Sunday 22 February - Vilanova d'Alcolea

Where's Bertie? His wheels remain stationary in the Aire at Vilanova.

Weather: more wall-to-wall sunshine and pleasantly warm.

I did a much better job of being efficient and organised this morning, managing to get myself out the door by just gone 0830. Given the slowness of the terrain in these parts, I've translated my training plan from distance to time, giving me 4 hours as my objective today. I'd come up with two routes, one of which was 28km, which I thought might be a bit far, the other 20km, but with scope to throw in an extension. 

Once again, it had been a cool night, and as I descended from the village there were hints of frost on the greenery in the dips along the track. I was on the wrong side of the hill to get much sun at first, but once it did reach me, it warmed up quickly. By the time I was on my way up the biggest climb of the route, with the sun unimpeded, I was roasting. The sections through woodland were particularly nice thereafter.

At some point whilst I was gallivanting through the hills, our neighbour left and freed up an electric hook-up point and Mick wasted no time in nabbing it. He had already got Bertie ready to travel, but at that point it was decided that we would stay another night. A sensible choice given that it would have been mid-afternoon by the time I was ready to move on anyway. 

Back at Bertie, lunch was prioritised, followed by a shower and a few chores (like feeding the cat...), after which I thought it would be appropriate to go and give a bit of custom to the only bar in the village. Google told me it was open all day, through to 10pm, which seemed likely to be true on a Sunday. I expected there would be quite a few people there at lunchtime. 

We arrived to find it deserted save for the owner. He served us our beers, then told us he was closing at 3pm. I looked at my watch to see that it was five to! No problem though; we didn't have to slam-dunk the drinks, but rather just sit outside and leave the empties when we were done. Not really a successful attempt at giving custom by payment for a free Aire, given that the two beers came to a whopping €3.40!

We will be moving on tomorrow, by which time we will have maxed out on the (unwritten) 72-hour max stay. 

Just after I set out, on a shaded track with the sun still being low in the sky

There were waymarkers on lots of the paths and tracks I used, telling me I was stitching together various routes.

A nice shady interlude as the day got hotter

I can see the sea - with the sun reflecting off it. 

Lots and lots of scrub bushes, but all of the paths and tracks were wide enough for me not to get scratched legs today.

The processionary caterpillars are emerging, but I am yet to see any on the ground. 

I'd already taken a brief detour to visit a summit at 400m. I then dropped down to climb back up to this plateau, which was also at 400m. Even though the high points were modest, and I'd started at 350m, I clocked up over 600m of ascent. (total distance, with a couple of extensions added to the planned route, came in at 23.25km)

My sister has a feral cat who looks just like this - small and black. This one popped its head in and made it vocally known that it would very much appreciate a can of tuna, and who were we to deny such a polite request? 

Billy-no-mates, sitting outside a closed bar.