10/02/2023 Bikepacking Spain Day 55 : Escape the Route and make plan M

Long exposure of last nights camp by the leech infested waters. I think I got them all off of me! Janet is already snoozing in the tent. —

Some drone footage from yesterday when I had one bar of 3G - not enough to post a video! —

An early start, suggested by Janet. Rather than do a big climb in the afternoon heat, we opted for doing it in the morning. Smart idea, Janet. —

Long exposure of the Milky Way from last night. If I expose for 30 seconds at night, the photos look like regular daylight shots! —

Do you know how the corks for (some) wines are made? When I was making my own wine, natural corks were $1 each. If you were drinking a bottle of two-buck-chuck, that would mean that 50% of your wine cost was the cork! Making my own wine cost more than $2.50 per bottle! Anyway, here is a little info about how natural corks are made- I find it fascinating (from the web): “The harvesting and production of cork is not only sustainable, but it also serves to provide employment and economic purpose for many communities. Cork harvesting is an ancient tradition, using the same method for thousands of years. It is done by hand for two months a year – June and July – when a skilled cork harvester splits off the bark of a cork oak tree without damaging the rest of the tree. Each tree can live between 150 and 250 years, and is harvested every nine years – at least 15 times during its life. No other tree can support and flourish from this process, and cork tree harvesting actually improves the tree’s health and vigor. Furthermore, more than 100,000 individuals in the Western Mediterranean and Northern Africa regions depend on the cork industry for their livelihood. “

Time to hurry to the train! We decided that although this route is nice, we want more “different than home” scenery. We raced to a train to skip ahead along our route. At one point, Janet got ahead of me. Normally I catch her pretty easily, but I worked hard and still didn’t see her. Did I pass her? I have an AirTag on her bike and I looked… she was 2 miles behind me 12 minutes ago. 🤔. She could have covered 2 miles in 12 minutes - so either she was ahead or behind. I hurried forward just in case. After a long effort, she came into view ! Janet was going faster than ever. Maybe it is because there was the promise of a train! We made the train with only a couple minutes to spare. Wow! I took that as a sign that “yes,” we were meant to take this train. 🚂

Ok, while taking this photo, 3 sheep ran in front of the camera. One of them did a leap like the cow jumping over the moon. Quite the ham for the camera! Except, I saw it with my eyes and didn’t react quickly enough with the shutter. Unlike Janet, the sheep did not come back for a redo photo, so it got cropped out. 🐑

Trains…. Sigh. I always dread trains because of the bikes. This one wasn’t too bad. We put our bikes in the wrong place - in front of the exit door - because there were bikes and scooters in the proper place. The conductor came and said, “who put their bikes here!?!” We jumped up and admitted guilt. He was pretty nice considering. We explained there was nowhere to put them. He didn’t kick us off, though. Instead he let us suggest a new place for the bikes. “Do you have a lock?” he asked. “No, I don’t need a lock…” His face looked shocked, “yes you do, here you do!” As if it were a scene from friends where Joey and the rest of the gang were following a script, a dozen other passengers emphatically shook their heads saying, “around here, you need a lock!” It was pretty funny, my naïveté… but he let us tie the bikes with a nylon strap instead. 🔐

Yay for you and speedy Janet and making the train on time! The pic of the Milky Way is very cool. So nice to be away from it all and see so many stars!

K K.