Day 31 Guadalupe to Calera y Chozas

The day dawned, cold and damp as usual. We got away early as we were aiming at a longish stage. There is little accommodation in this sparsley inhabited region.

We set off into a national park with beautiful moorland scenery and were soon climbing towards Alía where we visited the tiny village panaderia which, like all the others in this area only sold one kind of loaf - white and pappy. Nonetheless very welcome calories for cyclists.
We climbed out of the town and were passed by a Dutch couple in a campervan who had been on our campsite last night. We got to the top of this little climb to a layby where there was a spectacular viewpoint overlooking crags, with vultures circling above, and saw the campervan parked and four people sitting at picnic bench. The Dutch campervan people had met two Dutch cyclists (the only other cyclists we had met since Seville), who were heading the opposite way to us. We were invited to join them all for coffee and cakes. It turned out to be one of those magical touring moments, with lots of banter and goodwill. Lovely people, whom we'll never see again...

We climbed on upwards to the Puerto de San Vicente and a descent to join the lovely Via Verde de la Jara which we followed through remote moorland and across the Tagus, which we had last seen at its source a couple of weeks ago on our route south. There were wild flowers everywhere.

We've left Extremadura and are now back in Castilla-La Mancha. 

Guadalupe to Calera y Chozas  - 95km, 1000m ascent.