26 - 27 October I stayed in Valencia and visited interesting neighbourhoods.
Friday 28 Oct: Valencia - Gandia Playa (65.1 km - 380D+)
Cool ride, first through the Turia river park out of town and then a magnificent car-free cycle path through the nature reserve Albufera. Apart from a single cyclist from the opposite direction, no one was seen.
After the town Les Palmeres the route swerved inland and I once again cycled through immeasurable rice paddies as in the Ebromouth.
The road led straight to the Pic dels Francesos (234m), which I had to bypass. Just when I thought there were no more citrus groves to be seen south of Valencia, the first oranges reappeared at the foot of that Pic. And many more would follow.
Saturday, Oct 29: Gandia - Calpe (68,9 - 600D+)
Nice ride on servitude lanes (camis) between citrus orchards, then along a calm coastal road, and the last part through and over the hills. It had been a while since my climbing muscles were put to the test.
At Calpe there is a salt lake with flamingos. So I thought it would be a quiet town surrounded by nature. The opposite turned out to be true: mini-New York on the Mediterranean! I planned to stay two nights to continue working on my blog about Valencia, but here it is a bit too crowded for me.
Sunday 30 Oct: Calpe - Altea: a cyclists' nightmare (18.7 km - 210D+)
Calpe in was a steep plunge out of the surrounding hills; Calpe out was a step-ladder to the sky, fortunately interspersed with less steep bits where the little legs could de-acidify a bit. All this over a hellishly busy 'choke pipe' of a coastal road. Picturesque fishing villages are not to be sought here....
From Denia a cycle path ran right behind the beach and I exchanged car traffic for tourist traffic. Still, one rung higher on the cycling comfort ladder.
As today was only a short ride, I still had time to swim in the sea, albeit again after a short torturous walk, partly on all fours, across the cobblestone beach. Hilariously, apart from two fishermen, there were thankfully not many people left on the beach.
Tuesday, Nov 1: Altea - Vilajoyosa (22.1 km - 200D+)
As soon as I Altea was out I reached the outskirts of Benidorm. In the distance, I could see the skyscrapers looming, spread over several kilometres of coast and deep inland. I was expecting a large urbanisation, but those futuristic skyscrapers exceeded all expectations. As Calpe little New York was, is Benidorm Manhattan. Hallucinatory.
I was curious how many people can live here. According to Wikipedia, the population rises to more than half a million in summer. Once upon a time, probably still around my year of birth, this was a small fishing village.... A little later, I read on an information panel that in 1951, with the agreement of all the villagers at the time, the municipal council decided to make Benidorm a tourist destination. They damn well succeeded in that in one 'lifetime'. Southern Spain was poor and tourism was a major source of income and employment. You can tell that the locals not deny it, but surely one day this horror must turn into its opposite and repel tourists? But for now, I still saw construction cranes there.
Once Benidorm past I passed Vilajoyosa, back a human-sized city with four- to five-storey flats. Just beyond the city and just behind a coastal rock, I cycled past Camping Paraíso, a small campsite by Spanish coastal standards with about 70 pitches right behind a rocky beach. I actually had another 25 km to cycle to a (large) campsite in El Campello, just before Alicante. There is Nagarjuna Alicante, which I will try to visit on Wednesday evening when it is open during this Semana Santa week. But I decided to stay here and only cycle up there tomorrow. The most commonly spoken language here is back Spanish. In the previous Camping Cap-Blanch was that Dutch.
November 2: Vilajoyosa - El Campello (16 km - 240D+)
Wednesday morning when I was in Playa Paraiso campsite almost packed and ready to leave, a few more Belgian and Dutch camping guests came for a chat about #cyclingfortibet. Always nice that my flags and pennants attract attention.
So it was getting close to noon before I was on the bike. Until El Campello it was luckily only 16km. However, it turned out to be 16 tough ones. Komoot had me well down again with shortcuts. It included 3km of rough gravel roads with steep up and down hills that I had to do almost entirely on foot. Then it continued on the wide hard shoulder next to the coastal road, again with some long but fortunately easily cyclable gradients.
I was actually tired when I arrived at Costa Blanca campsite in El Campello. But after a refreshing dip in the pool, I was back fully refreshed to head to the shop and Nagarjuna Alicante cycling. No photos taken during this ride.
November 3: El Campello - Elche (42.9 km - 420D+)
On Thursday I decided to try cycling inland again, to Elche. That would be a nice town, and I had read earlier that there was also a big palm grove nearby.
First, however, I had to cross Alicante, which took me a long time. Every 100 metres there were traffic lights or time-consuming round points.
Once out of Alicante I followed until Elche a long wide clear cycle path next to the motorway. It also passed by the airport. To my right car traffic and to my left air traffic. Homo mobilis, haha. Always on the move to somewhere.
The road went gently uphill with a strong headwind. Again, I felt very tired when I arrived in Elche. But tonight I will sleep in a bed once more, as there are no campsites in or near the city.
Indeed, as I turned off the main road to Elche, I cycled for several kilometres through an impressive date-palm forest. The city was apparently built in that original forest, because where you might find deciduous or pine trees in vacant lots with us, tall and slender palms are everywhere here. The large city park traversed by the deeper Vinalopo river was very much worth it.
After a rest, I still cycled to the old town in the evening for an evening walk. In Spain, people wake up again around 8pm.
16 September: Opening the door at Diamondway Buddhist Centre in Tallinn The centre's meditation sessions are open
