El Mollar climb

We got up good an early this time and started at 6 am. It was still dark when we set off but soon the sun came up. The climbing started about 9 am and I was pleased when we passed where we'd turned back yesterday. Of course, we still had a long way to go.

We climbed and climbed and climbed. Hairpin bends, up and up we continued. Lots of gawping car and bus passengers. We passed a viewpoint at El Indio. People were staring at us instead of the view. What must they think?
Occasionally you'd look ahead and see a car or truck climbing up on a diagonal across a rock face on the next section of road. Oh God, I'd think - but mostly we just took it one pedal stroke at a time and that seemed to get us up.

As the afternoon wore on, we wore out. The stops we needed more frequent, the pedalling slower and harder. We'd gone through cloud, were drenched from rain and I began to look out for spots to bail out early. Eventually we saw a good little spot for wild camping. It was a picnic spot that went quite far from the road.

Settled - we're sleeping part way up the mountain.

A dinner of rice and dubious corned beef later and we were soon tucked into our sleeping bags.

distance 52.77km
ride time 5:47:00
Avg 9.10kph
max 40kph
trip alti 1246