Andalucía: Where the uppers are downers and the downers are uppers

There are many ways which one can have a great day of cycle touring.  You can have perfect cool weather, great views, find a shortcut, whiz down long hills, find a cheap and tasty cafe or better yet, you can find all of the above.  That was our day last Wednesday.  We had spent the night cozily on a section of collapsing road, just out of sight of the detour route and away from the glare of the headlights.  We awoke casually at 9:00am, broke camp and rode downhill towards Alhama de Granada.  Alhama, a classic Andalucían town, was glowing brilliantly white below us in the morning sun.  We rolled in, found a cafe and ordered breakfast.  We generally get the same thing everyday, uno cafe solo, uno cafe con leche y dos tostadas tomate.  That´s one black espresso, one espresso with milk and two toasted baguettes with tomato mashed on them.  The toastadas, when smothered in olive oil, salt and pepper, are the best way to start any day on the bike.  All this came to just 3.50€, about 5 bucks for two of us.  Happily fed, we bagan our climb out of the valley.

Alhama de Granada

From here on things only got better.  For one, today was the first day we weren´t completely dying from the heat and as a matter of fact, there was a noticable crispness to the air.  Fall had arrived in Spain.  Finally.  We peddled on, through a place called Vuenta de Zaffaraya, between two giant limestone peaks and were greeted with Malaga province. This greeting included the most intense looking road decent we´ve ever seen.

But, it wasn´t to be, just around the next few bends we noticed a sign on a crumbly road heading over a saddle:  Perianna 8km.  Perianna, was a town we´d planned on passing through, though this road was not on our map.  Our map showed one road into town, and it started at the bottom of this gigantic hill.  Going on a hunch, we followed the crumbly detour.  The result was spending the rest of the day following a quiet high level road, enjoying panoramic views and avoiding a long climb back up.  It was perfect. 

Over the next few days were were treated to some of the best views and hills Andalucía has to offer.  If only the downs lasted as long as the ups, because these were seriously huge hills.  Each day we´d find ourselves 5-700 meters above our low point the day before and each high point would be followed with a long, winding, exhilerating descent.  The best one was from El Torcal.  The climb started in Villeneuva de la Conception, a small town accessed by a frighteningly steep, curving decent.  We stopped for two coffees, contemplating the massive hill in front of us.  We were exhausted already from several days of these hills, and the grind to El Torcal was painful.  We took many breaks, enjoyed the view and for our effort, began a 10km decent.  Most roads here have at least a few hairpin turns but after just two of these, the road from El Torcal  straightened out and we rolled on out of there at just under 80km/hr with fully loaded bikes.

And so it goes through Andalucía, long hard uphills, beautiful views and crazy downhills.  It´s exhausting, but it´s just the right combination for unbelievable cycling.