I have crossed countless rivers on my trip so far. Many of them had huge river beds but none of them had any water. I don’t know if that’s due to the season or if the climate has changed so drastically overall. Also I have been told that rivers get diverted simply because water is quite important here.

This here also used to be a huge river below.

Not only the landscape changed constantly. Also the architecture had changed. All houses outside of bigger towns now looked the same. They were all snow white painted brick cubes.

This of course is to reflect the sun and reduce the heat.

On my way along the coast I found a site where there used to be a gold mine and the infrastructure still partially exists. It seems to be a bit of a tourist attraction out here in the middle of nowhere but I was the only one there in the late afternoon.
The agecent town seemed completely empty also. Siesta is not a joke here. Which I completely understand. On a sign I could have read what the silos are for but I did not have the willpower to do so in te heat. Not only is the heat uncomfortable, it also makes you so much more tired.

Distances seemed very vast now. I could ride an hour without seeing a single human beeing. Understandably in this wide space of emptyness where nothing grows.

I was climbing up a hill on a great little road which really only offered space for one vehicle in many uncomfortable spots with a long drop on one side. But the road offered a fantastic onto the valley I had come from.

After passing the hill I was surprised to see that in fact there was a lot growing on this land. The main purpose of the vally on the other side seemed to be growing fruits and vegetables. There were countless green houses as far as the eye could see right in the desert.

Another hour closer to the coast I finally reached San Jose. A place I wish I had stayed at longer. It lays in a national park and it was easy to see why. After having passed through all of San Jose -which is a very moderately sized village- on the other side there are no paved roads anymore and this is where you can find the most beautiful spots.

The village itself looked idyllic as well.

The only problem was that this being a national park camping would be prohibited. There were quite a few official camp sites a bit outside of San Jose but none close to the village and well quite frankly they were a bit expensive for my taste. 20Euros and up for a night (which is not extraordinary unfortunately but I did not want to spend that much). There wasn’t really any obvious spot to camp in the national park though. Not a single tree and no flat ground that wasnt covered with rocks. I explored a few offroad paths and ended up reluctantly choosing this one spot which was quite exposed on a hill.

I decided to wait for the sun to set to pitch my tent. I was going to get up before sunrise to take down the tent again in order to not be discovered in the national park. Until the sun had set I ate dinner which consisted of fish, bread, and a partially fermented whole pineapple. I had bought it fresh for a special low price offer the day before at a supermarket only to find out afterwards that it was not priced as advertised. The heat in the black panniers had not been particularly good for the fruit but after paying a lot I did not want it to go to wast. It was still refreshing after another exhausting day and I felt fit and willing to face the possible congestive consequences the next day.

Once more I had a fantastic view of the night sky and the moon provided just enough light for me to set up my tent in the darkness. Exhausted I fell onto the my matrace. At least the night would be somewhat cooler this close to the coast.

I continued my journey towards San Jose. A (probably rather inconspicuous) town name that for me however just like “Santa Fe” or “Santa Maria” always means American/Mexican wild west. Also the landscape now looked even more like what you see in the old western movies. Despite 38 degrees I loved riding through the dry and hostile to life looking landscape. I felt like riding through one of Leones movies.

Petrol had become expensive since I had reached the southern coast of Spain. It might just be the usual fluctuations but in the north it was 25% cheaper.

However the food was still cheap at the supermarket. In fact it was very cheap. I bought half a kilo of strawberries (local) for 1.50 Euro. In London or anywhere else I would probably pay a few pounds for that amount. In retrospect I should have been more greedy buying a kilo or more and eat until I puke. They were really good.

Fruit generally is relatively cheep. And most of the time local.

I had just passed Alicante when I decided it was time to drop the bike again. From the main road I saw a little trail going towards the beach. I was dying to go for a swim and got onto the dusty path to check out if it actually lead to the sea. I quickly saw that it did so I followed the uncomfortably sideways angled path. A few hundred meters in the path split. The right one lead to a little parking lot and the left one continued a little further down the beach. I went for the left one hoping for a remote beach spot and some more off-road experience. The path got worse but I reached the end without any troubles. I wanted to turn the bike around to have an easier time taking off later but that was a mistake. The problem was that there was almost no space to reverse. So I had to move the bike very slowly. At higher speeds the bike behaves a lot better than slow. Often when there is an uneven off-road path it is better to ride it with a bit more speed to shoot over uneven ground. But when you are going very slow the smallest pebble can make you lose your balance. And that is what happened to me. It must have been painful to watch. I dropped the bike v-e-r-y s-l-o-w-l-y. I was almost standing still but I had a bit of momentum from trying to turn left and I just couldn’t hold it. The only way I could have avoided the drop was with more throttle but there wasn’t enough space for it on this little spot.

As before the procedure was: trying to lift it with the luggage which of course didn’t work, removing all the accessible luggage, lifting the bike and packing it again. After I had lifted the bike I rode it to a flat spot so taking off would be no problem.

No damage at all.

This time I was rewarded with a great spot to relax and refuel my body with water and pastries.

 

Afterwards I went for a swim in the crystal clear water. My goggles were useless but I could still see the fearless little fish swimming close to me. They looked like what I had only seen in the aquarium so far. A great experience.

Relaxed I continued my journey through the dry landscape.

I came across countless little beaches one more beautiful that the other. Always the water was crystal clear. It looked like what you see in the holiday booking catalog.

More and more I could see why this landscape was chosen by Sergio Leone to resemble the American desert like west.

Right after leaving Valencia I noticed that the landscape had changed. There were very few trees, only a few bushes and other than that lots of yellow dry soil and sand.

After a little while I reached a city called Torrevieja which had been suggested to me by the Valencia hostel staff.

 

I stopped at Torrevieja to go for a swim, stock up my supplies and fill up the tank. I also bought cheap diving goggles because of how clear the water was everywhere I had been so far. Although this had already been the second pair I bought cheaply on the trip. The first one was too small for me. This one was just as useless. It’s got the same issue as my GOPro Camera housing. Above water the glass seems clear but below it is very distorted because it has a slight curvature and it’s cheap plastic. The German saying “Who buys cheap buys twice” applies.

After covering a good distance it had gotten late and the sun was setting. I needed to find a place to sleep.

Luckily I had my GPS to guide me at night. Except that night it made it’s first mistake. I am using a GPS app on my phone which works fantastically despite the fact that it is free.
On my 5000miles so far it had never failed me once but due to the fact that the road network is rapidly being expanded all over the place in Spain the GPS was showing a now discontinued road causing me a one hour detour. So instead of reaching the next bigger town I was now looking for a camp site, wherever. Just as I realized once again that it was really getting darker and that I really had to find a place to sleep I passed through the most desolate neighborhood so far. A little town that seemed completely deserted except for the odd old and grim looking villager sitting on their porch. There was trash everywhere and buildings in ruins. I wanted to leave this area as quickly as possible. The real problem though was that after having passed through this town there was no place to hide a tent and a motorcycle because there simply was no vegetation to speak of. No forests, not even individual trees or bushes.
Finally after riding for a few more miles I passed a little hill. Two hills actually. And where they met in the middle, a little elevated I saw MY campsite. It offered a nice view over the flat valley I had just passed through. The terrain was not the most inviting to ride uphill in bad light and I did not want to drop the bike at that time of the day. Slowly I climbed the hill in first gear and parked the bike for the night on the dusty plateau.

The sun hadn’t set completely yet and since I wanted to stay as invisible as possible, especially in that neighborhood I decided to have dinner first and set up my tent once the sun had completely vanished.

My top box doubles as wardrobe, dinner table and office desk.

The night was uncomfortably hot but I had the most fantastic view onto the night sky. I could clearly see the milky-way and all the star signs. A view that never fails to make me realize how tiny we and our problems are and how much more there is out there.

The night was hot but opening the tent beyond the ventilation net zips was not an option due to the many relentless flies and mosquito.
Why it really was the right decision to keep the zips closed became obvious the next day.
I was just about to take down the tent and wrap it up when I saw this 5cm guy under my tent.

At 5cm he was roughly 5cm too big. Quickly I got my big boots and stomped – away. When I came back he was gone. Probably crawled into my tent I thought. Still I had to get going so I folded up the tent extra carefully after shaking it vigorously and packed all my other things.

Sweating from the already glaring heat of the morning sun I left my campsite to continue south, always south.

The next day I got up early so I would not be discovered camping in the forest. To my knowledge wild camping is generally allowed in Spain but there are exceptions like in national parks, close to military bases, on beaches, next to roads or in bird protective zones. Since I wasn’t sure what my location qualified as I wanted to stay low. That didn’t really work out though as my location was probably passed by ten jeeps and 50 cyclists after sunrise. Nobody said anything though. If anything they greeted me friendly.

The place where I had ended up was actually a beautiful spot by daylight. Would make for a great bonfire place but of course that was unthinkable considering the extreme heat and risk of fire throughout the region and much of Europe for that matter.

After I had packed the bike I left the forest again and went back to onto the regular roads.

Towards Valencia always searching for the next place to take a break and escape the heat I found a little town with a nice beach where I made a stop to cool off and go for a swim.

Refreshed and relaxed I continued my journey …

… and reached Valencia in the evening.

There I stayed at a hostel for the first time on this trip. Two nights at the hostel elevated my costs for accommodation since the beginning of the trip from 0 to a grand total of 30Euros. Wild camping makes for a cheap holiday. Still, staying at a hostel once a week is a welcome change. Getting a real shower instead of relying on the sea, lakes and shower facilities at the beaches is a welcome luxury. Also getting to charge all batteries of my electronic devices was convenient. Not to mention proper toilets.
Charging my devices on the road actually worked very well though. The only thing I can not charge well on the road is my high capacity battery bank. But more about that in a dedicated gear post later.

In Valencia I ate my first Paella. I didn’t even have a vague idea of what Paella was made of. Also I only discovered by accident that the Paella comes from Valencia. Honestly I was a bit underwhelmed when I found out that one variation is basically just pasta with cheese. Nonetheless it tasted great and the shrimp and the mussel on top was a welcome change from my usual -lets call it cost effective- travel diet. Besides this actually was cheap too. 3.50Euros and I was really full after. London take note.

For me the best food I have had in Spain though so far is the pastries. They are fantastic. Any and all of them. They are not drenched in sugar like in many other countries. It’s just a hint of sweetness. The real taste comes from the baking ingredients. No matter where you go a bakery, cafe or supermarket they are always delicious and not expensive either. Even at Lidl I had amazing fresh pastries. For me the pastries are on par with the ones from Sweden which have so far taken number two on my list after Austrias baked goods. Pastries have become a big part of my diet here in Spain. Because they don’t taste extremely sweet you can actually eat a lot of them without getting sick of them. Anyway enough with the pastries.

Here is one of the many old churches in Valencia.

I liked Valencia more than Barcelona. It’s smaller and felt more homely to me.

More impressions of Valencia:

Before leaving Valencia after my two days stay in the morning I stopped at the stadium of FC Valencia. Like in Barcelona I only saw it from the outside as I did not want to pay 15 Euros for an inside tour considering that that could also be one night at a hostel. I like football and these clubs are the spearhead of world football but that was not worth it for me.

In the morning my camp site looked a little more welcoming.

I spent the next two days walking through Barcelona and relaxing at the empty beach. The main beaches in Barcelona are very crowded but if you go a little further outside of the centre then you will find beautiful empty beaches which you can access either by car or by train.

 

The bull fighting arena of Barcelona.

House of music.

One of Gaudis Buildings.

Gaudis Jugendstiel Basilica Familia which is still not finished despite the fact that Gaudi has been dead for nearly a century. Its construction is financed by donations.

The gothic quarter of Barcelona.

The stadium of FC Barcelona Camp Nou.

 

The ferry ride was nice and relaxing. Despite the weather on sea being very foggy it was still warm and I was contemplating sleeping on deck.

I had booked the cheapest ticket which is just a seat like you get on an airplane. But when I saw that I had actually gotten a first row seat with space in front of me I decided to just sleep in my row ­ on – the floor. Most of the people in the room followed my example and made camp on the floor of each row since the seats tickets were not even a third booked unlike the more expensive cabins. I didn’t sleep much but I hadn’t expected I would.
In the morning we were all asked to get to our vehicles and disembark the ship. After a quick and smooth passport check a stream of bikes was swarming away from the port.
The cars had already left and the lorries would still take their sweet time.

Where to go first when you are in Spain for the first time? Right, the petrol station of course. To my surprise it was not self service. But apparently that one Shell station was just an exception.

Finally I went to the nearest playa/beach. (Look how good my Spanish is!) The water was very clean and the beach not crowded which both surprised me to be honest. Somehow I was expecting Adria like beaches.

I didn’t go for a swim yet but just took a little break. I still hadn’t decided weather to continue clockwise or counter clockwise through Spain. But the heat made that decision easy for me. This is the North and I was already a bit uncomfortable wearing ATGATT. Though it’s only uncomfortable when off the bike. Riding with the stream of air it’s still very nice once you have accepted that this is how it is from now on ;). Since temparatures ar only getting higher especially in the south I decided to cover the south first.

To finish the day I was cruising around through the little roads avoiding the motorways which btw are really a joy to ride because they are in great shape and lead throuh nice valleys and hills. But I wanted to see the little villages. After a few hours I hit the first big city, Bilbao but didn’t want to take the time to stop much because I will get there again when I come back anyway. I just quickly took a look around the Guggenheim Museum and on I went.

It was getting darker and darker and I didn’t have a campsite yet. I could have gone to a proper campsite paying 30 Euros but I want to do wild camping where possible. So I continued on the little roads checking out all the little paths on the sides and finally at 11pm I found a litle place up a dusty path. Setting up the tent in the darkness was a new experience. I had positioned my bike so that I could illuminate my spot with the headlights but I didn’t want to turn the lights on to avoid attracting all the bugs.

My camp in the morning:

From here I will go straight to the shouth.