Wednesday: Climbing the Mulhacen

Left La Callahorra around 8:15 as we had a long day ahead of us. Due to the a last minute change of accomodation we are about 10km's away from the start of the days riding - so we spend the next half an hour getting to the village that we were supposed to start from. Lots of dusty farm roads which lead us past an abandoned mine and village which is quite a strange place as it looks like people had just upped and left at a moments notice as you could still see everyday signs of people having lived there but there was no one around - spooky...we had a welcoming committee in the form of three pups which were fighting over themselves to get to us...possibly to give us Rabies, not sure...they end up following us for about half a mile as we ride away from the village.

Mark stood outside the abandoned mine and village. A fascinating but slightly creepy place.

Making friends with the locals...what do you mean Rabies?

We get to an A road and, as we now have 85km's to do instead of 75km including an ascent of the highest road pass in Europe we're given a choice of taking the road to the top of the pass (about 25km - 2 hours) or taking the off road tracks (35km - 4 hours).

An ancient castle at the foot of the climb up the Mulhacen. Apparently it's famous for being a romantic castle linekd to Saint Valentine, although unfortunately I forget the story.

Aaron decides to take the road route and the Theresa, James, Wils and I take the off road with our guide Sandra...I figured I'd regret it if I didn't do the off road section and right I was ....we spent the next three hours riding up not steep but constantly climbing forest tracks which wound around the mountain side...Wils and I broke it down into 5km sections which seemed the only way to tackle the first 25km forest section...hard, hard work but the views back down the mountain and across the plains were amazing especially as for large parts of it you could see where we started the climb which gave you an idea of what you'd done.

Half way up the climb, you can see the forest road we were following cut through the trees below in the distance.

Still half way up, soaking in the views.

Getting nearer the top, almost at the road section which would take us up the final 8 kilmetres. This photo was not at all posed.

After about two and a half hours got to the road section and then just ground out the last 10km's to the top of the pass about 30-40 minutes later....where we found Aaron and Leslie having lunch with Benjamin at the top of La Ragua (2500m).

At the top, knackered. This is what a sense of humour failure actually looks like up close.

Benjamin had been busy and we had a huge lunch and then sat around chatting in the sun recovering from the morning exhertions.

Mark stretching out in the shade as it was in the late thirties...a bit like Mark.

Spent the afternoon working our way around the back of Mulhacen (3400m) which La Ragua crosses at one of its lower points...like Sunday lots of flat out downhill on fireroads...followed by lungbusting climbs out of ravines we dropped down into...towards the end we followed a firebreak down through the forest which wasn't rocky but was very steep and rough. At the bottom, full of bravado and going far too fast Mark, James and I get into a race which last for a couple of kilometres on really smooth forests tracks until we round a corner and the road suddenly stops...leaving the three of us in the middle of nowhere with no road and no one following us...Marks phone goes and we are summoned back to the foot of the firebreak as we'd gone the wrong way and just added about four k's onto our days mileage - nice, it was too short anyway!

Spent a lot of the afternoon ravine bashing...about to drop into another one here and then climb out the other side. You'd cross one, climb out of it, go over the crest to see another one and another 30 minutes hard riding...all good fun, but knackering!

The descents were fast and exhilerating.

Leslie was riding with us having missed the morning, visiting the doctor and recovering from her fall the previous day.

Leslie was sporting some nice war medals from the previous day...she was no doubt also as high as a kite!

Sandra, our guide for the day...a great guide she was too.

Mark, taking a breather.

James on top of the outcrop.

Towards the end of the day it felt like there would be no end in sight - with an hour till the light went we still had a huge amount of height to drop and rode on for another half an hour, purely by GPS at some points as the path disappeared...ending with a mile of extremely rough technical singletrack... we we're all so keen that we were trying to pass each other on this final section (suicidal) to get to the bar and get a few well earned beers in before dinner...getting off the bikes after the last downhill section Aaron stepped backwards onto his red hot rear brake rotar giving him a semi circular scar on his leg which according to Leslie "still looks like Chorizo".

The inevitable holiday group photo.

View of the Aljapurras. We would be crossing this range to get to the sea, our final destination.

Got back and parked the bikes and headed straight for the bar, some of us even managed a half hearted swim in the pool beforehand...stayed in sweet villa with views of the Aljapurras and an amazing sunset which filled the rooms of the villa with an orange glow thanks to the huge shutters - awesome end to an awesome day we spent the night drinking bizarre liquers and beers in the local bar with some Spaniards who were a right laugh - once Theresa had translated what they were saying of course :)

Boozing with the locals, not sure what was going on here. Looks like YMCA!?

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