Vaucluse Dreamer

After yesterday’s ride, we were asleep early, knowing that today’s was going to be challenging too. We weren’t wrong.

Once again, we were out of the door, pushing the bikes through the village, before the sunrise. I must admit, the thought of starting the day, riding across cobbles wasn’t my idea of a gentle start, so we walked our bikes through and hopped on, as soon as we had left them behind.

Any thoughts we may have had that the climbing had been done yesterday were quickly put to bed, as the road immediately started to climb again through a gorge. The dramatic, high cliffs on either side set the scene for the first part of the day, as we pushed the pedals to climb towards the sun.

Once out of the shadow of the cliffs, the road opened out & we cycled through trees and scrubland, having to slow when we saw 3 deer grazing at the side of the road. We didn’t want to disturb them too quickly and watched as they scented us on the breeze, raising their heads and running across the road in front of us. One, a fully antlered stag, was particularly magnificent and it put an early smile on our faces.

As we pootled along, the sun started to appear above the hills to our right, it reminded me so much of the opening scene of The Teletubbies, and gave us a great chance to chase our shadows along the road too.

After a long climb, we rounded a bend and the road started to drop steeply, back into the shade of the cliffs, with a tantalising sight of the sun on a distant peak.

The moment we went into the shade of the cliffs, the temperature plummeted. I have a feeling this area is already in permanent shade and hasn’t had the benefit of being warmed by the sun for quite a while and it already felt as if it was at freezing point. With the wind-chill from the descent added to the equation, we were chilled to the bone by the time we reached the bottom and had to stop for a while to try to warm ourselves up again. We jigged, hugged and did everything we could to warm ourselves up a little, and whilst Andy pulled the hood on his cycling jacket over his helmet, I started to regret wearing just my beloved cycle sandals for the ride!

Once we could feel our fingers and toes, we cycled on, starting to climb again and once back in the sunshine, just a few minutes later, we were stripping off the layers that we thought we had needed moments before.

The climbing was quite brutal in places, with steep ramps as we wingled our way out of the Alto Tajo Natural Park. It had been a spectacular, chilly and hard ride, but the moment we came out on top, the landscape changed and we found ourselves dropping into a beautiful open valley.

The colours in the rocky outcrops and soil were amazing and very reminiscent of the ochres around Rustrel and Roussillon. We followed this route through Salinas De Armallá, an ancient salt mine, which had harvested the valuable product from a naturally occurring saltwater spring in the area, continuing on towards Daroca.

Then rounding a bend, I caught sight of the spectacular town of Molina De Aragon nestled in the valley below us, dominated by the dramatic red-stone castle and its beautiful curtain wall. To say that it stopped me in my tracks was an understatement. We’d seen the town on the map and had noticed there was a supermarket there, but we had no idea that it was quite this spectacular.

We pulled off to the side of the road and Took In The Sight . What we saw as a castle was originally a Moorish fortress, built on the site of an older celtic fort. It was captured from the Moors in 1129 by Alfonso of Aragon, so is a truly ancient site.

Whilst we were looking at the view, we chatted to an English couple, who were retracing the route of a cycle ride they did 14 years ago, riding from Southern Spain back to the UK. That makes our ride back to Sète seem a minor little jaunt in comparison, but it was lovely to chat about their experiences and memories too. That’s the thing about doing adventures like this. You end up with so many wonderful and unique memories crammed in your saddlebags, and we’re enjoying adding lots of new ones to ours.

Molina De Aragon isn’t just pretty from a distance. The town is really beautiful, with a Roman bridge and stunning old buildings. But we had no time to stop (other than for a quick supermarket shop) and soon were cycling out past the castle and on towards Daroca.

From Molina, we followed a road that took us through woodland, before the trees disappeared and left us cycling along an empty road across a high plateau. The views were incredible. Vast fields as far as the eye could see, with collapsed houses and barns dotting the landscape.

We did stop in one of the fields for lunch, but almost as soon as we sat down, we were surrounded and then covered with flies. I felt like Pig-Pen from the Charlie Brown cartoons, and we were quickly back on the bikes and hammering on, trying to leave them behind.

The road rose and fell with the contours, passing through only a couple of villages, which were so wonderfully peaceful. We sat on a stone bench in one, listening to the birds and remarking that such peaceful places are so hard to find now, as there is normally some man-made sound to jar the natural quiet. But here there was nothing.

Eventually the road joined another, a wide band of tarmac that stretched as straight as a die for as far as the eye could see. I can find roads like this a bit demoralising and a real slog, but at least we were heading downhill, so we let go of the brakes and covered 12 kilometres in what felt like minutes, heading towards a distant castle on a hill and the final climb of the day, through a pass in the hills, before the descent to Daroca

By the time we reached this road, we were almost out of water, and realised that we hadn’t seen a garage, or anywhere else to buy a drink, since popping into the supermarket in Molina. Today, we weren’t blessed with an oasis, where we could buy an ice-cold coke, as the only garage on the road had long since closed its doors and pumps. That is the one thing we have found here. Whereas in France, we know that every sizeable village has a boulangerie or cafe, here that isn’t the case, or hasn’t been so far. We really do need to be more switched-on to carrying more fluid, although hopefully tomorrow’s ride won’t be quite as tough, so we may not need as much.

As we came around the final bend in the climb, the land fell away in front of us, and we took a snaking 12km downhill all the way to Daroca, arriving in front of the beautiful old city gates just after 4pm.

We’d arranged to meet the keyholder for tonight’s apartment, and had no choice but to ride through the cobbled streets to be there on time. It was like finishing the day in a cobbled section of Paris Roubaix and after another 107km and 1400m of climbing, it wasn’t really bottom-friendly.

But we checked into the apartment, and after a shower headed into town for a much needed and very lovely chilled beer, reflecting on another great day’s ride…. You can watch a little video of the day HERE

It’s been yet another incredible day on 2 wheels and we’ve ridden through some quite spectacular areas and seen some amazing places. We’re weary again tonight, but although it’s still a long ride tomorrow, we have a lot less climbing to do. Then we have a full day off in Zaragoza and the first leg of the trip will be under our belts.

I think we’ll sleep well again tonight!

As with last year’s ride, we’re having a great time and using it as an opportunity to raise some funds for our local Restos Du Coeur in Apt. So if you’re enjoying following our journey and would like to support this much-needed and well-used organisation then you can Donate via this link