Pilgrimage to Caravaca

Last October my friend Troya and I went to Aguilas on mountain bikes. While we were waiting at Aguilas railway train to come back to Alhama, we started to prepare a new plan. We

thought about a pilgrimage to Caravaca, but we needed to persuade our wives, because they needed to to go Caravaca in the cars to bring us back to Alhama. They were very understanding and they didn´t give us any problems. (We are very lucky to have such good wives !)We prepared everything for the 13th of November. At 8:00 we were in the Town Hall Square and we started the pilgrimage. This day at 8:00 there were eight adventurers ready to start this stage, when Manolo called us to ask us to wait for him. He had come from Alcantarilla by train. But on Saturday the first train didn´t leave until 8:15 and he decided to come to Alhama riding on his bicycle. He arrived at 8:05. (He had warmed up very well). In the end we were nine brave cyclists with an objective - CARAVACA.

At 8:10 we took the road to Pliego, around ten kilometres. After that we changed to a dirt road call The Portuguese Direction, Casas Nuevas. It went through the north of Sierra Espuña and the scenery was great, although I think that the best time to do this dirt road is when the almond trees are in flower, because there are a lot and there will be more colours.

At 11:00 we arrived at Casas Nuevas. We stopped in the parish. It had a square with benches and in front of it there was a bar. We had a mid-morning snack. After that we went on pedalling in the direction of Bullas. On the track we saw a beautiful bridge. We stopped and I took a photo with all group.

When we were arriving in Bullas I started to touch the GPS. I wanted to see where we were and I didn´t see a big stone that was in the middle of the dirt road. The front wheel hit against the stone, I only had one hand on the handlebar, I couldn´t control the bicycle and I went flying over it. I didn´t break any bones, only hits and injuries on my legs. But the worse part of it was that the GPS screen was torn up. As I didn´t have a serious injury, the bicycle was ok, we were near to Bullas where the Northwest Green Way started and we didn´t need the GPS, we decided we could go on to Caravaca.

In Bullas we stopped to buy water and relaxed a little. After that we went along the Green Way. This track I liked less than the other because the road was asphalt. I was more tired, I was aching all over because of the fall and this scenery was less interesting for me.

At 15:30 we came to Caravaca Basilica. We were very excited because we didn´t know if we had enough strength to finish the pilgrimage. We took some photos and after that we went to a restaurant, where our wives and our children were waiting.

We arrived at the restaurant at 16:30 and the kitchen was closed, so we ate tapas and drank beer (we were thirsty). The weather this day was sunny and we sweated a lot. During the desserts Troya´s wife and her sister gave us ties of card. They put funny comments about us on them.

We had a good time and we are thinking about what the next plan will be. If you have an idea, I would like you to tell me, please. And that´s all folks.

By Jose Luis