Monday 26th: Aguillas to Almeria (135km)

Todays cycle would take me into Andalucia along the driest coast of Spain. It is thankfully not too developed and where there are towns they tend to be low rise. The cycle out of Aguillas was nice as I snaked through the sand dunes along the coast. I stopped off for a morning coffee in a bar with a vast amount of pottery hanging all over the place. The ride along the coast was pleasant. Soon I was in Mojacar the biggest development on the Almerian coast. It was alot nicer than the resorts further north and I stopped off for lunch in a modern cafe where the staff were extremely helpful. It gave me a good feeling for Mojacar. This area of Spain was very depopulated in the 1960s so much so that the mayor offered free land to anyone willing to develop within a year. Luckily the lack of roads helped save this coast from the mistakes made elsewhere. The road from Mojacar to Carboneras was one of the most dramatic of the journey. The first half is a climb to a viewing point followed by a terrifying descent as you can see from the photo. Once I reached Carboneras I had to head inland as the road did not continue all the way along the coast. There is an electricity plant at Carboneras that emits 3.2 millon tonnes of CO2 a year the most polluting plant in Andalucia and the fifth most in Spain. I would have liked to follow the coast down to the Cabo de Gata national park. I had visited before by car and it is a lovely spot with very laid back resorts and some of the least spoiled coastline in Spain. Due to the lack of roads I had to use the motorway for 10kms which I wasnt looking forward to but in the end it was fine as it had a wide pullover lane. Once off the motorway I had to cycle through the vast fruit plantations again. Alot of the fruit we buy in Ireland is produced here with the help of migranr labout and the towns around the plantations looked very poor with mostly african workers. The sun was now shining brightly and it was pushing 22c as I enjoyed the beautiful views of the med on the road into Almeria. Almeria looked like a lively and pleasant place and I checked into the oldest hotel in town, a 2 star that apparently movie stars used to stay in when maling spagetti westerns in the nearby Tabernas Movie Studios. Alot of westerns used the studios as the scenry around Almeria looked like the Wild West.

Sunday 25th: Carthagena to Aguillas (100km)

It was a bit of a wet morning so i didn´t look around Carthagena any further and hit the road. Today was slightly unusual as I was only going to pass 2 towns on the whole 100km journey. The first destination of the day was Mazzaron, a town with a resort attached. Once clear of Carthagena the scenry improved and it was a lovely cycle up to a pass before whizzing down towards the sea again. The land here is very dry but quite uninque and impressive to look at. After the usual lunch of salami and bread I prepared myself for a further 55km through some very isolated mounatins. There were no real towns between here and aguillas so I stocked up with water before heading off.

I started to see the large fruit plantations covered in plastic. This area of Spain has made a lot of money from intensive farming of fruit in huge plastic covered fields. There not very attractive to look at though. The road began to climb and climb and climb and I felt I was in a very remote place. There were a few county houses and the the mountains were impressive.
There seemed to alot of dogs around but thankfully none game any chase. After an exhausting climb I reached the summit pass and enjoyed the longest freewheel of almost 20km into the seaside resort of Aguillas. It was 4.30pm and I knew I should do another 20km but I was tired so checked into a hotel that advertised the fact It had internet.
I asked the chain smoking grandmother at the reception for a room and she asked me to wait for 5 minutes for her son to return. She managed to squeeze in another 2 fags before her scrufy looking son arrived and gave me the key without looking at me. To be fair the room was clean so after a shower headed out to have a look around.

Saturday 24th: Alicante to Carthagena (115km)

All the photos on todays blog are from the morning in Alicante as once i started heading south there was little to look at. In fairness the weather was bad and the first 20km or so from Alicante is pleasant but the area around the resort of Torrvieja is terrible. Very depressing to cycle through and although I know Mar Menor can be nice my mood had beeen soured by then. I was looking forward to tonights destination of Carthagena. An almost forgotten corner of spain. The city has a fantastic natural port and the small centre is atrractive enough. I enjoyed the utter spanish-ness of the place and I managed to have good night chatting with the locals in an Irish and Spanish bar near the hotel. I wouldnt be in a rush back to Carthagena but its certainly a millon times nicer than Torreveja and its environs.

Friday 23rd: Javea to Alicante (105km)

Javea is a pleasant town and I was delighted to be able to have breakfast outside at a beach cafe. It´s lovely to be able to do this almost all year round and not be locked away inside for many months of the year. I had to rejoin the road to Alicante that I had deviated off yesterday and this involved a fairly steep climb to the village of Gatos de Gorge. The name gave me a hint of what type of terrain to expect on the road to Calpe.

The uphill stretches were rewarded with lovely scenery and the downhill towards Calpe was very beautiful. The big resorts between here and Alicante are Calpe, Altea and Benidorm.

There is no town in Spain that can compare with Benidorm. Forget the costa del sol for tower blocks, Benidorm leaves Torremolinos in the shade. One of the hotels is almost 60 stories high, more than Canary Wharf. It looks like a mini Hong Kong from afar. The weather was begining to darken so I didnt get the chance to visit and decided to push on to Alicante. I cycled over a poster advertising Danny la Rue playing Benidorm this weekend.

I stopped for a bit of lunch and to shelter from the few drops of rain. There was a large group of germans enjoying lunch and the english owners seemed to be a bit over stretched. The weather deteriorated sharply after lunch and thunder and lightening greeted my arrival into Alicante.

I got a total soaking as I cycled in the centre. I may as well have gotten into a bath. The cars passing me added there contribution too. I finally found a place to hide and phoned a hotel recommened in the guide book and was cheered to find it was only 50 meters away from me.
It turned out to be a lovely place in what I think was an old convent. I had a four poster bed for the first time on the trip. Once the rains ceased I headed to explore this very spanish ´city.

Thursday 22nd: Valencia to Javea (120km)

Having looked at the map I was excited at the prospect of cycling through La Albufera, a large lake (although only now 10 per cent of its original size). Once I had cleared the suburbs I was delighted to find my slef on thr right road theat runs through the villages of Perrollon, famous for producing the best Paella in Spain. The swampy terrain is perfect for the growing of rice and it was unusual to be cycling through paddy fields for the first time in my life. The natural enviroment was lovely and it was only scarred by the terrible pink seaside skyscrapers that that dotted the landscape. The spanish have done parts of their coast no favours at all. It could be some much better. Once i hit Gadia and Olivia I re-entered the resorts again and it was nice to make it to Denia the first town resort I had seen since Tarragona. Denia is the quickiest crossing to Ibiza and Formentera and a boat was about to leave as I arrived at the port. As I had stayed in Denia a few years ago I decided to push onto Javea 10km further. These 10km turned out to the be the toughest and possibley most scenic of the trip so far. A lovely stretch of nature and coastline that deposited me in the nice resort of Javea. There was a much more in season feel to the place with many pensioners from northern europe enjoying the mild climate.

Tuesday 20th: Peniscola to Valencia (150km)

As i was the only guest and the owner had gone I let myself out of the hotel and made an earlyish start on the road. The road to Valencia was covered in Orange trees and had been fought over for many years due for its fertile lands. The skies were a bit grey this morning and by the time I hit Benicassim it had started to rain slightly. I stopped in the centre of the town for lunch. It was nice to go to a cade in the main town for lunch and enjoyed olives, jamon serrano and manchego cheese under covers. Benicassim was different to the resorts I had passed through and it thankfully had trees which made a town so much nicer. The rain never really happended and I pushed on with little of merit to distract. I stopped off in a trucker cafe and enjoyed a lovely selection tapas for virtually nothing. Valencia started about 15km from the centre and it was dark by the time I reached the hotel that I had selected from the rough guide. After checking in I had a look around and was delighted to discover that the town had a great selection of bars and restaraunts to celebrate the news of the birth of my brothers new son "Harry Joseph".

Monday 19th: Tarragona to Peniscola (140km)

It was only in the morning sunshine that I realised what a nice spot Tarragona was. Enjoying a large amount of roman remains, it has an envious location overlooking the med. The streets were pleasant with many cafes with tables outside. An nice place that warranted another visit. I headed out of the city towards the resort of Salou. Salou is a popular destination with Irish holiday makers visiting the Port Aventura resort. I have never seen a greater collecion of petrochemical, packaging and nuclear power industries than I have seen strung out along the road between Salou and Tarragona. The air was gettting a bit heavy as I cycled through the smog. Salou was errily quiet with only about one on ten shops open but the nearby resort of cambrills was a bit better with 1 in 5.




I had been informed that the coast between Tarragona and Valencia was a bit boring with few nice beaches or points of interest. I would have to concur but feel that the locals could do a lot more with this strech of med coastline. The river Elbre flows into the med at an ugly town that if in France would have taken advantage of its location. This coastline could be a lot better but seems to suffer from a lack of interest. Plant a few trees and it could start to be a much nicer place.

Peniscola was the location of the film El Cid and it is a striking medievil castle located on an penisula jutting out to the med. It had a very out of season feel as I walked past many IOS style bars and restaraunts that had been closed for the last month or two, The castle is lovely and the modern beach is both as ugly and as useful as any other on this strech of coast.