Day 6 Ciudad Real - Villanueva de Alcadarte

All refreshed and ready to go after a rest day. Getting out of Ciudad Real put the day on the wrong start. The signs were so misleading and I ended up doing a 10km circle involving accidently getting on the motorway which was heading South!! I hate
heading south!! Having finally passed my lack of directional skills over to the help of Mr Tomtom, I was finally out of Ciudad Real.

Then, well there really isnt much to say. Just straight road. I've hit the flat part. Which is nice in a way, but boring in another. Its just peddle peddle peddle, go go go. But the easy flats of course wasnt going to be that easy for me. Mr Head Wind was back, and back with avengance too! The good thing about straight flat roads is that i'm getting more lattitude for my kilomters. On moutnains the roads are windy and bendy, which means i'm not heading north as the crow flies. I'm putting more kms in! Saw an Irish pub in the middle of nowhere which was nice to see :) It was closed, otherwise i might have popped in, to see if it was ran by anyone English speaking! I havnt spoke to anyone face to face who speaks English since leaving Gibraltar! - And it will be a long time before I do!

Headed into a couple of towns, got lost again. Had a Burger King, keep the calaries going. And just kept peddling. Really actually quite boring. Very little to see. Just nothing but farms. The odd up and down, but just straight road. More farms, and some more farms.
The next few days are mentally a bit crap. The reason. Ive been heading quite east today to swing around madrid and line up with the west coast of France. There really isnt any major landmark places between here and Pamplona, which sits a few days away. Also theres some very desolate areas coming up once i've passed north of the capital. So im going to need to keep well stocked up on water and food, which of course will just weigh the bike down.

As the end of the day started to approach. Decision time as to where to spend the night. I've done so many hotels. My wallet is suffering to be honest. So a quick check for nearby campsites, and of course - none. 38km in the wrong direction. So keep going. Check the GPS for nearby hotels.. ooh none. Ok its a wild camp tonight. No problem. Except, big problem. Its just fields. There was nowhere to hide a tent. I kept going and going, and the suns going down and just absolutely nowhere I could
put a tent down. Nowhere that I felt was secure from Mr Angry Farmer man.

So just kept going, and headed into the next town and saw the services sign that had a signpost of Bed on it! Ooh was there a hotel here! Cycled round it, using a bit of a google search and viola found a hostal! Thank goodness! Sat on top of a restaurant. Went in there. Really not too happy where he wanted me to leave the bike. Just inside a side entrance bit near a function room! But sometimes, you just gotta have faith. Locked the wheels up to themselves. But sadly no where to lock it to in this room|! I always tell them that I'm cycling to England and that today i've come from xx place.

Which normally results in a "woah!" but the reason is. Then I'm remembered! Then was just shown to my room. Which has to be the tiniest pokiest hotel room i've ever seen. But right now its absolutely perfect! Despite spanish people shouting in the bar downstairs!

Just want to thank people for the messages people are sending on the site. As I start to hit some real rural areas. Its going to get more rural as I head north. More desolate and probably pretty hard. So hearing from everyone in Yorkshire and in Gibraltar is just fantastic! So please keep them messages coming in! And keep the donations coming too. Always puts a smile on my face when i see someones donated to one of the charities! Reminds me of why I'm doing all this!

Tomorrow I'm hoping to hit a town called Sacedon which means I've passed north of Madrid! I've also pulled out quite a bit further than the 100km. Feeling fine for it too and hoping to keep it up!

Todays stats
Start	Ciudad Real.10:20
End	Villanueva de Alcardete.20:30
Saddle Time	7 hr 23 min 18 sec.
Distance travelled	145.68km
Average Speed	19.9kph
Max speed	40.5km

Day 5 - Ciudad Real - Rest Day

So today is a rest day. With the bike secured safely with the hotel (hopefully!), gives me a day to chill, relax and do anything but think about cycling and the long trip ahead.So I had a wander out into Ciudad Real centre to see what was about. And erm.. well not a great deal really! I had it in my mind this was some huge historic city, like Salamanca with loads of old town bits and plenty to see. But I just couldnt find any of that. It was just an average town centre with a few statues and water features dotted about. Maybe I went the wrong places who knows!

It was actually quite chilly this morning too! It feels like im much further north than I actually am! Im still quite south of Madrid really.
Vodafone Espana have, in their lovelyness decided to cut off my 3G dongle, which was giving me internet just about anywhere I went. Last month, they were having signal problems in my area and my router decided to pick Gibraltar internet service up, switched to that, and started incurring roaming charges unbeknown to me. But of course, theres no explaining that down a phone to some customer service agent whos english isnt too good - and my spanish being worse! So I was landed with a rather huge bill, which I attempted to pay but they woudlnt accept any UK Credit or Debit cards! So its back to the old fashioned way of trying to find WiFi to get the laptop online for now!

So I managed to pack as much food into me as possible and keep doing leg stretches. Walking up stairs seems to be the most achey time. But I experienced that after training too. I should be all good to get going again tomorrow.
Tomorrow will see me head East out of Ciudad Real. Im swinging east of Madrid. If I was doing this tour with other people and had more time. I would have loved to have stopped in Madrid. I need to go east anyway. If you look on the map, Gibraltar is very west of where the west coast of France starts. So the whole of Spain sees me going north east. Whereas once I'm in France I can head more dead north. Tomorrows route looks relatively flat too! My next rest stop is not scheduled until Pamplona, which is about 5 - 6 days away. Im itching to get back on the bike now!!

Day 4 - Montoro to Ciudad Real

Got the chance to see the t

own of Montoro as I cycled through it. What an amazing hotel that was, built on the side of the rock face. Walking through the corridors, the left wall was the actual rock! The view out of the window over the town, just amazing.

So I cycled through and had to get some pictures, as I headed out. I also managed more for breakfast than just tomatoe and oil on toast today! Which was a good job too, as what was to come was pretty unexpected. Which was kilometers upon kilometers of absolutely nothing!

I knew today was going to be a tough day, 140km to Ciudad Real, and also the terrain map showed some pretty nasty hills. What I didnt expect was a complete lack of services, pain in my right leg and a severe head wind. The head wind made the flat parts feel like they were up hill. Lack of food meant i was eating into energy bars, kendal mint cake, nuts etc to keep the energy levels up.

What was remarkable today, was once I got up to those high altitudes, the complete difference of weather and scenary. From yesterday where it was so hot and barron, everything yellow and brown. To today where everything was green. I felt like I'd already hit northern spain. Temperatures barely got above 30 either, and at one point It rained a little bit!

With the painful leg, head winds, climb after climb, there was times I was worried I wouldnt get to Ciudad Real. Or I would and find my pre-booked hotel closed up for the night! So I found myself really pushing it today! Knowing that i had to go much further really made today more of an endurance than it should have been.

One thing that did lift the spirits is crossing out of Andalucia. For those not aware of Spain, this is kinda like crossing a state line if you were in America. And Andalucia is one huge state. So, crossing over into Castillo La Mancha was a hell of an achievement. It also means Im technically not in southern spain anymore, but heading up towards central spain.

Finally cleared the mountain range, and found myself in what I decided to call "The Valley of Death!" A mountain range behind me, and another one right infront! Having just summeted at over 850m, I would have to do it again!

Oh I did I mention the head wind? Oh yes, it was windy! Even the flat bits felt like it was uphill. The whole journey was a complete struggle from beginning to end. Sometimes the wind whipped round to the side and was strong enough to knock me off the bike. It was a tough day mentally too, as I followed just the one road up most of the way. There was no turning off or anything like that.

Finally rolled into Ciudad Real, but one last thing to throw at me. The planned route had me on a road which was prohibited for cyclists. So had to take the back road which added more km! Great! The last 20km just seemed to go on forever! But all in all achieved 150km today on the bike. Considering i've never ridden four days consecutivly before. Im pretty happy with that!

Now I stay in Ciudad Real for two nights. As I am new to this, I need to give my muscles time to deal with the sheer hell i've put them through. Eat a hell of a lot of food, and hopefully make them stronger.

This concludes the first leg of Gibraltar to Yorkshire. Ive now covered 481km. Just another 2000km to go!!! I'll make a start on that on Thursday :)

Todays stats
Start	Montoro 9:35
End	Ciudad Real.19:25
Saddle Time	7 hr 33 min 48 sec.
Distance travelled	150.31km
Average Speed	19.8kph
Max speed	68.2km