Day 18 – to El Cuerva

From Zafrilla I drove the magnificently rough and narrow road to Salvacañete, where I picked up some fuel, and had another supermarket failure; failure in that there was little or no fresh food, not even bread. I have plenty, but must stock up more at the next opportunity.

I had highlighted the Sendero called La Cruz de los Tres Reinos for the morning. It is a mountain which marks the border of three old kingdoms, Aragon, Valencia and Castile. Legend says that in the medieval times, the respective kings met here to discuss their various problems.

It wasn’t a notable hike for the scenery. But on return I came across a herd of sheep, their shepherd and his dogs. From my experiences travelling such dogs are to be avoided, usually very aggressive. That was not the case though. I had Roja on his lead, but the shepherd came over to have a chat, and Roja and his 5 dogs got on fine.

After just a brief spell on a larger road, it was back to 20 mph again on the winding road through the villages of Alobras and Tormón. Both these villages are built into the rock of the mountain and spectacularly situated. At the latter, we walked down to the waterfall called Calicanto on the river Ebrón. The river from her descends through steep gorges for 10 kilometres to El Cuervo. I spent sometime exchanging campervan travel notes with a French couple and their dog who thought they place to themselves.

I settled on a place to stay just out of the village, high up above it, but the afternoon sun attracted so many flies we abandoned it in favour of driving down to El Cuervo. The dog was certainly in favour, as he spent a half hour cooling in the river again, while I chatted with two Spanish guys from Extremadura who had just completed riding the Montanas Vacias route. They had a T4, and initially planned on a few beers at the bar just across the road, but after one, they changed their minds and decided to drive the 5 hours or so home.

I stayed to eat, and it was good. 7.5% Tostado beers and Migas con Embutido del Terreno, various sausage of the region in fried breadcrumbs. This is a tiny village, with just a few old folk down for a beer or coffee in the evening, but no doubt busy with tourists in the season. We stayed just a few metres down from the restaurant by the river.

Maps and other details of the various hikes, runs and rides are on Strava, at https://www.strava.com/athletes/3150409.

Strava Runner Profile | andy weston