Touring Spain North to South - Report

[tonych]

I think the most common was "Coto privado de caza".

Yes there was quite a bit of shooting going off...
and quite a fair few large bulls too.
both of which were a good deterrent to me! (along with fences, mostly barbed wire and locked gates - some chainlinked fences looked like they were to primarily keep wild animals (deer etc) off the roads)

its looking like i misunderstood - to mean private keep out.
my fault for not checking up further.

great trip though - next time i will be more adventurous with the camping side of things

Tony

 

[lulubel]

its looking like i misunderstood - to mean private keep out.

It's an easy mistake to make when you see the word "privado".

Most of the ones around here say coto deportivo de caza, and we didn't have a clue what that meant when we first arrived here, so looked it up. I think the official difference is that privado is private land, and only the landowner (and anyone he allows) has game rights. Deportivo is (officially) public land, but only certain groups have game rights. However, just to further muddy the water, a lot of private landowners round here put up deportivo signs rather than privado.

I'd say the best bet is just find a quiet place to camp and see what happens. Worst case is you could be asked to move, and you can still offer the landowner a few euros to let you stay. In the current economic climate, I don't think many would refuse. (Being a landowner in Spain doesn't necessarily indicate wealth. In most cases it just means you own a bit of land that's probably not very productive, and takes a lot of work to produce very little income.)

 

[tonych]

all done!!!
after i followed most of the original route on this post i took a few days off while my family joined me in southern spain.

i then took the ferry from Tarifa to Tanger city -- in the next eight days i cycled Moroccos west coast down to Safi then in a mad last day did the 100mile stretch from Safi to Marrakech - i will sort some reasonable pics out and add a few words for those that are interested once i get back to the UK.

totals - 2060km; 17000m ascent. - from my Garmin Edge 500.

regards
Tony

 

[tonych]

currently thinking of doing Uraquay-Argentina-Chile
coast to coast late next year...

Tony

 

[MarkF]

currently thinking of doing Uraquay-Argentina-Chile
coast to coast late next year...
Tony

That sounds good. I'll look forward to seeing some more Spain pics.

 

[tonych]

Hi Mark/Lulu

I finally got around to adding some photos from the Morocco leg of the trip....

Spain - https://www.dropbox.com/sh/awqpfvsqec48umz/9SEeoq204e/Spain
Morocco - https://www.dropbox.com/sh/awqpfvsqec48umz/FoGvZ0jkxg/Morocco

regards
Tony

 

[AWhitaker]

Hi everyone,

I know this is an old thread but I thought I'd ask anyway.

Next month I am planning to cycle from London to Malaga.

With the intention of keeping mileage down I was planning on cycling the most direct route. London to Portsmouth, ferry from Portsmouth to St Malo (France), along the west coast of France from St Malo to Biarritz, Biarritz to Madrid (Spain), Madrid to Malaga.

I have found quite a bit of information for cycling along the west coast of France but not too much about cycle routes from the north to south of Spain.

As I mentioned I am thinking of cycling via Madrid, however I am not determined to do this route if there are arguments against it/ better routes from north to south.

Has anybody completed a ride like this/ or parts of it? I am particularly interested in routes from the north of Spain (San Sebastian/ Pamplona etc) to Malaga.

I am planning on camping most nights and I aim to complete the ride in under 30 days - if possible.

Any advice, information, websites, contacts you can offer me I would be really grateful to hear about.

Thanks

I have uploaded a google map image with a possible route.

 

[mmmmartin]

i have ridden from gibraltar to toledo, then on the bus to madrid to fly home, and on the bus from irun to msdrid then guadalajara outside madrid back to France via pamplona. Also recently ridden caen to bordeaux.
In France you can camp easily, there are sites all over the place. In Spain campsites are rare and expensive. I think this is because in the summer it is far too hot to camp. There are fences everywhere along the roads in Spain, so wild camping will be tricky. You could use youth hostels or hotels. In Spain a room is about €40, more in France. One way would be to camp in France then post all the camping kit home rather than carry it, and use youth hostels or hostales (hotels) in Spain. You might want to avoid Madrid: cycling unfriendly. The road through the Pyrenees via elizondo is good: where there are tunnels cycles are banned but there is an excellent traffic free good tarmac road as an alternative, which the petrol tankers have to use as they are also banned from the tunnels. Once you are at elizondo there is a very flat winding road to the main road and once over the summit it is downhill for 30 miles on a small hard shoulder of the road: seemed pretty safe to us.
Plan your days ahead: accommodation can be sorted a day or two in advance. Remember that very many of these towns have no accommodation at all of any kind and you can easily find yourself with a 30 mile ride in the dark to find a hotel. From Gibraltar to France we saw about six campsites, most on the Med coast. Camping is not something many seem to do in Spain.
Your French route is ok, the roads south of pointe de la grave south of royan are straight, dangerous, fast, busy and boring and the cycle paths are good but winding.
Learning Spanish is a help: I used the dorling kindersley cd and books for £20, made a big difference.

 

[tonych]

Hi AWhitaker.

I followed the route at the head of this conversation and it worked out well. Camping opportunities are rare. Wild camping only for me (for only a few nights) - as I didn't see one campsite - as has been said - fences are the thing (with bulls behind them).

If I were to do this again I would assume I would be finding a hostel every night and if I came across a camping spot in the hour or so before my nightly destination I would take it.

Carry as little food as possible 2 days worth of pasta and water - plenty of places to stock up, but this was my first trip through Spain and the whole place with the exception of large town centre supermarkets still makes very good use of the daily Siesta.

enjoy the trip - Spain is worth it - the infrastructure even remote country roads are superb.

regards
Tony

 

[MarkF]

In Spain a room is about €40

Normally I'd budget on 30 Eu for 2 sharing a decent room, on my own I may have to take a place above a bar, 15/20eu. I can stay in a decent room in the middle of Barcelona, 200m for Las Ramblas, for 25eu! It's very rare for me not to have found a good cheap room in Spain, that is one of it's major attractions for me, it's not worth taking (weight) camping gear unless that is what you really want to do.

 

[AWhitaker]

Hi,

Thanks for all your suggestions, recommendations and advice. It has really helped!

I am currently working on my final route so I may be back on here before too long.

Cheers.

 

[jay clock]

I have done pretty much what you planned. I would personally avoid the whole Madrid area - Spanish urban roads are no fun.

I can strongly recommend the old main road N620 or 630 down from Salamanca to Sevilla. Read all about it here and see my report http://www.crazyguyonabike.com/doc/julian2012

 

[MarkF]

I have done pretty much what you planned. I would personally avoid the whole Madrid area - Spanish urban roads are no fun.

I can strongly recommend the old main road N620 or 630 down from Salamanca to Sevilla. Read all about it here and see my report http://www.crazyguyonabike.com/doc/julian2012

I can endorse Jay's recommendation, it's relaxing and safe with most (and nearly all industrial) traffic on the adjacent autovia.

 

[Battleforbreath]

Hi!

My Sister and I are looking at doing a similar trip to raise money for the British Lung Foundation. The only difference really is that we plan to go through Seville.

I'm trying to find an appropriate bike, could you make any recommendations? How much on road and off road / on gravel does the trip involve?

Also how did you track your route to make the GPS map? That's awesome!

Thanks so much for sharing this!

Hannah

 

[jay clock]

Personally I would avoid gravel

In terms of bike, I would suggest a new post in the What bike section or perhaps better in the touring section. Depends on load. For Spain I avoid camping, so lighter load and lighter bike. And you can probably manage with very little.

My route went through the centre of Sevilla

I now us a Garmin and would use that, and take a laptop. Not everyone's choice. I use Ride with GPS and check Street view to see if the roads have been STreetviewed. If they have it is probably cyclebale