Saturday January 5, 2013, 80 km (50 miles) – Total so far: 118 km (73 miles)
The night was accompanied by the unfamiliar sounds of pure nature: wood cracking, little animals and the wind in the trees. The only light was the fool moon shining above the area. It was reflecting shadows of the trees on the roof of our tents. It was quite scary to watch them move in the rhythm of the wind. When there were clouds crossing the moonlight, it seemed like someone just turned the lights down low, and then turned it on again.
First we thought someone would be outside with a flashlight, but then we checked outside and realized that it was just the changing moonlight. It was amazing to see how bright moonlight can be, when there´s just no other light around!
In the morning everyone was still tired and no one did sleep too well. At night the ground of the whole area -especially where we had put the tents- had got wet, in some parts like small lakes. We had to dry the bottoms of our tents before leaving, and so we started at 8.30am instead of 7.00am. The sun was rising already and it slowly got hot.
The unpaved road was climbing up in circles through the breathtaking landscape of the „Cuesta de Miranda“ which at the top is 2020m high. We really enjoyed the great view at the top and got ready for the downhill. As the road is unpaved you can´t go down at very high speed, the heavy bikes slip easily on the sandy ground. At the end of the downhill we stopped for lunch in a real small village 50km before „Villa Union“ and got some espectacular sandwiches practically in the middle of nowhere.
The following stretch to the town of „Villa Union“ was both: absolutely hot and absolutely straight. We arrived and checked in in a small hotel „Palermo“ where the staff is not exactly the friendly kind of person. But anyway we needed a break and we didn´t want to change rooms for just one day. Tomorrow we will relax from the stresses and strains of the last days.
