Day 9 - 08 Feb Diversion through the Valle de Mesa! 111km

Dropping down into Algar de Mesa at dusk

 After a nippy start I slowly climbed up to a plateau at 1060m and then followed a long but chilly 20km descent. I was annoyed to discover that my planned route to Calatayud was buried under the new A2 autovia so had to head south into the hills to find a way round. I ran out of daylight and energy around 7pm, back up around 1000m where the temperature really plummets once the sun goes down. I stopped in a cafe in a remote mountain village (Algar de Mesa) to ask how far it was to Calatayud. As soon as I found out that it was a another 60km I gave up. Yes, the cafe owner had an apartment I could use just down the street, reduced to 20 euro from 30 because it had no heating (clearly a summer letting only www.la-encina.com). Yes, I could join the family for supper at 9.30pm. So began an epic night. I drank brandy until dinnertime in front of a big open log fire. The table in the bar was set for nine, other guests joined us from the village and we ate barbecued lamb chops with a delicious red wine. Guitars came out and it all turned into a pleasant musical alcoholic haze.  The only downside was when I finally got away to my freezing apartment there was no hot water as promised. Arghh! I was so looking forward to a piping hot shower. Instead I heated saucepans of water on the cooker to have a strip down wash.......not the same thing at all, especially when standing on icy floor tiles!

I don't know why he wanted to shoot me - maybe it was the conversation about the  ownership of Gibralter 

It's fuzzy but that's me with the gun!

Leaving my apartment the following morning