Chapter 16: Bikepacking the Altravesur-Albunuelas to Niguelas
5th May 2019
You can see my YouTube on this ride here
After spending four nights at Ken’s BnB in Albuñuelas, I felt slightly rested but could have stayed longer, for more rest and the fact that I enjoyed Ken’s company and Lena’s of course! As it turns out I nearly added another night on, the reasons you’ll learn later.
**UPDATE 2021**
Sadly I have recently learnt that both Lena and Ken have passed away. I was so very sad to learn this. Lena had a wonderful life with Ken, who apparently passed away one month after Lena. Rest easy my friends
**UPDATE 2021**
I set off on the Sunday morning, Day 47 of my trip, the 5th of May, at around 9am, stopping at the local bar for a café con leche on my way out. For some reason the bar was buzzing, around 10 people were there, all men, perhaps it was a man’s day out!!
It took me a little time to find the camino out of Albuñuelas, through the steep narrow streets.
It was a beautiful ride, the narrow camino was surfaced with concrete, running along the left hand side of the ravine with orange trees lining the route. It’s a big orange growing area, there were so many windfalls on the ground, it seems such a waste but to the farmers it’s probably no pasa nada, as they would say!
The camino was heading east, with the sun rising over the misty mountains in my field of view. Mostly downhill too, heading towards the pueblo of Saleres. As usual I missed a turning and continued for a couple of kilometres in the wrong direction, uphill too. When I realised and turned around, I lost my bearings again and couldn’t find my way back to the correct camino.
Whilst lost on the camino, I noticed an old man and his dog in the campo, so I asked him if this was the way to Saleres. He walked over to me, and he was sort of gurning with his lips, he only had one tooth, so I thought he just did that. He started getting a little too close to me, but I thought he must be deaf. Then he grabbed my crotch, and rubbed himself, and pulled me closer to him. I backed off and shouted ‘nooooo’. It wasn’t scary, he was at least a thousand years old, and quite frail. But it reminded me that I’d let my guard down and that I should never let anyone into my personal space, and also that not everyone has good intentions.
Anyway I wasted half an hour completely lost, coming to dead end after dead end! Eventually I found where I should have turned off and continued towards Saleres. As I entered the village I suddenly realised I had left my insulated food bag and iced water bottle in the fridge at Kens. Dammit! Do I go back, which will be u