Via Verde de Sierra revisited....

During the night we had torrential rain and the forecast was for more but the sky cleared and it stayed dry all day for another wonderful day on the Via verde de Sierra with its 30 tunnels and the nature reserve with soaring vultures. We never fail to be enchanted by the safe cycling along deserted trails surrounded by stunning countryside, the warmth of the Autumn sunshine on our backs as we pootle along. Lyndsay, our daughter, said the other day 'aren't you bored of cycling?' Well, the answer has to be definitely 'No!' There is always something different to see along our route, the pleasure of finding a little village with a Bar to find for a coffee and researching and finding all the different Vias Verdes has given us a very different trip with a sense of purpose.

Once again we were able to cycle the complete length of the trail starting at each end ( I think that means we cycled it four times in all?) staying this time on the Camperstop at the old railway station Olvera (only 7€ a night with electric hookup and water)

We didn't regret coming back and revisiting this particular Via Verde and we were lucky with the weather as the next morning the rain was coming down in torrents.

 

We packed up in the rain and headed to another Via Verde located south of Córdoba (La Campina). There are no camperstops anywhere near it so we headed to a village (Fuencubierta) about halfway on its length where it intersected a road and hoped to find somewhere to wild camp, which we eventually did, by a picnic area on the trail, under the shade of an enormous eucalyptus tree. With plenty of daylight hours left we headed south on the trail, once again discovering quite different scenery - more olive groves with haciendas perched high on the hilltops.





The trail was quite stony, slowing our progress so we only did 13 miles - bringing our total mileage on our bikes this trip to 620 miles or 1000 km!! Just to put
that into perspective- we have cycled the equivalent distance of the entire length of Spain from top to bottom - Yikes!!!

Wednesday morning and we set out on the Via Verde La Campina heading north towards Córdoba, the trail was quite stony with a few tarmac stretches, we were surrounded on this journey by vast fields which would be used in the summer for cereal or sunflower crops.

Along the way we stopped for coffee in a bar along the way, enjoying the Spanish atmosphere of the bar with the village elders excitedly playing dominos at the back. I didn't know dominoes could be so much fun!

There were some lovely views along the way, the distant town of Almodovar with its castle perched high on the hilltop.

So we ended up spending two nights wild camping completely undisturbed. Time to move on again......