Day 21 – EU – Spain [Cuartillos to Bornos]

26/12/19

40km

  From Cuartillos (Spain) to Bornos (Spain)

Europe

Goodbye to the family, back to solo life on the road… on a bright sunny day!

It was a long drive for my parents this morning, my dedicated taxi service since the family holiday in Sevilla started 4 days ago. Nearly 1 hour and a half of driving to drop me in Cuartillos, and as much to get back to the Hacienda near Sevilla – all this before breakfast! My eldest nephew also volunteered to drive with us, and it made for a very lovely, early morning farewell!

I will get to see them along the road throughout Europe and am looking forward to this. As soon as they left, I had to re-adjust quite quickly to the feeling of being alone on the road again. I focused on the landscape, the sunrise, the quietness of the rural roads of Spain.

The background today was that of the Sierra Nevada, the mountain range of Andalucia which I am about to run through in the next few days. I had a bit of uphill today, and it went fine in general. Maybe I am already benefiting from the few kilograms BoB shed in the last few days.

BoB got new sturdy tires for Christmas, to hopefully put an end to the endless occurences of flat tires we experienced in the first 3 weeks of the journey. He also got a new bag, as we are ditching the 2kgs North Face bag – which was great, but truly not compatible with a weight-conscious trip. And I also left a few unnecessary items with the family, in a global effort to be leaner on the road. It was necessary, as there will be a few mountain ranges to cross soon: the Sierra Nevada in Spain, the Pyreneans to France, the Southern part of the Alps, Italy’s Appenninos, Greece’s Peloponesos…

As I finished the run today, I took in all the sights of Bornos, a beautiful White Village, perched high up and nested by the side of a wide reservoir, fed by the Rio Guadalete, which I have crossed on bridges a few times today.

Check my daily run GPS data on or

Here is the map of today’s run: