As I set off this morning I dropped out of town on a sheltered road which once again was freezing on the fingers bit I wasnt going to put bigger gloves on as after the 4 mile descent of 800ft I immediately had an 800ft climb in the sunshine which soon warmed me up !
The climb was steady and went through a gap in the mountains. Yesterday, near the top of the climb into Ronda, I had caught a young dutch couple, and we chatted briefly at conquering the climb. Today I passed the same couple near the top of the climb again but they were heading off into the natural park, whereas I would just skirt it as I needed to cover lots of mlles to get to Seville tonight.
I was soon cycling along another rather dried up lake and could see the pretty hilltop village of Zahara de la Sierra, once past I stopped on the dam to get some photos and there wouldnt be many more.
From here I had 60 miles to cover on straight roads, they are the worst as nothing changes quickly and the miles last longer.
The route looked very much downhill all day but the road was like a saw with multiple saw teeth - it was no sooner down than up all the way to El Coronil where I had a great tapas lunch. The town looked worth an explore but my svhedule dictated I had to move on.
As I left Utrera about 20 miles from Seville there must have been 500 cyclists hurtling along in each direction, in groups and singles. I suspect it was some sort of club night, anyway I couldnt compete with the weight I was carrying bit though it would be funny if it was a Time Trial and I crossed the finish line ... It wasn't, much to my disappointment.
At about 10 miles to go I hit the Seville motorway convergence - I was on a service road adjacent which frequently almost put me on the motorway itself, it also went to gravel and clay and it ramped up at nasty gradients every time it crossed a motorway.
But I was eventually on a cycle path which took me the last 5 miles safely into the city where I'll be enjoying its delights for 2 days as Im taking a day off the cycling tomorrow.