Day 8 - Zaragoza to Teruel - Tuesday 7th August 2007

For Spain, a cold morning (14 degrees) and quite windy. Today's stage from Zaragoza to Teruel is 120 miles of basically flat plain terrain interspersed with the odd small village. Still in Aragon region which comprises the provinces of Zaragoza, Huesca and Teruel. This was to be mentally, the hardest part of the whole venture.

Most of this area is devoted to pig farming which is where the famous cured pork (Jamon, York or Serano) comes from.

This is the start of today's ride, just ouside of Zaragoza. It was too busy in the city to negotiate the roads and find the correct route out!

Not praying (I should be)

just adjusting my computer!

On my way to to Daroca under grey skies and a stiff breeze.

It was not long after this picture was taken when I got my first puncture. Not bad I suppose. Rather than fix it there and then I decided to swap bikes and change the tube when we arrived at our hotel in Teruel.
The entrance to Daroca - 83km from Zaragoza and 118km to Teruel. Daroco is a quite interesting medieval city enclosed behind a 13th and 14th century wall measuring 3.5km. This seemed to be an appropriate place to stop for an early lunch because from here to Teruel there was very little in the way of hostelries. The main street is roughly cobbled and it was difficult to drive the vehicle in the confined spaces and with the continual bumping we were concerned about the crack in the windscreen which was steadily growing!

Leaving Daroca for Teruel the roads took on a whole new perspective for the next 70 miles!!

Looking north west!!

Looking south east!!

It was at this stage that I decided to go as hard as I could (within reason) before I lost my mind completely! I managed to cover the final 55 miles in 2 hrs 17 minutes!





















Teruel at last! Note the leaden skies. It was just beginning to rain.


The view from our hotel in Teruel. An absolute downpour! Hailstones the size of marbles! Needles to say I did not repair No 1 bike! In fairness Teruel is a lovely town and it did dry up later (much later). The sun even came out in the evening