Crossing the Mountains (again), and Grandma breaks a Hip (again)

May 19, 2024 – Santa Colomba de las Arrimadas to Vegacervera – 32 kms – Albergue Cueva de Valporquera

May 20, 2024 – Vegacervera to Villamanin – 19 kms – Albergue de Joventud

Gordon: Ruth says that I get a special twinkle in my eye in the mountains, and if so my eyes were sparkling today.  We woke to a beautiful sunny day in the small mountain town of Vegacevera.  Pocket Earth, our mapping app, had suggested a reasonable route to our next destination, but I noticed that there were a couple of other smaller roads that lead to the same destination.  It was a kilometre longer, but it looked more appealing … and wait, doesn’t that look like it would be a canyon?

Yes, it is a canyon, and we walked and cycled through it first thing this morning.  Sculpted limestone rose 500 metres above our narrow, twisting road as we followed the river through the canyon.  The sun was not yet shining into this slot in the earth, but it was impossible to not stop every few minutes to take a picture.  We saw a number of cave openings, including some with streams pouring out of them.  The area is clearly a playground for climbers, hikers, cavers and cyclists.  Yet on this beautiful morning we had it almost entirely to ourselves, with only a handful of vehicles passing us.  Pure magic.

While we felt like we were in the back of beyond, and the region has park status, there were still some amenities available.  After the canyon we passed several small towns, a few with bars, and one with a hotel.  There were also some fields in the bottom of the valley with cattle or horses.  And these human touches aren’t novel: the route that we were following was a Roman road, and no doubt a transhumant corridor for millennia before them.

We are making our way from the Camino Olvidado to the Camino San Salvador, which we will intersect tomorrow.  We were not really on any particular Camino today, but we still saw random yellow arrows in most of the villages.

Ruth was pulling her trailer over a curb in our destination town when the hitch suddenly broke, taking with it a big chunk of the rear wheel stay.  Uh-oh, a serious mechanical breakdown in a small town in the mountains.  Ruth went back to discuss the matter with someone in the tourist office, and within a few minutes arrangements had been made to have a mechanic look at it.  Fortunately, Grandma is a Steel Matron (not to be confused with the less egalitarian Maggie Thatcher) and it is possible to weld her.  The mechanic was obviously pleased with his work, and the repair does look quite robust.  He charged Ruth an hour of shop time, 30 euros, and Grandma Friday is better than ever.  Out of deference to her age, she does insist, however, that Ruth quit jumping curbs while she is dragging a heavy trailer.