Day 4: Cycling around the central West Side of Gran Canaria island, Spain.
It was an amazing day! From Galdar to Aldea de San Nicolas, with only a few villages and hamlets in between. It was 30 km of climbing followed by 30 km of descent. On the climbing side, all green and a nice breeze, but the climbing started at 20% grade and for at least an hour I had to walk it! The other climbing was about 10% avg, doable, but slow. I took many photo breaks.
When I finally hit the peak, I was surprised at how much hotter it got, and very little vegetation, or houses. No wonder there's no freeway on this side of the island. The cave -house people who live on the green side appear to live off-grid, so they wouldn't want it. And the other side is an unlivable rugged desert.
But, the landscape is incredible and more of cliffs and drops!! I'm so glad I got to see this side, which I doubt many tourists do. I only saw about a dozen cars today btw.
Enjoy the annotated photos. I usually try to limit them to 10 or 20, but these are the ones I couldn't cut out!