views \"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

were still covered in plastic not that we took many pictures after lunch.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 The relentless headwind was full-bore on the roads that hung on the edge of the mountains we were climbing. \u00a0By 3:30 we\u2019d reached our last peak and could almost see our pillows in the distance .\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Our plan had been to have our last 20 miles flat as a reward for the mountains we knew we would be climbing.\u00a0 But the incredible head wind was torture.\u00a0 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<\/em> a town ahead.\u00a0 We found a fabulous two room apartment with a beautiful view and a washing machine (not in order of importance).\u00a0 It was 5:15 in the evening and we\u2019d been on the road since nine in the morning, six and half hours sitting on a bicycle\u2026.We Were Done!<\/p>\n

BRUTAL.\u00a0 As we look at the pictures from today, we wonder why they do not convey the pain we endured.\u00a0 But at the end of the day, all we can rememeber is how brutal it was.\u00a0 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.\"\"<\/a> Dinner was great too, but we\u2019d eaten half of it before we remembered to take a picture.\u00a0 We toasted our 54 BRUTAL miles and went to bed.\n\t\t