Day 3 – Cerezo de Abajo|Marbella
September 4th, 2011
Realised that I will be close to Tarifa tonight, probably stay in Marbella or something, so at the end of 2.5 days on the road I’ll have covered 42% of the distance to Dakar, albeit the easiest part. So by the time I hit Rabat I’ll literally be halfway there! not bad going, but it only slows up from here I think!
Excellent Spanish coffee and some kind of sweet pastry things for breakfast and then time to hit the road again. Slept the sleep of the dead last night, and it looks like bright sunny skies finally for the final leg of the trek south in Europe. This is a great little town (Cerezo de Abajo), and had coffee on the terrace with a bunch of local Spanish. Much better than some faceless hotel chain in Madrid – definitely a good start to the day.
Cruised south around Madrid in the bright sunshine and making really good time. Both the Spanish and French are really good about sign posting if you’re going long distances. About 120 miles down I stopped in a field, and checked my mail and voicemail. News regarding a potential job in Istanbul with a Dubai based shipping line. It was truly strange to be standing in the middle of the rolling plains of La Mancha, surrounded by the countryside that Cervantes described in Don Quijote, talking to a Swiss and an American in Dubai about a job in Turkey. Truly one of the most memorable moments I’ve had in a while!
The road just kept on going and the plains of La Mancha turn into the hills and a rocky narrow gorge as you cross into Andalucia, little wonder that this corner of Spain held out the longest against Ferdinand and Isabella back around the time of Columbus – the last part of muslim El Andalus receded into history on a January day in 1492.The sky was a crisp blue and the jagged peaks of the Sierra Nevada mountains loomed in the distance. The old bike just kept sailing along and took everything in her stride. Eventually we descended down and around the city of Granada, famous for it’s magical Alhambra Palace. If you go there get a copy of “Tales of the Alhambra”. It was written by an American in the late 1820’s, the former American ambassador of the young republic to the Court of the King of Spain. This was an important post at the time as Spain still owned most of what would become the Western United States, including California, Texas, and all parts in-between.
Sierra Nevada Mountains – Southern Spain
Cruised on along the coast in the late afternoon sunshine and eventually 120km later around the sprawl of Malaga and on towards Algeciras. Decided to just get a place in Marbella some 90km shy of Tarifa where I’ll take the ferry tomorrow. Even rode along the front of Puerto Banus, still filled with tourists and ostentatious displays of “conspicuous consumption” as the say in Economics! I think a lot of the guys who ran off with the money after 2008 came here! No doubt some of Bernie’s billions has been lavished here as well!
Ended up getting a nice room at a hotel on the Marbella/uerto Banus road. Pretty tired as I covered 700km today. A celebratory beer and a plate of salad and Calamares followed by bed! All in all a pretty good day to be perfectly honest 🙂
One final little note – if you ride down the centre of Spain, there are no tolls on the road! only in the extreme north when you cross the border and in the extreme south between Malaga and Algeciras! Good to know!
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