May 5 and 6, 2023
I knew that getting to South Korea from rural Ontario was not going to be easy but combine that with a miscalculation on my part and a typical Air Canada experience and it adds up to a very long commute. Since I live a two hour drive from the Ottawa airport and my flight was scheduled to leave at 9:00 am, I decided to leave home the afternoon before and get a hotel room for the night. The plan was to try to make the long air travel day a bit more relaxing than having to leave my home by 5:00 am in order to be at the airport the required two hours ahead of departure. This part worked great and even allowed Chris to come along for a kiss and goodbye at the airport and a drive by visit with my son James and his family the evening before. However, my plan for a shorter day of air travel was not to be realized.
A smart person would have added an extra day in Seoul to allow for travel delays and I thought I was doing that by leaving early Thursday for the Sunday start of the ride and the mandatory briefing meeting on Saturday morning. An extra day would give me plenty of time to reassemble my bike and deal with any problems. However, I forgot about the International Date Line. Leaving Thursday morning would put me in Seoul late Friday afternoon instead of late Thursday night. Still, arriving 5:30 pm on Friday was not all that bad. Figuring two hours to get through customs and from the airport to the hotel still put me in my room before eight. I might have time to get my bike unpacked and put together and if not, I should be relaxed and rested to get up early the next day and do the job then.
Ottawa to Toronto went off smoothly and right on time. However, before we even landed, we were advised that the Toronto to Seoul flight was being delayed. It was only an hour delay but as my time was already tight, I was less than thrilled. As the afternoon ticked away and the original 2:00 pm departure time approached we were updated that the delay was now two hours. It seemed odd as I could look right out the airport window and see our plane already at the skyway. Seems that Air Canada needed the extra time for some maintenance. Good news came a few minutes later when they started to call for boarding well before the new departure time. This luck only held until I was in my seat and the plane about a third loaded. Loading was suddenly stopped and we were told that the plane needed a new tire on the front landing gear. Normally I would have expected such a thing to be something that might have been notice during the three to four hours the plane was already sitting at the gate but no, the ways of Air Canada maintenance are strange and mysterious. A new tire was sent for and in a mere ninety minutes it was delivered, installed and loading resumed.
The flight itself was uneventful but did have one interesting feature. Fly east to west we were basically moving against the Earth’s rotation and this kept us in daylight throughout the entire flight. Landing in Seoul would have been accompanied by a stunning sunset had the city not been completely covered by low clouds and a patchy fog. The gloomy evening was a perfect match for my travel weary mood as I collected by boxed bike and luggage and was treated to an additional screening before hitting customs and immigration. Two hours or so after landing I finally sat down on my bed and fought my way to sleep.
Today is much better. I am rested, my bike reassembled with only one minor issue that I was able to repair. The weather is still humid and wet and that gives me the perfect excuse to stay in my room, write this short blog post and veg-out the rest of the day. Tomorrow we ride!
The hike takes you either up a roadway to the top or along a rugged path that follows the contour of land as it climbs and dips along the steep limestone sides of the terrain. We chose the rugged path with its many rock steps and outstanding views of the Mediterranean sea and the continent of Africa just fifteen miles across the straits of Gibraltar. The path leads you past the fortified gun placements, many from World War Two but some from the long history of this British fortress. We climbed our way to the top where the big nine inch guns commanded the straits and could reach out and touch any who should not be allowed to pass. Under the highest battery is a museum display preserving the look of the extensive works required to command these weapons of destruction.
Gibraltar is also home to a troop of Macaques, a cousin of ours from Northern Africa. One local legend says that they came to Gibraltar through a network of caverns that extend under the straits to Morocco. If so, no one has ever found any such a subterranean connection despite determined efforts to do so. It is far more likely that the monkeys arrived on some ship long forgotten in the mists of time. Today they are both an attraction and a pest. They are quite tame and will pose for any number of photographs but watch out if you have anything that looks like food.
St. Michael’s cave is well worth the visit with some of the most beautiful examples of flow-stone that I have ever seen. While the public portion of the cave is fairly small, the lighting effects and light show really highlight these wonderful limestone formations. There is a good deal of the cave that is not open to the public and there is still exploration of the cave network that undermines Gibraltar. Evidence of Neanderthal occupation from around 40,000 years ago has recently been found in one location. In addition to the caves, there are many miles of military tunnels from Gibraltar’s long history as a fortress. Today it still serves as Britain’s watch-post on the Mediterranean and a projection of England’s military prowess. Spain would like to have it back but that does not appear to be in the cards.
More than a tourist attraction Gibraltar is still a busy port with dry docks and facilities for shipbuilding. Still, tourism is the fuel for its economic engine and that fuel seems to be taking over more and more of the Rock’s real estate. The place is already crowded with steep curving streets, fast moving vehicles and pedestrians who must feel like targets in some road warrior video game. I loved my short visit but would have ulcers if I had to live with this traffic every day.
The last few kilometers passed through the industrial port city of Algeciras, Spain with its refineries and chemical plants. If I did not know better I could imagine that I was in New Jersey.
Our next to the last day of riding turned out to be more of a challenge than we anticipated. We had assumed that from Granada it would be mostly downhill to Gibraltar but it was not to be. First we had to spend our last Spanish night in the city of Ronda and Ronda sits high above a deep gorge. To get to Ronda we passed through the usual olive groves and into some foothills with steep climbs along rural back roads. Instead of be more downs than ups we had to climb a total of 1325 meters (4300 feet) and most of that during the second 45 kilometers of our 90 kilometer ride. While we have done longer rides with more climbing, today just seemed especially hard. Maybe it was because our expectations did not match reality. In any event, after a ride through some beautiful countryside we finally arrived in Ronda and our last night in Spain.
Ronda is an interesting town and quite a tourism destination. It sits high above a deep and narrow gorge and offer some fantastic views and even some cliff side dining if you like. The town is also known for it bullfighting museum and well preserved bullfighting arena. Is is also known for being the final resting place for the ashes of Orson Welles. 
was fascinated by the Spanish bullfighting culture and even took part in a few amateur bullfights as a teenager. Like Hemingway he sided with the republican side during the Spanish Civil War using his vocal talents on his radio program to influence the intellectual community to support their cause. He and Hemingway eventually met during the production of Hemingway’s movie, The Spanish Earth, which Welles narrated.
Welles strongest connection with Spain was through the Spanish actress, 
As the sun is rising ever later in the day so too are our daily journeys beginning later. We left Granada at a leisurely 9:30 for a 110 kilometer ride to our next overnight stay in the town of Antequera. Leaving the city we were quickly back into the olive plantations that seem to dominate this part of Spain. They truly are everywhere extending far up mountainsides wherever there is land that can sustain them. Irrigation networks throughout the region move the water through what is essentially a fairly dry landscape. As with many things in Spain, even the aqueducts are built with an architectural flair.
Along the way we passed through many small towns carved into the landscape. Often they have unusual artworks decorating their traffic circles and even some that are hard to understand as in the two examples I have shown.
The skies have had a smoky quality ever since we entered into any orchard farming region and this is especially true of the Andalusian region in the south of Spain. Orchards require pruning to keep the trees productive and this is especially true of olive trees. The fall seems to be the best time to do this and the result is a fog like layer of smoke that fills the horizon. Every orchard seems to have plumes of smoke rising from multiple points. Some are small fires and some like then one in the photo are the result of larger pruning activities. Riding through these, especially when going uphill can result in some unpleasant breathing but thankfully, such episodes are short. in duration.
Granada’s big attraction is Alhumbra. This is a magnificent fortress topping a high hill above the city that has been lovingly restored after a long and violent past. It was built over the remains of an old Roman fortress that was abandoned and allowed to fall into ruins, a fate that has happened to this location more than once over the centuries.
With the completion of the Christian Reconquista in 1492 the Sultan was tossed out and the palace became the royal court of Ferdinand and Isabella where Columbus received his royal endorsement for his chance encounter with America. Fred and Issy were buried there for awhile until the rent increases made relocation to a state sponsored location more affordable.
Regardless of what prompted the restoration, Alhambra today is magnificant. The gardens, fountains and restored palaces are well worth the time spent to see how this World Heritage Site must have looked in its glorious past. If you come, don’t just walk around, take a guided tour. The information they provide is well worth the additional cost. Be sure to bring your passport as identification is checked many times throughout a visit due to the large business in counterfeit admission tickets. As for anything else I have to say, I’ll let some pictures speak a thousand words.
Abandoned dwellings still punctuated the landscape reminding us of the small, family run but marginal agricultural operations that have now been overtaken by agro-biz throughout this region. An entire way of life that underwent a sea-change in a matter of a few decades
