We rocked upto Valerianos garage some 25 minutes later. A bout of Google translation and it was established they could look at the bike, but it would take all day. I asked if I could change the oil, they said no. Then the owner turned up, 1.5 hours later, my bike had been diagnosed as OK but needing an oil change to the correct oil, the chain lubed and before any of that, a jet wash!!
Peter and I adjourned to a cafe to wait and shoot the breeze. Then once the bike was sorted by about 1pm, we split up. Peter headed of to his mates place in Cartegena and I went looking for the TET again.
I retraced my steps back to where we left it yesterday, from there it had a couple of short really steep descents, then a load of tarmac along a reservoir, before climbing up towards the Sierra Nevada and a village, Trevalez. I'd been warned to watch for ice and snow there as its so high. The roads were clear though and most of the tracks were too.
Just past Trevelez, one section of road was clearly a local bikers haunt as the bends, tarmac and views were beautiful. There were quite a few intrepid bikers around, venturing out in the really cold air. At the top of a pass, the trail took a steep turn upwards and continued to climb, but now on dirt roads.
Leaving the valleys behind, the peaks behind Trevelez open up into steep sided valleys with wide plateaus perched on some of the ridges. These plateaus were home to beef cattle farms, their water supply all frozen up, but the cows still wandering around.
The trail here was wide and easy to follow. I met an old guy riding along gently on his horse, with his two inquisitive dogs. We passed the usual 'Ola' to each other and carried on our separate ways. That area is perfect for mountain horses as a form of travel. For me, I was conscious of the cold and wanted to get back down to valley bottom, so kept on at a good pace all afternoon, even through such an epically grand mountain area. At one point, I passed under a viewpoint. That same viewpoint is a bothy that has circular windows. Two of us used it to bivvy in look out over the Sierra Nevada on my very first motorbike trip around Spain.
By 5pm, I was down and riding up a dry riverbed that was used as the local road, this edged fields of various trees. The trail wound past old quarry buildings, all dilapidated in the sun. A business replaced by wind turbines and solar panel parks.
It was now 6.30 and I started to look for somewhere to camp. I settled on hiding behind an old and broad cork tree on the edge of a field, tucking the bike into the branches and pitching the tent looking back to the sunset behind the Sierra Nevada. Another varied day of travel and landscapes today.
