029 - Running Rings Around Madrid
22nd November 2004 - North East of Antequerra
¡Hola Otra Vez Amigos y Amigas!
So there we were, about to head South in convoy with Sean, Daisy, Gypsy and Rusty after our couple of days in interesting Haro. Jeni in the co-pilot's seat, maps in hand, all set for the off … and straight away she manages to miss the main road, so that we end up bumping across tiny potholed roads through the vineyards! Hey ho. Quite often when we are travelling alone, Jeni doesn't let on to Dave when she's made a directional boo-boo, and simply joins us back up to the way we're meant to be going later on. Occasionally Dave guesses we've taken a wrong turning (he has an uncannily accurate sense of direction - or of course it may be a case of plunging across farms on a cart track, which is always a bit of a give-away when we're meant to be on a major through route!). However, with Sean and Daisy in the convoy, there's less opportunity to get away with mis-readings of the map - they generally rumble her. Jeni then tries to maintain that these minor deviations are deliberate so that we can see a different perspective on the scenery and countryside, and indeed that early-in-the-day detour coming out of Haro was a bit of a peach (or should that be grape?).
After this slight shuffle, we wiggled down to San Domingo and found the N120 which was the road we were really after. It's a wonderfully scenic stretch from Haro West towards Burgos as the road skirts the wooded hills of the Sierra de la Demanda. From around this point, considerable portions of our route criss-crossed the Pilgrims Way, the Camino de Santiago. We saw loads of hardy walkers and even mountain-bikers along this long distance footpath. Of course were disappointed to note that none of these modern day pilgrims/hikers were traversing the distance on their knees, wearing only a hair shirt and dragging a donkey by their teeth ...!
By this stage we were on the A1-E5 which is bit of a gutty drive at times with quite a lot of heavy lorries, since it's a main route down to Madrid. But it's very direct and still afforded fine views of the awesome scenery. After a goodly length of flat road (on which Jeni anxiously looked around for signs of on-rushing Big Winds coming out of the distance), we saw another looming mountain range in front of us. Very dramatic. It was obvious the road was going to weave through a huge gorge, and we were conscious that Daisy, Sean and Gypsy would all be pedalling hard up what was clearly a long, hefty climb. They slipped back a bit, but watching them in our wing mirrors, we could see that Rusty was gamely struggling up the hill, probably puffing and panting quite a lot, but determined not to give up.
Moments later, the mobile phone peeped and a text message came through from Daisy - they'd have to stop at the next available pull-off as one of the indicators had stopped working. We were just getting towards the summit of the hill and there was a slip-road to Somosierra, the tiny village on what had once been the only road through the top of the pass, 1450 metres high and surrounded by other mountains. Off the main road we went and into the village, which also obviously doubled as a decent truck-stop with its two or three bar-restaurants and a garage. Repair effected to the indicator, whose wire had wobbled lose on a bumpy bit of road, and we were off again. Only it wasn't terribly obvious which way we should go - were we meant to double back and find a divide in the slip-road to take us back in the direction we'd been heading, or did the road through the village take us back onto the A1-E15 southbound? Well, you guessed it - we picked wrong and ended up going back down the way we'd travelled, having to come off at the next cambio de sentido (change of direction) slip-road and poor old Rusty had to climb the awful hill all over again!
Onward, then, and Jeni's palms were getting a bit sweaty knowing that we didn't have far to go before having to negotiate our way around Madrid.
Ring roads round Madrid
It was probably as much luck as good judgement or skillful map reading that got us round, and in no small measure, Dave's focussed and calm driving. We'd been advised to stick to the M40 ring road, which is something like the British M25 (without the stationary traffic), meets North Circular Road, meets Hyde Park Corner with the traffic lights broken, meets Paris peripherique on a bad day - but with all vehicles determined not to drop their speed below 80kph, cutting each other up on all sides, leaving stopping distances you'd be pushed to slip a couple of gnats' whiskers into. Argh!!
There we were, coming down the A1-E5, which was getting busier as we approached Madrid of course, and looking for the M40 - suddenly, there it was (using the time-honoured Spanish method of saving resources - don't put too many advance warning signposts - oh, and introduce a whole new road numbering system that isn't shown on the Michelin map while you're at it - let's chuck in a few R roads, for confusion's sake, eh?). In a split second we had to decide whether we wanted the M40 Zaragoza direction or the Valladolid and A Coruña direction. Knowing both were back up north it was just a matter of luck that Jeni shrieked 'Go left! Zaragoza!' figuring that since it was a huge ring road, in extremis we could just do the complete tour (bit like going right round the M25 for fun really!), but instinct suggesting that the left fork would take us round the East side of Madrid, which should be the quicker circuit.
But as Dave personfully swung the wheel and hurtled left, poor Sean, close behind, missed the rather sudden slip-road-on-an alarming-bend-with-adverse-camber junction and shot off in the other direction! 'Oh *^@"!! We've lost Sean!' said Dave looking in the wing mirror and seeing little Rusty sail off towards A Coruña. Well, round the anti-clockwise section anyway, whilst we were now heading round clockwise.
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Jeni frantically texted them and told them to stay on the M40 and go round the other way (they had a map, but not as detailed a map as ours), and pick up the E5 again at the bottom of the circuit. But fifteen minutes later, just when we'd managed to get ourselves successfully off at the right junction, feeling triumphant but weakened, we had a plaintive phonecall saying they were on the E5, but seemed to be heading for Burgos - 'Haven't we just come from that direction?!' Oh dear, they'd somehow looped de loop and gone back on themselves and they had to tackle it all again.
Then as if that wasn't enough, we got another phonecall half an hour later to say that the engine was overheating and they'd had to pull over into a service station. It's a little air-cooled rear engine in these VW campers, and Rusty is pretty elderly. Given that we'd already covered well over 1000 miles since sailing from Portsmouth, Rusty had been doing very well, but had obviously decided she needed a bit of a rest. So we agreed that we'd head down to our next planned stop where we wanted to stay for a few days, and Sean and Daisy would catch us up when Rusty had cooled off a bit. They were near a decent Camping and had the directions to that, so they decided to overnight there.
After Madrid, the hills of the Sierra de Guadarrama we'd come through north of the city, gave way to vast flat plains, with occasional mounds, well you could hardly call them hills, more substantial, nipple-esque protruberances out of the flat land. Bizarre. We travelled through awesome plains of grape vines, melons and other agriculture … and travelled …. and travelled. Awesome paled a bit after the first couple of hours though and despite the prospect of another climb, we were pleased to see a new mountain range ahead of us, especially as we knew our next destination lay in those hills.
Going to the Dogs?
We were approaching the Despeñaperros Pass, a dramatic natural break through the mountains of the Sierra Morena. It really was fantastically scenic and we were glad of the excellent road through the craggy gorge. Looking down it was possible to see the line of the original route through this formidable place, and it was easy to understand why it had formerly had a reputation for banditry and many travellers expressed a sense of forboding at having to go through the pass before reaching the delights of Andalucia beyond. For centuries it was the main point of entry into Andalucia from the north.
The name 'Despeñaperros' is a curious one. We first thought it was yet another of those bizarre and cruel Spanish traditions involving animals as it literally means 'throwing over of the dogs'. (After we'd heard last year about the village festival that starts with throwing a goat out of the church tower, we feared the worst.) It turned out, however, to bit a bit of history of the ancient Moorish and Christian rivalries at this place on the borders of La Mancha and Andalucia. There was a fierce battle in 1212 at which the Moors were defeated, opening the way for the reconquest of Andalucia, thus the place name related to the overthrow of the dogs (Moors).
Peace in the Pine Woods
Not far beyond we found our next stop - an idyllic Camping on the edge of the small village of Santa Elena, where we planned to stop for a while and wait for Daisy and Sean to catch up. Gorgeous! The Camping was in a huge, peaceful pine wood looking out all around onto hills planted with olives and was five minutes walk from the village with its three or four tiny shops, couple of cafés, Correos (that seemed to open a random couple of hours a day, a few times a week) and a small hotel.
And what could have been better? The sun was shining and it was a deliciously warm 25 degrees or so. Naturally, we had to set up camp as quickly as possible and recover from the rigours of the journey. You just don't seem to understand the pressure we're under here ...
More news of our exhausting adventures soon,
Take care and good fruiting,
Love
Jeni y Dave
xxx
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