Day forty five

 

I find a bit of shade for a brief pause.

I leave the bargain hotel outside Balanegra after a cafe con leche and tomato tostadas (2.20 euros). It's another clear hot day and ahead are several climbs to overcome that I do not relish. 

Not long after starting out Maps.me takes me on a crazy 'shortcut' that seems more like someone's private property. A steep drop down to the beach via a concrete pathway with twists and turns that I am hardly able to get the bike around while applying both brakes to stop it crashing down. Ahead I see the way is fenced off with a gate. I leave the bike and descend the 'pathway' to check that it is possible to open the gate. Otherwise I would have to unload the bike and carry various items back up singly as the bike is far too heavy to manhandle back up fully laden. The gate opens, so I continue down with the bike, not knowing what will be around the next corner. I am unable to close the gate afterwards as the handle does not allow it, which seems quite bizarre.

I leave the bike while checking to see if the gate below opens.

As I descend I expect someone to shout out any minute in Spanish, 'WTF are you doing!' Amazingly no one does and Maps.me follows the route exactly down to the nearest meter, otherwise I would be convinced it was an error and I had taken a false path. How these apps., find these routes is a complete mystery and Google maps is no better. This is not a route for a bicycle!

I carry on regardless resigned to the fact that I may have to return the way I came carrying my luggage back up in manageable sizes.

Eventually I do reach the beach and I am able to ride onto a tarmac road again. Not long after this I am taken onto another beach where there is clearly no track but Maps.me indicates I am exactly on track.

... and what happens to bikers when it rains or the tide comes in?

Soon after the beach ride I am taken down a track beside a plastic fantastic greenhouse. The plastic wrapped landscape of Murcia reaches the outskirts of Motril, albeit not as densely as yesterday. Shredded black plastic from the vegetable fields clings to broken fencing along one dirt track.

Shredded black plastic everywhere.

Just after lunch Maps.me takes me off the N340 onto a coastal route, which is 2km longer than by car on the N340 and includes two steep climbs. The extra kilometers I can handle but not two big climbs. I decide to follow the N340 instead for the rest of the way to Motril. Once on the N340 it begins a long slow climb that is peddlable but hard going. After a couple of kilometers climbing a car pulls over 50m ahead and the driver gets out and begins walking towards me. There is no other traffic or anyone else about so I assume he is going to tell me off about something.

He is friendly but adamant that I cannot carry on the N340 as he claims further along it becomes an Autopista on which cyclists are not allowed. I am skeptical and ask if he is a cyclist and if he has ridden to Motril. Whether he understood my questions is hard to say but he gave me the impression that what he was saying was true. My only experience of an A road turning into a motorway is the A1(M) in the UK. So it was conceivable, though normally motorways are self contained. I decide to turn around and follow the Maps.me route after all, having wondered what it was really like while climbing the N340.

I double back and soon pick up the N340a (the old N340) and a bridge that the car driver had pointed out. It is not long before I hit the first climb and my legs are wilting. Then my worst fears are realised as I am taken off the N340a onto a very rough dirt track. I can hardly believe it and then I come to what I think is a dead end!

My heart sinks as I assume the route ends here.

A truck has blocked the route and there is nobody around so I lean the bike against some crates and walk on to see if there really is a track that I can ride on. Behind the truck the narrow dirt track takes a sharp right-angled turn down the side of plastic greenhouses and that corresponds to Maps.me data. I pick up the bike and just manage to squeeze it through between the truck and greenhouse. Not long afterwards I arrive back onto the N340 and can only assume that guy who had told me to turn around was a bit of a control freak and did not like the idea of me doing something he dare not. I simply do not believe that there could be a 5km stretch of autopista joining the two ends of the N340 but I will check that eventually. Certainly Spanish road building leaves plenty of room for some odd ideas.

Update: Having since looked at the map it appears the guy was correct and just concerned, so I take back all that I said above. Really there should be a warning sign to all cyclists that the road ahead is not permitted for cyclists.

Plastic rubbish everywhere and just left to blow in the wind.

I ride into Motril eventually using Google maps to take me to a hostal I have chosen. It too takes me off onto some seriously dodgy dirt tracks but the first hostal is 'complet'. Nearby is another but that is closed for the next weeks. Eventually not far away I find a reasonable one-star hotel after what must have been almost 70km today. Another tough day ends and tomorrow looks equally as bad looking at the GPS data. Bigger climbs than today but at least after Malaga it all gets much easier ... famous last words.

I decide on fish and oh, what a dish! Perfect end to a trying day.

I decide to have an evening meal at a restaurant next door as it looks very popular and I have been snacking all day but feel the need for a proper meal. I choose fish without knowing what fish it is or what it comes with, thinking a small dorado would appear. Instead I get half today's catch. Baby squid that were delicious and tender, monk fish, prawns, shark and several other white fish that looked familiar but I could not put a name to.

Today the bike's tripometer passed the 2500km mark, which means that since August when it arrived in Germany it has done nearer 2600km. Maps.me usually indicates a higher speed often 1kmh faster than the tripometer, so it is quite possible the bike has done much more, it certainly feels like it.

Clearly Google maps and Maps.me have algorithms programmed by young Silicone valley whizz kids who all own top notch mountain bikes. They haven't given a second thought to elderly cyclists, racing cyclists, touring cyclists or those simply out for a Sunday ride. Google do give a warning that routes may not reflect real world conditions. Maps.me gives no warning. These apps., may be OK for walkers or motorists but they are certainly not OK for cyclists.