The Heat is on

The heat is getting to me. I've had a run of days in the hills which have left me 

wasted. Invariably there is a big climb to start the day, most of the villages 

in the hill country are in the valleys.  

A couple of days ago I left the camp site and immediately started climbing, not 

desperately steep but sustained. The climbing continued without respite for exactly 

an hour, I was spinning in the lowest gear of the middle ring and with relatively 

fresh legs and the enthusiasm of the morning I was going well.

I stocked up for lunch at the small town of Villaviciosa de Cordoba and set

 off on the next leg.  On the map and as the crow flies it looked little more 

than 15 miles to the next town, Posadas.  The way was constant gruelling climbs 

and short descents, twisting all the way over and through endless forested hills.

I was crossing the Sierra de la Hornachuelos which is a Natural Park. 

I kept checking my compass for the general trend as I could have been cycling

round in circles and doing the same hills over and over again for all I could tell.

I finally rolled in to Posados three and a half hours after leaving Villaviciosa.

I'd seen 3 or 4 cars and no other people.  I'd done four and a half hours without 

food and in the blistering heat, I was in a state.  I seem to be able to go for 

hours without food although I know it's bad form.  I think the bigger issue for my

is dehydration and loss of body salts.  I sweat constantly, it drips from my head 

continually on the climbs and rolls off my arms clouding my mirror with washed off 

sun cream.

I had drunk a lot during the morning but my reserves were low. 

After riding in the heat for a few hours the water in my bottles is warm enough

to bathe in, hardly refreshing but much needed. 

I searched the sizeable town of Posados for a Fuente, not as easy to find as in 

the small villages. I spotted an area with trees and benches, normally a good bet. 

I found 1 fountain which was dry.  I asked a local woman and she pointed me to a 

second in front of a church, it also was dry.  She suggested I try around the back 

of the church as there may be one there, there was.  It was alive with wasps but I 

didn't care.  I filled my bottle and tipped the whole thing over my head.

The second filling was gulped down in seconds.  The third was poured over my 

swollen right foot to great relief.  I drank 2 more then filled all 3 of my 

bottles before deciding the wasps were a problem when I moved away.

I found a shady bench in front of the church and set about my lunch just as the 

local secondary school was turning out.  The kids filed past, what they thought 

of a dripping cyclist with a knife in his hand trying to coordinate enough to 

slice a huge beefsteak tomato I can't imagine. 

I glanced up whilst having lunch outside the church

                                                 The church where I found my salvation, water!

I still had a fair distance to do to get to the camp site I was aiming for but 

I was down from the big hills and the 'relative' lowlands of the afternoon passed

in little over an hour.  

If the afternoons route had been as taxing as the mornings I simply wouldn't have

made it and it isn't easy to wild camp as this lower area is all agricultural.

The heat is a concern as I head towards June and my long trip through and over 

the many mountain ranges in Andalusia will be a challenge, for a fat bloke!