At 7am we left the house with rucksacks on and a jumper against the cool night air. Pitch black outside we left our driveway and joined the road accompanied by owl calls and saw several shooting stars in the clear night sky. Sunday October 5th, the date that Ashley had set for his first Las Palomas cycling challenge! Neither of us being keen cyclists we opted to support the day by walking the same route. A 39 kilometre circuit from our house, down to the Zahara lake, along the road to Zahara, up the mountain to the Puerto de las Palomas, down the other side to Grazalema and then back to our house.

Our first stretch was downhill following the river valley so it was a damp cold in the air. When we reached the first junction which would lead us along the relatively flat lakeside road it was still pretty dark. At 7.50 am we could see Ashley’s van parking up as it became light. Cheats! He shouted as he spied us from around a bend, and off he went on his first lap. The reason for our earlier start is that Clive may be tempted to walk a second lap, and so would need maximum daylight hours.

When we drive along this road after dark we often see many small nocturnal creatures wandering on the tarmac, so as this is a brand new surface we could see the casualty numbers accumulated over just a couple of weeks. The preying mantis, bush-crickets, banded centipedes and spiders I had expected but was surprised to see several flattened scorpions as well.

As we approached Arroyomolinos a hot air balloon was taking off from the lakeside. It only took a very short flight as we saw it again being prepared for the trailer just outside the village of Zahara. We stopped at the top of the village to have some breakfast, lightening our rucksacks a little and resumed the long (13km) climb to the top. At 10.30 Ashley passed us for the second time, having completed his first lap and over half of his second.

Cyclists were streaming passed us, both in tight groups and strung out lines. Some were making it look easy, others were gasping for air. Grim determination kept us climbing towards the top with the briefest of stops possible en route as legs and especially hip joints were seizing up. Clive was beckoned by the many short cuts – cutting out the long hairpin bends of the tarmac road, but my legs would not have been up to scrambling over loose rocks by this stage!! Cheating is cheating though and so we kept to the road at all times….

On reaching the col at 1.15pm we paused only for a moment to take photos as there was still another 12 km ahead of us. Whether it was on climbing down the rough rocks from the Puerto de las Palomas sign, or simply the change from uphill to down hill I’m not sure, but at this point stiffness became acute pain and a tender swelling the size of half an egg firmly attached itself to my shin. Thus my already shortened stride was reduced to almost nothing. I had hoped that this was a temporary state – but no such luck. Despite my suggestions that Clive should go on ahead in order to have any chance of a second lap he stayed with me to laugh at my penguin style shuffle! 1.30ish Ash passes us again! More than half way round his third lap….

Dropping down through the village of Grazalema wasn’t too bad. It was at a stage on the home run – but with seven kilometres still to go, that I began fantasizing of getting a lift home, or failing that just curling up beside the road. It was nearly 4.30 when we completed the circuit. After 9.5 hours treading tarmac I can understand the desire for wheels!

Meanwhile in less time Ashley had completed 4 circuits!! Covering a total distance of 154.5 kilometres.

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