Sierra definition: A range of mountains with jagged peaks

Embrace what I do have, not long for what I don’t, easy when I feel strong and focussed, not so easy at other times.

But this morning I feel good and positive despite the rain and I’m looking forward to the prospect of riding across the Sierra Morena to my overnight stop at Tomelloso, en route to Valencia. It’s the first outing for the waterproofs and the waterproof covers for the throw over panniers so we’ll see how they perform.

I was down to three bars on the fuel gauge before I departed Córdoba this morning but that’s good for about 50 miles. I ignored the filling stations along the main E5 as I headed east towards Montoro, where I turned off to head north up the N420 into the Sierra Moreno. I’d noticed at the start of this road that I had a couple of miles in hand to reach the small town of Cardeña, where I assumed there would be a petrol station. We started to go uphill for what turned out to be a long time, this became the moment I started to ponder the meaning of the word ‘Sierra’. The couple of miles I had extra in the tank quickly disappeared until I was in deficit by a few. When we did eventually peak out at about 3,500’ it was a case of freewheeling on the few downhill sections, but we made it, the fuel gauge was registering no petrol, the miles left in the tank – 0.

So after giving Reg a tank full we nipped around the corner and found a cafe bar where I could take stock of the impact of the torrential rain. There was no let up so it was a case of just cracking on.

Four to Five hours of rain was too much for everything, fortunately the MacBook was wrapped in a plastic bag so survived a soaking. I thought for a moment that my socks were dry but was mistaken, only the stuff in the tote bag survived but hey, it’s all part of the journey.