We had a gorgeous ride today with stunning scenery.

We started out with a long downhill run from the Loarre Castle mountain to the next town, Ayerbe. We stopped for breakfast here at a local bakery – coffee and pastries.

We passed some impressive rock formations on the mountain near Riglos – huge phallic granite protuberances from the mountains. From here we followed a river gorge to a dam (Embalsa de la Perla) – very scenic cycling. At the dam we met a friendly Dutch couple who are cycle touring and camping in France and Spain. We had an interesting chat over coffee at the small settlement on the dam. We got some useful information and have again changed our route plan back into France.

From here the route took us through mountainous terrain, with an invigorating downhill run into a  wide river valley – the view stretching out all greens and yellows and browns and with snow capped Pyrenees on the horizon.

We eventually reached another large dam/lake (Embalsa de Yesa) and rode alongside it for an hour. The lake was a vivid turquoise and was surrounded by loose shale formations.

It was very hot after 2pm and I was relieved when we reached the town of Yesa and found a hostel in the main street at around 3pm. We had done around 100km on hilly roads.

The heat has only started to abate at around 9pm – the best cycling conditions here are definitely in the early mornings.

Observations:

• We have been on one of the Compostella de Santiago routes for the last two days. Today we met some ‘pilgrims’ for the first time – three Dutch cyclists who have cycled from Holland. They seemed more interested in the statistics of their physical performance than a spiritual journey. We haven’t seen anyone walking the route and I can’t imagine how people would manage it here as the towns are far apart with mountainous roads between them.