We woke up around 8AM, since the sun only comes up at 8:09 here at this time! We are close to the equinox, so the sunset is about 12 hours later, at 8:23.
We had a short day today, less than 18 miles with less than 2,000 feet of climbing and so we took our time getting going. We had a coffee at the square right at the end of our street and then got riding about 10:45.
We enjoyed great views of the valley below as we skirted around the plateau that Ronda sits on, and then descended steeply to the valley floor on a combination of paved and rough dirt roads. Then, it was a climb on a highway to our turn towards Grazalema, on small very quiet roads through forest.
As we rode through the forest, I noticed that some of the trees had been stripped of their bark up to about 8 feet high… That reminded me of the cork forest that my friend Randy and I had ridden through in Portugal some years previous, and I realized this was a cork forest.
Cork trees are a type of oak and their acorns are the only acorns that can be eaten right from the tree without bitterness once ripe. They also are the required fattening food for pigs used for certain grades of Serrano and Iberian hams. Read this to find out more about the trees
The weather and terrain today were amazing for riding, and we saw quite a few other cyclists out. Oddly, we have not seen any other touring cyclists since the camino up north. The approach to Grazalema was magical, and it’s a really lovely village perched on steep cliff side with rugged mountains around it.
We had intended to camp, but an inexpensive hotel with a nice pool beckoned and so we took that option.
After a shower and some sunbathing, we went into town to check it out. Our hotel is on a hillside across from the village itself and so it had a great view.
We had drinks and dinner in town, but wolfed them down too quickly to take pictures. We were hungry!
Leave a Reply