We had heard that the Via Verde de la Sierra which we hoped to use for the first 36km had been badly damaged in a storm in March and parts of it could be closed. If so that would mean a very lengthy detour.
However the receptionist at the campsite told us that we would have to join it a little further, beyond the village of Olvera, but that the other damaged parts were passable with care. This in fact was the case, but we found those bits so rough, bouldery and sandy that we took far longer than expected on this section.
The wild landscape was worth the effort, especially around the crags of Zaframagón with griffon vultures soaring overhead.
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| Looking back towards Olvera |
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| Storm damaged track - and a cow... |
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| Zaframagón |
This old railway, like previous ones was never used and was again a miracle of engineering. There are many tunnels and for us it made a change to go under the mountains rather than over them!
The longest was nearly one kilometre long.
Most have solar panels outside and automatic lighting, but we are glad of our dynamo hubs and powerful lights too.
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| Well-lit tunnel |
The route continued on a mix of quite busy roads and some very pretty, gently undulating ones with one very steep climb up a very steep, badly surfaced track amongst beautiful sunflowers.
We dropped down from the last of the mountains onto the plain near Seville and struggled along the last 10km of our long day on a very sandy track through fields to the campsite.
Olvera to Dos Hermanas 115km, 400m ascent.
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