Day sixteen 16th June 2013

Stage 16 Albacete to Salobre

59 miles

We had a good meal out last night and felt reasonably well rested when we woke. As our confidence rises that we can actually make it to Gibraltar, we are noticing however that our energy reserves are gradually depleting. We had a good breakfast and prepared for the day ahead. Day 16 is one of our rest days, initially designed to be only 30 miles in length, but due to difficulties in finding accommodation we had to extend it to 59 miles....never mind, it should be a fairly steady day. We set off at 8:30am, having noticed in passing through the hotel foyer that the weather forecast was predicting the temperature to rise to 36 degrees in the shade today

We had a easy first few miles out of Albacete, the road was smooth and despite the gradient being a gradual incline for the first 44 miles of the day, we did not notice it at all. Both to the left and right of us the crops in the fields were being irrigated in the cool of the early morning. The temperature was holding firm at a cool 22 degrees. As we pressed on we noticed many snakes along the road, all dead having been run over by passing cars. It is a shame really, these creatures only venture onto the road in the early hours to soak up some of the heat that is still trapped within the road. They are not quick enough to get out of the way of motorists. We don’t know what types of snakes these are but these are two of the many we have seen. Any ideas what species they are anyone?

We had a first stop at Balazote, Steve once again finding us a shady stop to have a drink and a bit of food. We limited this stop to 20 minutes as the mercury was starting to rise very quickly. It looked like the weather forecast was going to be right. As we set off again the road started to twist and turn. When looking at the map you could have called this route ‘Snake Pass’, for all the snakes living along the route and the way in which the road curved its way through the hilly terrain. It was Sunday and this brought out many motorbikes, using this section of road as a way of testing their handling skills as they wound the throttles open through the twisting bends.

Having had a great rendez-vous with the our newly found cycling buddies yesterday, Peter (now nicknamed Pedro) was sporting his new cycling shirt that he had swapped with our Spanish friends.

The road was still on a gradual incline, but we did not really feel under any pressure, except for the heat that was building. The irrigated fields we had seen earlier had disappeared and the landscape looked quite barren and dry. Our next stop at 42 miles at Robledo loomed ahead and we were grateful for the break. We had eaten little at Stop 1 so this was a good time to tuck into some bread, cheese, tomatoes, cake and lots of water and fizzy orange to drink!

There was only 17 miles left to go, a fairly steady day, but as we set off the mercury rose to over 40 degrees. This is 104 degrees Fahrenheit and is really energy sapping. We also had a headwind. We spotted an old bull ring on the outskirts of town, it looked unused and a little dilapidated and a few miles further on we spotted some Spanish bulls as well:

We knew that one of our biggest challenges as we headed South was the heat and it was proving to be the case. In the shade it might have been around 30 degrees, but out on the black tarmac road the heat bounced back up at you from below as well as beating down on you from above. If there was no breeze, you would draw in huge lungfuls of hot air that drifted up from the blacktop. Foz had steadily been feeling a little nauseous during today and we think it was this overbearing heat and mild dehydration. We needed to get to Salobre as soon as we could.

With a last climb over that did not last too long, we descended into another small valley and worked our way upstream and found Salobre. The village square was quite busy as we passed through and we attracted some stares from the locals, probably wondering what these bike nutters were doing out in the midday Sun. What was it they used to say, mad dogs and Englishmen......!?!

Our Hostel Complejo Ribera de Salobre lay on the far side of the village, where we were warmly greeted. Having negotiated the Alsatian guard dog, we parked our bikes round the back and headed upstairs for a well earned rest. We had done it again, Day 16 done. We have now completed 1,270 miles with 330 to go. We had only been in the saddle for 4 hours with an average speed of 14.3mph.

But are we getting complacent? We need to be careful, this heat is becoming intense and could still prevent us from reaching Gibraltar. Riding for 6 to 7 hours in temperatures over 100 degrees Fahrenheit is a real challenge. But we must do it, we are riding for the children who are being cared for by Great Ormond Street Hospital. We have to find a way of dealing with this heat so that we can make it to Gibraltar. Onwards we go..........

The Fozball Team