Bikepacking Montañas Vacías: Complete Journey

Bikepacking Montañas Vacías: Complete Journey

Montañas Vacías, this is where we start. My bike is parked there, and I’m here with a special person, Ernesto Pastor. Ernesto is the guy that designed the route Montañas Vacías, that was awarded by Bikepacking.com the best route of the world in 2019.

I was a bit worried as well about the problems of the population in this area. I was starting to see that in other parts of the world, they were starting to create some of these projects,

Like trying to show that bikes can be a tool for change, to fight against these kind of problems with population and depopulation. We can say that the whole area that covers the route, it has less than one inhabitant per square kilometer. But it’s practically nothing.

It’s only comparable to the north of Lapland in Finland and in Norway. But with a better climate. With better climate, not in winter. Winter is so cold here as well.

But the point is that in the real Lapland, the population is kind of constant, but here it’s still going down and down and down every year.

I was starting to feel in my mind that this kind of trip, this kind of route could be a nice tool for changing or for trying to inspire.

So everything started like an experiment, trying to show first to myself if it could be possible to leave a positive impact in the area thanks to a bikepacking route. So I just tried to design the best strategy to get that. I knew that bikepacking.com

was the main place where the best routes in the world wanted to be. So my main purpose was to get an article there. So I was trying hard to make drawings, to draw maps, to make a nice text. So I sent the route there.

And they didn’t answer anything in five or six months. But then by mistake, one of the editors of the web page was right in this area. So I could meet him. I told him about the route. Yeah, they never answered. I submitted the route and they never answered. It’s five years now.

They haven’t answered. After talking with this guy, when he discovered that this area was so, so good, I said, I sent five months ago a route to bikepacking.com and I didn’t have any answer. And he told me, this route has to be definitely in bikepacking.com

So in a couple of days, the route was there and everything changed. A lot of people from the USA, from the UK started to come. And it was the best start point because Spanish people started to come when they realized that the people from out of Spain were starting to come.

So it was the best start for the route. We had the pandemic in the middle of the… This is now the fifth season, number five. So we had the pandemic in the middle and it was curious to discover that some of the accommodations and bars and shops brought me to say thank you

Because they survived the pandemic thanks to the travelers, Spanish travelers and then European travelers. And did you get any help, any grants from European Union or from the community here to pay back your work? No, it was part of my plan.

My plan was trying to create something with no money to show what can get one single person with no money to improve the quality of life in my own area. That’s great. I think that my message is much stronger if I do it without any help. Why people should come?

For me, the main reason is that you will discover here a virgin landscape that is not possible anymore to find in Western Europe. I mean, you will find a perfect quality of sound, you will find perfect skies at night. Silence is one of the best treasures of this area.

And the experience of riding for days and days without seeing, without hearing. So, it’s for me the main treasure of this area. So, the route is about 650 kilometers. There are many variants you can do in the middle as well.

So, you can break it in smaller trips, but the bigger route is about 650 kilometers. How many days usually people take it on a bikepacking setup? For me, I would recommend to ride the route in 7 to 9 days, something like that. To do it in a relaxed way.

8, 9 for me would be perfect. You could do it faster for sure, but you will not get in touch so deeply. It’s not going to be as meditative. Clockwise or anti-clockwise? I think the best way is as explained in the guide, that it’s anti-clockwise.

Because it’s the way I designed it, it’s the way I think is the most beautiful direction to follow the route. You could do it in both for sure. Anti-clockwise it is, yeah. I saw the elevation, it’s quite hard as any route in Spain.

It’s maybe a little less hard than Badlands, because there’s probably not like you go up to Pico Veleta, and that’s a big chunk. But yeah, it looks very hard on paper. And yeah, I just look forward to discover this new route in Spain. I cannot leave Spain, it’s incredible.

There is one route after the other, so now it’s Montañas Vacías. And thank you very much to Ernesto to put it together. Thank you David for coming here and for being part of this. Centro Historico, we are in the center of Teruel.

As you can see there are the bikepackers that they finished the Montañas Vacías. This is the place where we start the Montañas Vacías. But those two guys, they just finished. Very fast, very light, they did it in four days. After talking to Ernesto, I went to Mercadona. But now it’s time to start.

And look at this tower, very beautiful. There are a few of those towers. This is where the dirt starts, across the bridge from the old town. That’s it, there’s no way back. Montañas vacías! That’s Teruel The windmills, it was where we were yesterday. And yeah, already first kilometers. I would say very nice.

And gentle. I have two problems. First problem, I forgot to get a coke before leaving Teruel. Wow, look at this view! What’s going on here? Holy moly! Look at that, looks like the desert of Goráce, a little less desert. My second problem is I forgot to withdraw money from the ATM in Teruel.

Money are never my priority, but I don’t think you can pay with card in any of the villages, so it would have been nice to have a few euros to spend here and there. Yes. I guess I’ll be… I’ll be very, very cheap. Incredible. And we just started. We just started.

Spain is too beautiful. Too, too pretty. It’s a problem. It’s a problem. This property is for sale. It’d be nice if someone wants to move to Spain and turn these properties into a bike bar for the people doing the Montañas Vacias. They can stop here, chill, charge their power banks,

Have a ice coke and continue. What a place. This is the first village of the empty Spain, Montañas Vacías. It would be nice if there was a bit of water. The trail goes left here but I want to check if there is some signs of water somewhere. There is a church down there.

Let’s see, let’s see. The village is too small, it has no bar, so no cold coke. Yes, cold coke. I asked one guy if there was a bar or a fountain. He told me there is a fountain, there is no bar. But if you want, I can give you a cold coke.

His wife went to the kitchen and brought out two cold cokes without caffeine. She told me they are without caffeine. Is it ok? That’s ok. I’ll do drugs tomorrow. And I got some tomatoes, cucumber. Then I went to the fountain and I washed my clothes.

They are clean and wet, which is cooling me down a lot. Look at this beauty. Montañas Vacías. The empty Spain. This is where I’m gonna pitch my tent, it’s the only spot that it doesn’t have any stones. My trail is up here like a few hundred meters, it goes down that way.

Yeah I’m tired, I’m gonna spend the night here and I can’t wait to cook my tortellini now. I’ll see you in the morning guys. Buenos dias, I’m back, I’m good to go, my trash is here. Great night, great night until I finished my dinner, went into my tent and looked up.

It was an incredible sky and I felt I was out of place because I was in between trees and I didn’t have a full view of the sky, but tonight I’m not gonna make the same mistake, let’s go. Montañas Vacías, day two, my day two, most people would be further ahead,

But I started very late, anyway I don’t care. Montañas Vacías, beautiful. It’s 11 o’clock, I have another 14 kilometers to arrive to a village called Albaracin. Now there, now the road goes up, I think four kilometers, gentle climb I think,

And then it’s fairly downhill to the village which I would love to get there as soon as possible because there is one grocery store and I hope it doesn’t close too early because today is Saturday, so it’s most likely only opening in the mornin. So now when I cook tortellini I throw…

No camping? Very easy like that. Albergue. Albergue. For people who have a lot of money. No, we don’t have money, no. Don’t believe. Man, we come three days. Three days? Very fast. 200 kilometers a day. No, we don’t make a whole Montañas Vacías. Ah part of it Yes, just a piece.

And so these people are doing half of the Montañas Vacías and very light, they eat at the bars and they sleep at the albergues so they can be very very light and they can cover lots of distance. What a beautiful place. Imagine to live here. Wouldn’t it be nice?

And you can, if you buy that whole house. That’s old farmhouse. And yeah, it’s wonderful. Starting descending to Albarracín. I’m dreaming of a cold Pepsi. Or Coke. Or Ice Tea. Anything. Just give me anything. Even in a little village like this, Spanish vending machines are always delivering. Look at this.

You can have a Sprite, Red Bull, iced coffee, Orangina, Monster, condoms, grinders, papers, dildo, but also a real pussy experience. I wonder how much it costs, the real pussy experience. So, A62. Right, 12 euros. For 12 euros, you can have a real pussy experience. Albarracin, quite touristy.

That is very cold water, I just soaked all my clothes. Even though there are some dark clouds arriving so it’s not going to be very very warm. And it’s already like at least 6-7 degrees less than it was two days ago.

Very nice, not sure I want to climb up to see the village. I’m actually heading into the village, so I had to climb up. It’s kind of weird because the tracks that are on Komoot don’t go through the village. But the track I downloaded from Montañas Vacias go through the village.

I don’t know why the track on Komoot is a little different. This should be official as well, because there is a link on Montañas Vacias website to a collection in Komoot. On top of Albericin now, but it’s getting a bit dark and very windy.

And clouds are a bit everywhere now, especially the direction I’m going. Hopefully there is not going to be a summer storm in a few hours. I think the climb from Albarracin is over. It was steep but nothing too crazy. I took a

Clip but I don’t know why lately I forget to turn off the camera and then it records for like 30 minutes, 40 minutes and I have to delete it. But yeah it’s beautiful, beautiful, pleasant temperature because of the clouds. It’s hot but it’s nice. I mean

Imagine you’re here in the winter and it’s freezing so it’s still pleasant to me but there is no direct sun so it’s quite enjoyable. I met another guy who was doing Montagna Vacias by bikepacking quite fastish, faster than me for sure. He didn’t seem like a Speedy Gonzalez but very super light.

We had a little chat together and he seemed to be wanting to do a bit together but I told him to go like I didn’t want to slow him down. I don’t really enjoy to go share the road with other people that are faster

Than me because I feel conscious and I’m like always at the limit. They’ve been slowed down and I’m at my limit so nobody’s enjoying it so it’s better to part. We had like a 10-15 minutes chat, that’s good and it’s better to part.

I’m comfortable to share the road with people that are slower than me. It is different if you meet someone and you decide to do a few days together. A beautiful and dramatic sky, I love it. Now apparently we turn left and I guess we go down.

I’m going to check my maps because on Komoot the route is slightly different, I don’t trust it. Even today super lazy, very slow, not many kilometers and I stop another I don’t know 30-40 minutes down the valley. There is an adventure park and I got a cold drink

And I digged out my power bank, charged it for a little bit. The climbs are gentle. They’re not walls like in Andalusia, so it’s not too bad. They are not too steep, but there are bits and pieces that are steep enough, like this one. Granny gear on, slowly but surely.

Montañas Vacías, beautiful landscape, yet again. Spain, what a paradise of riding the bike. I’ll have to move to Spain when I finish my Around the World bike tour. Bikepackers, they put shoes and sandals dangling down their seatbags and they lose them. I already saw five between flip-flops, sandals and shoes. Mucca, ciao mucca.

Smells very nice, look, lavender everywhere. Wild lavender, smells nice though. It’s a toughish climb to be honest. There at that junction, the Montagna Vacias goes up. I took this shortcut, it goes up the same way. And I need to assign…

Apparently this is a refugio, but it’s not on my map, it’s not on PocketEarth and it’s not on MapOut and it’s not on that very good map of Komoot. It’s really basic, it’s not even level. It’s a refugio just in case you really need a refugio.

Just in case the weather is really bad. But yeah, I’m thinking to camp down there anyway. I’m four or five kilometers from a village, but what’s the point? After the village, so I need to go up there, down to the village, and then there is a steep climb leaving the village.

It’s still not the sunset. Still another… I could pedal another 40 minutes, 50 minutes, but fuck it. It’s an early day. Hopefully tomorrow I’ll have more motivation to do a longer day. The refugio is there. The camp’s here. Would have been a little better to come there, because it’s nice and flat, but…

Maybe there are some people passing by, who knows. At least here, if there are anyone passing. Nobody’s gonna see me. There, that rock is gonna be the seat. Of my kitchen. I’m gonna cook some tortellini now. Buenos dias! I’m checking that I didn’t leave anything behind. Just make sure leave no trace.

At the end I camped here. I had to move my tent last night, because after I finished cooking, I realized that the tent was on top of a little hole, that I missed. Because it was very little. This is a big one. Of these big ants. Not sure you can see them.

But yeah, there was like thousands of ants on my ground sheet. And those big ants, they make noise. It was like, they will wake me up at night, and then I get paranoid that they might be chewing through the floor of my tent. So I just moved the tent. Pleasent night, beautiful stars.

Immediately after dinner, there was a milky way here. Let’s keep on going. Montañas Vacias. This is a shortcut. The official route goes around here. It’s only like 500 or 600 meters. And I will join the Montañas Vacias. I came here because I wanted to be off the trail for camping.

So that maybe it was going to be a little quieter. Pleasant temperature at night, a bit humid. Today also it should be very sunny, but not too hot. It should be only like 30-35 degrees maximum. Yesterday I did 50 kilometers. Let’s see if today I can do a little bit more.

Maybe, maybe not. Let’s see. It depends how lazy I am. Another beautiful little highland very nice, a little farming as well, very very beautiful. All right, another village, I’m gonna check if there is a grocery shop and most importantly if it’s open because it’s Sunday.

But being August and being some tourists around maybe it’s open, should be open. I found bread in the village, I climbed out of the village and now I’m slowly going down, it’s a paved road, as soon as I go on the hard tour I find a nice place,

I will stop and have some food and eat my bread. It’s lunch time. My rest area, I had lunch here and cold freezing water over there, it’s so cold you can’t keep your hands there, it’s freezing. It’s an easy route, Montañas Vacias, beautiful, a lot of climb but easy, it’s rideable,

It’s never too steep, there are bits and pieces steep here and there but nothing too crazy, I would say easy route. Lovely forest, lots of picnics, this is the week everybody’s off in Spain. August 15th is a bank holiday so yeah, all the offices, most businesses are

Shut down for the vacation, for the holidays. That was a nice descent, I’m gonna hit this village and I think then another long climb. Nice village, nice church, Orihuela del Tremelal. This last climb was so enjoyable because it was between trees and it was all shaded.

Very, very nice and now it’s almost 6 o’clock, 17:45, so it will start to naturally cool down. Today I didn’t feel the heat at all. Very, very pleasant. It was only like 35 degrees, something like this. Very pleasant. Mucca, ciao Mucca! The cow challenge, who moves first me or the cow? The cow.

Coward! Took a few pictures, what a beautiful double track, very very nice. I had to delete another 50 minutes clip. Well, there was a stretch on a paved road and descended into this valley, now I’ll cross the valley and then it starts to… I think I need to cross this mountain so

It’s gonna be a fairly decent climb, but I think there is a village before. 6:45 I think I will cycle another two hours and then call it a day. Beautiful, Montañas Vacías. I really, really enjoy riding in these places. So beautiful. Here the village, Griegos. I missed my fuente. Buena.

Here there is a gate to open. Let’s keep on going. I just loaded up on water but I think this road leads to a spring. Close the door. First I need to open it Then I’m going to close it. Let’s see how we open this.

Let it been known that I respect private property and I closed it safely. Look at the little cow having milk. That’s how you drink milk Not from the bottle. Nascimiento del Tajo. Tajo is the biggest river in Spain. I’m sure now someone will correct me.

So it’s either the longest or the biggest for capacity. Beautiful Montañas Vacías. I prepared my spot for the night. Here is gonna be my kitchen. I’m gonna sit down and cook my tortellini. A bit early. It’s quarter to nine. So 30 minutes to the sunset. But I want to go to bed early.

Let’s cook. Dinner. Buenos dias! Tortellini with texturized soy. Today I took my sweet time in the morning, also because I was in the shade so it was a bit chilly. It was a bit chilly at night, the temperature dropped significantly last night when I was cooking.

Loads of wind until midnight, then it cooled down. Today the temperature should be 10 degrees less than two days ago. It should start to be cold, to be end of summer, only 28 degrees. There’s no summer below 30 degrees Another day, Montañas Vacías, back on the road.

Look at this beautiful morning in Spain. Beautiful, beautiful. Pleasant temperature, sunshine, dry weather, dry night. Perfect, just perfect. By the way, I forgot but a friend messaged me this morning. Today, eight years ago, I started my adventure in Alaska. My world tour started on August 14, 2015. From Prudhoe Bay, Alaska.

What a ride! What a fucking ride! There you go. This is where the Rio Tajo, the source of Rio Tajo, I think is here, but I don’t really see much water going on. It’s kind of disgusting for a spring. It’s the longest river in the Iberic Peninsula.

It starts here, it goes through Spain, it gets to Portugal and it gets into the Atlantic Ocean in Lisbon, so it’s a little over 1000 km. The Nascimento of the Rio Tajo was a bit underwhelming. Big monument, sort of a shitty water. Last night when budgeting for water,

I thought I could refill my bottle this morning at the spring of Rio Tajo. I didn’t know it was that shitty. So today I’m a little in trouble because now we got into this valley and I think the Rio Tajo is just close to the right side of the valley.

Maybe I can stop and by now the river should be a bit bigger and I could take some water there, but man, I didn’t see any spring on this side. I’m getting thirsty and the first village I think it’s far away. Oh man, if this is the Rio Tahoe…

It doesn’t look too good. You can’t see it from here but it’s like pond water. Here is even dry I think. I thought I would even bathe in the river today. Rio Tahoe, it’s depressing, depressing Rio Tajo, depressing spring and like I’ve already gone like more than 10 kilometers

How come there are no affluents, like some side springs, nothing? Everything is dry? Is that even possible? And yesterday on the other side of the hill, there were springs. Every like, I don’t know, every other kilometer. Look at that! Wow! Not sure what kind of birds they are. If it’s an eagle.

Looks like an eagle. I don’t know Another beautiful valley. Very beautiful, it would be wonderful if I can find a spring now. I’m gonna stop and eat something as well. It’s 13:15 Finally, finally some water. There is a bee, drinking. And some… I’m really enjoying today.

I thought the beginning was a bit underwhelming, but then we got on this dirt road in the High Tajo National Park and it’s really beautiful. There’s nobody, zero people, zero. Beautiful, beautiful. Village coming up. Oh, paved road. Village coming up. I need to get a cold drink.

Either a grocery shop or a bar, but I need to get a cold drink. I basically haven’t had any siesta today, I only had a snack very quick. It’s 15:30 and I did about 50 kilometers. 50.6 km So good progress. At the village. The jackpot will be to find a grocery shop,

A grocery shop open, a grocery shop with refrigerated cold drinks. Well, cold drinks anyway, because some of these shops they don’t keep it in the fridge. Those are wild plums. I’m not gonna eat them because they are bitter as fuck. It’s 15:45. There is a supermarket in the village.

I checked on google but yeah, siesta times. It opens at six and I might crash a couple of hours because they haven’t stopped today. So siesta for me as well. Even though today the temperature is quite manageable, it’s around 30. So I didn’t need to take a long siesta.

This is how alive the villages in Spain are in the afternoon. Ah, this is my stop. That house is inside the stone. Comestibles. It’s closed. Charmin little square. That’s probably the Ayuntamento. The supermarket was opening at 6 o’clock. I didn’t wait. But leaving the village, I ran into two bike travellers.

And I stopped for a chat. They were having a beer outside a bar. And it turns out they are Italian. And it’s a couple from Italy, and the guy recognized me from the YouTube videos. He said, but are you Davide? I’m like, yeah. And we had a nice chat.

And then they made a generous donation to my trip. So all in all, great stop in Checa. But now I keep going. I was thinking, it’s a little too much pavement. They should do an alternative dirt for the purists. But I had just one climb that was a wall.

And this one also seems pretty steep. I’m kind of glad it’s paved now. I’m a lucky boy, because I’ve been given a dream. I’m lucky, but if I have to say it all, here is not paradise. Inside the truths, I lie with a smile.

10 things I did and I did it in the middle, where there is a strap. Tomorrow is a major bank holiday in Spain so I bought some bread, some chorizo, some cookies. So I have provision for tomorrow. Now the route follows the river. So many tourists. It’s supposed to be empty Spain,

But loads of tourists. Lots of tourists. This is a campsite here. Jesus, it’s full. I would not enjoy being there. Although I haven’t showered in I think seven days. Tonight is not gonna be a great night, I know it. I feel the humidity already.

Unless I can find a spot where I’m very high above the river. Luckily there is this dirt road, the paved road is on the other side of the river. We’ll see maybe at some point the trail climbs up a little mountain. Another fairly steep climb and see how

Down there is the river, but like very very down. We’re very high so here be nice to camp but no opportunity and here you know even if I want to camp on the side of the road it’s too rocky.

Not sure you can see the the river in this place, it becomes a crystal clear lagoon, it’s incredible. I wish I could jump in to be honest. Right let’s climb up again. It started to be dark. 20:20 Let’s see how many kilometers I did today. 82.

Here we are quite far from the river, but then the road goes down and joins the river again, so I think this is my chance to camp. Could be here, it’s a bit flat, but next to the road. Maybe up here is gonna be a flat spot. Let’s see. What’s the surprise here?

Yeah, I think I can camp. Gets even better. It’s much better. Yep, that’s it. What a beautiful spot to camp even tonight. The river Tajo is down there, so we are quite high, should be dry enough. Would be nice to camp here but it’s too

Too many stones, deer poo, so maybe tonight we’ll be visited by deer, but I’m gonna camp here. Look how much flat area, here is good, that is good, here is good, wonderful, and with this opening in the wood I can I can watch the stars, I can watch the Milky Way and

And these are Saint Lawrence nights, so there is loads of falling stars, so I’ll be watching up. Wonderful, wonderful, and it’s free, man, it’s free, amazing. Breakfast is ready. Wonderful spot to camp, wonderful night. It was a dry night, wonderful spot, and I woke up… Oh, look at the deer.

I woke up at 5 / 5:30 aml it was still very dry, and then I don’t know what happened, either the wind stopped or something must have changed, and it got really humid. But this was around 6 o’clock, yeah? And then I woke up at 6.30 and it was a little humid,

And then it got… Oh, another deer. Progressively humid, but now the sun is arriving, so let’s say 5, 10 minutes, it should dry everything. It will get to the tent, and then in a few minutes it’s dry. And yeah, let me eat my breakfast, and then we go.

Let’s see if there are any more deers coming. There were a few deers during the night, they came. Look, look. Beautiful. They are down there. There are three, four. They are in the sun eating, they are looking at me. Another great morning on the Montañas Vacías. Look at this.

At least a great start. You never know. You never know what’s going to happen next. This is great. The sun is shining, the temperature is very pleasant. Beautiful, beautiful, just beautiful. Let’s get into the flow. We need to cross the bridge. Look at the water, it’s amazing. Crystal clear. Thank you. Wow.

Just wow. It’s amazing. The single track is unexpected, but very welcome. There were a couple of places it was a bit complicated with a loaded bike, but slowly but surely, like here, we see where is the best way. If you fell, you go down directly to the river.

Beautiful, beautiful but tough at times. It’s tough with a loaded bike. Fully loaded, I may add. I think this is the end of the single track. Six vehicles, one after the other. Thank God it was an empty Spain. It’s too many tourists in August.

Today is the bank holiday, it’s the apex of the summer. And so either today or tomorrow I will just head towards Madrid and I will come back and we resume Montaña Vacias in a week or two. I just want to be alone, it’s too many people and it’s my chance to see Madrid.

I arrive on top of this hill, there is this little village, I stop for a cold drink, but there is a kind of museum, interpretation center of the Rio Tajo, and there is a girl that works there, that she lived in South America, she traveled by bike,

And she’s a warm shower host, but in a village about 30 kilometers from here, and she charged my power bank and we talked a little bit, and she offered me to go to her home and rest and take a shower, but I mean it’s about 30 kilometers away, crossing the mountains again,

So I think it’s 35 kilometers, so it’s basically one extra day. Yeah, I thought about it, but… Let’s keep going. Maybe I should have gone, I don’t know. It’s one of those things, I’m always… When I’m on a route… It costs me a little bit to change the route. I don’t know.

She’s really nice. She was living in Patagonia, she’s a guide there. She’s a guide in Torre del Paine, in Calafate. She lived in Calafate, in Punta Arenas. And she was there. She had her daughter in Punta Arenas. And I think she was there when I was there.

So maybe we met in the street. Who knows. Anyway, back on dirt. I think that’s a tower for monitoring wildfire. The day is winding down. About 30, 35 minutes to sunset. I could start looking for a place to camp or go another little bit.

I don’t know if I should camp here because then in the forest it’s a bit uncomfortable. I decided to continue because I didn’t like that place but yeah not sure where to stop. It’s five minutes to the sunset, maybe less. I think the day is getting shorter. It’s probably sunset now.

It’s just that this place is a bit humid. I thought I’d do a few more kilometers because the road was going up but yeah it’s a it feels a bit humid and if I feel it when I cycle as soon as I stop and it gets a little dark that is worse.

So let’s keep going another bit maybe 10-15 minutes and before it gets too dark I will just call it a day. It’d be nice to find a place a little bit open especially on that direction so I get the sun in the morning so if the tent gets wet

It dries very quickly I don’t have to wait too long for the sun to arrive. I think I found the right spot to camp. Here I’m gonna be cooking. Very nice. Here is almost sand. Yeah beautiful colors. There was a refugio about a kilometer up there but it didn’t look good.

I went inside but I didn’t really like it. I prefer my tent. Tortellini is a way of life. Buenos dias, back on the road, Montañas Vacias. Last night was pretty good. There were some people that came with a 4×4 and they didn’t see me, but they were very close.

And I didn’t know what’s going on, but I think they dig a hole and they hid something. Anyway, I was very careful not to make any noise. And then I just fell asleep. And this morning again, I woke up around 6. And the tent was not humid. Then… Around 7 it was wet.

Do hear this noise I’m not sure what it is. I don’t know if it’s a wild boar or a deer. I don’t know. Maybe it was just a bird, who knows. That’s the village of Beteta. I want to check the map but this is my opportunity to go to Madrid.

Here in Beteta I take the executive decision to finish the first part of the Montañas Vacías. I’m going to Madrid, I want to get to know the town and come back and finish the Montañas Vacías and then go towards Barcelona. So it’s either now or never.

So it is now I’m heading to Barcelona. That’s where I left Montañas Vacias. But yeah, this is Beteta, so I’m back on Montañas Vacias. I know someone is gonna say you’re missing 500 meters, feck it, what’s the point? It’s a paved road.

There on the corner there is water, this is the Ayuntamento, very nice. Nice and charming Beteta. Look, it’s 18 degrees, feeling 17 degrees. 17 degrees, it’s half of the temperature of two days ago. And remember, there is no summer below 30 degrees. There is a nice lagoon down there.

I have this hill to climb and then I go down to a little village. And then it’s gonna be almost 70 kilometers to the next village with lots of climbing. That’s it, I think that’s the village. Loaded up with water, Montañas Vacias. Keeps on going. Traffic jam, Montañas Vacias edition.

I’ve been climbing for a while, I thought I could enjoy a bit of descent but no. This is where I turned left and hit dirt. I have another 10 kilometers of climb. It’s so much nicer on dirt though. So much nicer. It’s beautiful. Beautiful Montañas Vacias.

I think I’m about 1450 above the sea level. You Asear, a Basque name? My father is from Guadalajara. Ah, ok. My mother is from Zamora. I was born there but… So you don’t speak Basque? Yes, I speak. A friend from País Bascos, Basque country. Look, too light. He needs some weight there.

This guy, similarly to the others I met on Montañas Vacias, he travels very light. He has a problem to find food today. He told me to beg at one of the bars to give him some food because… This weekend is like a holiday in Spain, in these Pueblos.

And everything is already booked in advance. He’s only carrying a sleeping pad and a very light sleeping bag. He said he can’t sleep outside so he needs to get to the refugio. The next refugio is in 25km which I don’t think he’ll have too many problems to reach today.

But then, tomorrow, he needs to do 150km. He said he’s averaging about 100km a day. So that’s like 50% more. Jesus, what a sad place. They cut all the trees. They didn’t leave one fucking tree. Maybe this could be a nice spot to camp actually. All right, let’s keep going another little bit.

The temperature is dropping very fast. Now I’m stuck in this valley. I need to keep going. Luckily the river is dry. Still a bit humid. I changed valley and it seems much nicer with more opportunities to camp. I’m gonna keep going another 10 minutes. I think this is it.

I don’t wanna descend again into a valley. I’m gonna check the map but… 90% This is where I’m gonna camp. This is perfect. Buenos dias, good morning guys. I’m in the forest. Looking for adventure. No. I’m in the forest looking for

This mesh bag that I keep on my bike with snacks and a bit of food. And yesterday was full of food. I had lunch for today. I had bread, cheese. I had some kind of Oreo cookie that I find in a supermarket yesterday. I had two boxes for 1.50 euro

And I ate one, so I had one. I had some cereal bars. And… Yeah, bits and pieces. And loads of dry fruits. That there was an offer in Cuenca at Lidl. And I bought them. And usually that bag is tied to my handlebar, even during the night.

I don’t know why last night I took some of the dry fruit as a dessert. And then I didn’t bother to tie the bag to my… to my handlebars. And I just put it on a pannier on the vestibule of my tent. Because I thought, yeah,

Let’s put it on my vestibule and I put it on top. And… Yeah, at midnight the biggest fucking fox I ever saw grabbed it. And… Then I ran out of my tent naked. And I found the fox trying to open the bag. And but when she saw me, it ran up, up.

So now I went up a little bit, but it’s 30 minutes. I’m looking for the bag, found nothing. So that’s it. Then at 5 am that fucker came back. I kid you not, it dragged, like it’s super fucking heavy the pannier. It dragged out the pannier from my vestibule.

I’m like, what the fuck? Like I got back pain when I have to lift that fucking pannier. Because it’s full of food now. I bought tortellini for the rest of the way, dry fruits. Yeah, it’s full. There’s a lot of things in there. It’s quite heavy. Anyway, that’s the campsite.

Yeah, usually I keep the mesh bag here. And I tie it. Very humid night. Peaceful. I sleep very well, except the fucking the fucking fox. And then I started to have really bad dreams. Like not bad dreams, but I was in a town, unknown town, called Alhambra. So I suppose it’s Granada.

Very touristy. And for some reason I pitched my tent in a street that was not used a lot. But it was like a pay street near a junction. And I put my bike there. but there was a warmshowers host and I went over to see if he would host me for the night.

But I left everything there. So then when I was at the warm shower host and he said no, I was thinking, okay, I’ll go back and I’ll sleep in the tent. But probably by now they robbed everything or a car ran over it. Very weird, very weird. I’m fucking weird.

Not only culinary disaster, also monetary disaster, this fucking fox. I would estimate at least 7-8 euros worth of food that I have to replace it here in the mountains. It’s double cost and the mesh. The mesh bag was free. It was a mesh bag that

I bought some gear and it came into that. I can’t remember if it was a piece of clothing or some camping gear that came into that mesh bag. So it was free, but there was a little carabiner. Now I have to use this one that is quite expensive from Sea to Summit

And this one I use it to store my rain gear mostly during the winter. Or if it’s a period that rains a lot and it doesn’t rain, then here I can put my hard shell, the jacket, the pants, shoe covers, and I can store them and tie them on the handlebar.

And then when it stops raining, when it rains again, I can take them out and put them easily in. So yeah, at some point I’ll need to buy a new one of these. Or probably this is big enough for my rain gear, but it’s probably too big for food. So financial, financial disaster.

Foxes. Back on the road, Montañas Vacías. With a new bag. It’s a little bit too big for food, probably. But it is what it is. I lost my lunch. Terrible, terrible. I would estimate at least 20 euros worth of damage between the bag, the food, the food that costs double in these mountains.

It’s tough climbing right off the bat. I don’t know if I’m on top or I need to climb up there. Let’s find out. I think this is the last bit of climbing. It has to be. There might be a little bit more climbing before starting descending. Let’s see. Beautiful, beautiful. Very, very beautiful.

What a nice view. The famous rewarding views when you get to the top of the climb. It’s almost 2 pm I could have used that bread and cheese to be honest. I had to snack on dry fruit and sobaos, which is okay, no complaining.

I think here there is a refugio where the guy last night was gonna come. Let’s check out the refugio, looks nice. Good and… Good and clean. Someone left some sardines. Oh wow, look at that. That’s a good gift. Very nice refugio.

Would have been nice to arrive there and sleep with the guy, in separate beds. I mean there was a condom there but not sure I was attracted to this guy. Um yeah, would have been nice to sleep there. Would have saved me from that fucking thief of a fox.

That’s a very nice refugio. It’s clean, it’s nice, cozy. Like it. Noise of the Nobby Nic. Eating up the tarmac. Yet another dam. Not sure if it’s low or… I love these mountains. Different layers of sediments. Beautiful. Beautiful. The village is too small for groceries. At least let’s get water.

Not much going on in Beamud. No grocery. The bar is there but it’s closed. But I feel for the guy I met yesterday because he was sure first of all that there was a bar 11 kilometers after the refuge which I told him there wasn’t. I mean I told him I’d be very

Very surprised if there is a bar in the middle of nowhere. Then he said okay I’ll get some food at the village. Yep I didn’t see one single soul in the village and the bar is closed. There’s another village in 12 kilometers I would guess. There on the map it looks slightly bigger.

Maybe like five more houses. The village is coming up in one or two kilometers. It’s just behind those trees. But I had a look online and apparently there are no groceries. So I checked the following one, also no groceries. And then the third village will have groceries.

It’s not too far, I think it’s about 15 kilometers. So big, I don’t understand how there isn’t even a small grocery shop. Look, the village is also a new suburb. Hello. Is there a food store around here? Yes, there is a food store. There is a little chiringuito. Ah, ok.

There is a little chiringuito. Thank you. The suburb has a chiringuito. Looks too fancy and expensive for me. But if you come on Montañas Vacías, here you can chill. I bet they let you even camp here. First climb to grocery. Nothing. The grocery shop is closed because in the afternoon they don’t open.

The bakery, the bakery, same. I asked a lady near the grocery and she told me, I can give you some bread. She gave me a bag with some food. She gave me a bag with some bread and I think some fruit. So, success anyway.

Let’s see, I would like to do another 10 km more or less. I’lll cycle until 8, 8.30 After 8 o’clock, the first good opportunity I find, I’ll camp. The sun is starting to set. Slowly but surely going up. The road should be going up for about five kilometers.

Why is it always steeper at the end of the day? Steeper and steepest. This climb is very steep. Three different walls. It’s not over yet. I still have another kilometer of climb. Then it goes down a bit, another two kilometers. The sun has set. And I pitch my tent.

I put on an underwear t-shirt under this. Mid-layer. I’m gonna clean my face to remove the sunscreen. I’m putting on my Dawn jacket. And I’m gonna cook tortellini. Look at the moon. Almost full moon. Beautiful colors. Purple, blue. I would say almost an African sunset. Buenos dias! I’m finishing, breaking up camp.

Very nice place to camp. It was a very dry night, which I really appreciated. The other night was the fox. Last night was the was the sheep. I started hearing the bells of the sheep when I was cooking my tortellini last night. They arrived here around midnight. There were thousands of them.

So I had to come out of the tent and just throw some rocks with the light and scare them away. So it took them an hour to go through. Skip and go in Montañas Vacias, adventure during the day and during the night. There you go, leave no trace, unlike the sheep.

Let’s go to the next village. It’s very very tiny, I’d be surprised there is any shops at all. What a climb. I think it was a good call to camp where I camped last night because then the road was going down and then up to this hill.

There is the van of the baker in the square. Let’s see if I’m fast enough to get there before he leaves. Some of these villages, they have bread delivered in the morning and I just saw the white van in the main square, I think it’s the baker.

Look, look, this woman is coming back with bread. It’s a guy. Look at this, panaderia. I got two big breads and then I saw a bag with little croissants and I got it. It’s the most expensive bread I ever bought. 5,50€ the damage. Anyway, I have food. There was another truck selling

Fruit and vegetables. To be honest I wanted to go there, I thought I’ll get some bread and some vegetables or some fruit, but I decided I didn’t want to mortgage my bike to buy some fruit. Today it’s loads of climbing, a lot. And that’s the first surprise. Nice wall, it’s a little wall.

It’s not fully a wall and it’s quite steep. I’ll be proud of myself if I don’t stop. I barely have traction. Beautiful landscapes. How I’ll miss Spain. Not sure exactly when I will leave. I will fucking miss it. Loving it. So peaceful. This guy barely said hello.

Well, one of the guys said hello. That’s it. Where are you going? Where are you coming from? Are you doing this route, that route? I really don’t understand. I mean, just asking how are you. It wouldn’t hurt, you know. I would have not slowed them down that much.

Already someone that travels with two backpacks on a bicycle is now making the smartest decision on bike travelling on my book. It’s not super pleasant when going down is as slow as going up. Sardines are not my favourite food. I never never eat them. Well, rarely, very very rarely.

But apparently they’re good for you. So I’m forcing myself to eat a little bit more healthy. Another paved segment. Beautiful views though. Comunidad de Teruel. Back in the province of Teruel I guess. Still a good few days away from completing Montañas Vacías. Alobras, five kilometers and they have a signpost for Montañas Vacías.

Mirador de las Tejadas. MV point number four. I think MV points are corners in shops or bars along the Montañas Vacías where you can find something that could be useful during a route like this. And I think it’s bike parts like tubes or tyres or chain, things like that.

And even I’m not fully 100% sure but I think there might be like camping gas canisters, things like that. Back on dirt finally. Beautiful, very very beautiful. This is a nice orchard. Technical pit stop. Very nice village with a swimming pool.

A lot of villages in Spain, even very small ones, they have a swimming pool. But they have a natural swimming pool as well. Little snack. Oh, let me see. I have some figs and some hazelnuts. Let’s check out the hazelnut tree. Oh, even those apples look sweet.

But I want to see if I can get some hazelnuts here. I’ll take a few of those. I got a handful of hazelnuts, four or five apples. Torre Baja. It means the lower tower. And actually, I think this is the lowest point on Montañas Vacías. This is left. Buena!

I’m following the river upstream a few kilometers and then up the mountain. 7:26 Let’s say another hour, yeah, 8.:26 Yeah, around 8:20 or 8:30 I always call it a day. I think here there are lots of snakes. Look, one skinned. Yeah. And two here.

You see the head and also here, now they’re dry because with the sun, but these are non-poisonous, see that the head is round, no problem, no problem, I could put my hand there. I guess the fun starts here. This fucking guy is follow me around all the time. Beautiful.

Beautiful on this side as well. It’s already 8 o’clock. The sun will set soon. Wish list for my campsite tonight. Level, free of stones, sheltered from the wind, and exposed to the east. That’s it. Ah, no foxes and no sheep. What an incredible spot. Beautiful Montaña Vacias, beautiful. Look at this, it’s incredible.

Guys, get on a bike and explore the world. Fuck the pension, fuck the retirement, fuck everything. I wonder if I should camp here. Let’s keep going. This is the most enjoyable time of the day to ride a bike. 8:27 If I was true to my word, I should stop now. But where?

Let’s keep on going a little bit more. Be nice if up here it flattens a bit. But apparently not. Meanwhile, the sun is about to disappear. I see a house up there. At the very top, not the hut here. Like an old farmhouse. But, it might be another 15 minutes.

I’m ready to camp now. I’ve arrived to the house. Don’t like this. There are stones everywhere anyway. Oh, what do I see here? This could be fun. It’s a bit windy tonight. Ah, no, fuck it. I mean, I could use four of those bricks to stake down the tent.

And the wind is only until 11 o’clock. It’s now dark but I climbed another hill after the house. 200 meters I have, 200 meters I’m on top and there I’ll camp. The moon looks like a little dot to you, it’s a facking big ball to me. Good morning, buenos dias.

This is where I camp. Beautiful spot at the end, arrived here in the dark. The trail is where there is the trees basically, the first line of trees and then I saw this dirt road and I thought… fucking hell, disaster, disaster. I’m back, sort out the problem.

It’s the click stand, it’s a bit precarious. So yeah, I arrived here in the night, good progress. I think I can finish the Montañas Vacías in three days now. Beautiful night last night, very dry, I didn’t even pitch the, I didn’t fit the flysheet on my tent. I slept very well until the…

Yeah, I slept well but… different night, different animals. There were some wild boars, they were coming at some point, it was like 4:30 and I had to scare them away. So yeah, so many fucking animals and wildlife in Spain. Every night I’m bothered by a different kind of animal and I was thinking

This morning if I was in Africa I’d be like… I’d be shitting myself with all these noises close to my tent. And I camped the whole way through Africa and I didn’t really have any very close animal to my tent. New day on Montañas Vacías. Let’s go!

That farm over there, I can’t see exactly what trees are those. To be honest, it’s too far. But they have a cannon, I guess to… yeah, did you hear? To keep away the birds, I think. It goes off every few minutes. The whole fucking night I could hear it.

I mean, it was distant. I could hear it. Also, they have speakers with music. That’s some commitment to keep the birds away. Here they planted some trees to protect them from animals to eat them. They put those cans of drinks on top of a metal stick so they rattle and they make noise.

Fellow bike traveler. Doing Montañas Vacias. From Catalonia. Welcome to Spain Lluis! Montañas Vacias is spectacular Would you recommend it? Definately but more like as a life experience rather than a mountainbike ride Take your time, right? Take your time, ride, meet people, talk to anyone you meet. And go alone.

And then you go alone and think about your stuff. Of course. It’s a spectacular life experience. Yes, yes. I totally recommend it. A thing you have to do at least once in your life. Sure. Or two. Or two. Come on, people. Take courage, don’t fuck around. Look at the…

Look at the view, guys. Look at the view while we talk about politics. Look at that fucking road. Getting higher and higher, but still a long way to climb. Climbing up. I don’t know what’s going on today. I’m tired. First major climb is done. Ah, look, Lluis. Ah we’re going down, bad news

This last climb was quite challengingl It’s quite challenging. The sun is warm, but the air is freaking cold. It’s quite chilly. The sun is gone as well. It’s a long climb, I think another 10 km more or less. I just found a fossil. Very cool. There you go. If you do the

Montañas Vacias, the fossil is there. Actually it’s full of fossils, look. Another one there. And another one down there. This climb is long. Definitely too long. I can breathe now a little bit. And then it will start going up again. GoPro, stop recording.

On top of this hill, but there is more to climb. Now we are at 1965. Beautiful ride. It would be nice to make a bit of progress. Only 30 km and… It’s 3.30pm I doubt we get to 70 km today. That was my goal. That’s the peak. But there are the antennas.

All right, last push. At some point I’ll have to stop and eat lunch. It’s 3.30 I fucking made it to Pico Javalambre. I think it’s called. It’s very cold, it’s very windy. That was a long climb. Too easy with the motorbike, huh? The motorbike is easy

A lot of weight on the bike, huh? Yes. We are on top. Pico de Javalambre. There’s not much going on Now we are going down It’s cold but manageble I said to Luis now because he’s gonna stay in a refugio that is on the other side of this hill

It’s a refugio that you have to pay It’s not a free refugio They are managed so he will eat there sleep, take a shower Fancy, very fancy Would have been nice to take a shower Should have gone there and pay for a shower Seven days no shower Let’s keep on going

Let’s try to get to Teruel by Friday Still haven’t had lunch What time is it? Wow, almost 5 o’clock 20 to 5 Back on paved road, I think. Back on dirt, it wasn’t that long on the pavement. I think now I’m gonna remove my my jacket. What a beautiful road, very beautiful descent.

Very nice. Here is much warmer. I’m actually enjoying it. What the fuck is going on? Who fenced the fucking trail? Still going down but it’s loads of up and down. It’s loads of little hills. Six o’clock. I haven’t had lunch yet. 52 kilometers in. I should eat something.

I’m trying to get to a village at the bottom and there take a little break. Look at this. I’m back to the Via Verde. Via Verde of the Negroes. The one that took me to Teruel. You must have probably seen this already on the video that I published before. Montañas Vacías.

Let’s see if the grocery shop is open for once. I left the village. Success. The grocery was open. I got one bread, one can of beans, a little fucking empanada and some cookies that are not even that good. 6.60 Inflation is getting worse every day in Spain. And there’s never prices on shit.

Only the beans had the price on. 1.40 euro. Another wonderful evening ride. I have 7 or 8 kilometers on this road. Valbona! I think it’s my last village today. Crossing the Rio Valbona, as you can see it’s a big river. Now let’s find some water. Fuente. Where is the Fuente? 8:27

It will be about time to find a place to camp. I need to go up a little bit because there is a river and a reservoir. 78 kilometers. All good. That’s the reservoir. There is a place I could camp down there but it’s humid and there are some people there.

I think there is a picnic area also up there. Let’s keep on going to drier lands. Also more kilometers tonight, less kilometers tomorrow. The twilight zone. Beautiful. Beautiful Montañas Vacías. Another wonderful sunset on Montañas Vacías. The terrain on the trail is very rocky but this field is quite tough mud. kink of sand.

So I will find a place here. A bit level. Clean from stones. Probably here. I will sleep. Sunset over there. The sun will rise on this side. Anywhere around here is pretty good. The lake is over there. Tortellini and beans tonight. Huge, huge moon.

I don’t think it’s going to look very huge to you on the screen but it is big. It’s one day or two before the full moon. This morning pleasant temperature. Slightly humid at night but not even that much. Much higher temperature than the last two mornings.

And I think it’s because we are at lower elevation. Here we are at 900 something. Today another long, long fucking climb. So from here on it’s going to be about 70 kilometers of climbing. Let’s go another day on Montañas Vacías. Tough, tough day today.

My sunglasses are a bit dirty but I think these trees are peaches. Too fucking bad I’m late. Too late for peaches. Today is Thursday. I need to complete Montañas Vacías by tomorrow. Saturday, Sunday, Monday loads of rain. I don’t want to be stuck at 2000 meters with the rain.

I better get up there today. Another charming little village. This one is actually nice, very nice. Very nice church, nice castle. Of course you don’t get to see much because when I press record on my GoPro it turns on after like 40-50 seconds. First climb of the day,

I think I have 15 kilometers to the pass. Already quite up and up there is where we were yesterday. I have another six to seven kilometers up to this hill and then it’s going up and down for another 30 I think. This is so peaceful. The tourists are gone from Montañas Vacías.

So, so nice. The little cows, they look kinda sad. I’d be sad as well if I had to stay the whole day on a steep incline. Just give them some level field, no? Mucca, ciao Mucca! The cows are just a little dot now. Little dots. Let’s keep on going. Fuente de la Condesa.

There’s not a lot of coming out, but I think I will stop here for lunch. It’s 1.30pm It took an hour lunch break, it was needed to be honest. I was tired, I ate some bread and sardines, tomato sardines and some sobaos, some dried fruit. It’s getting cloudy very fast,

There was a blue sky and now it’s full of big clouds and yeah. The view, the view! I’m actually enjoying this descent because it’s quite fast. The trail is quite smooth. Yesterday coming down was such a pain. Those are big rocks. Linares de Mora. Let’s keep on going up to 2,000 meters now.

It’s all climbing. This village was a was a fucking wall of Andalusian proportion. It’s done, it’s in the bag. Let’s go, let’s go to 2,000 meters. Fucking Hell.l I better get up before it’s dark. There is a refugio. I will sleep in the refugio tonight. Unless there are some fuckers there.

By the way, my GoPro died, so it’s Go2 all the way now and maybe tonight I’ll have a look at it. Plums, the small ones, they’re quite good though. What a wonderful single track, very very nice. It was a bit challenging at the beginning, and now it’s really fun.

The trail turned into a paved road again. It means I’ll be a bit faster climbing. I might reach the top before it’s dark. Or maybe not. Back on a trail. I think I have 12 km to the top. Very close to the Refugio. A lot, a lot of elevation.

There was a big dark cloud that was bothering me. It started raining a little bit, drizzling, but it’s been pushed away, luckily. I’ll see if it stays dry tonight. Beautiful ride though, what a ride, so peaceful, silence, the only thing I snapped another bolt on

On the frankenstein thing that holds my anything cages so I lost a bit of time there Beautiful ride, peaceful. It’s a bit chilly, the more I’m going up the more it gets chilly, but luckily inside the woods there isn’t wind, so that helps.

There is a refugio here, it doesn’t look like in good conditions, but let’s check it out. Tabarn, and this side is closed, let’s keep on going. Aldinares, I think that’s the ski resort, 1700 and 2000 These chairlifts are old as fuck Okay now we are going down

And then there is the option to go up to the peak for three kilometers or two kilometers and then come back down. I think I’ll give up on that. Let’s have a look but I think I will just start to go down.

Maybe I should just start to wear my clothes because it’s pretty cold here. Beautiful, really beautiful mountains. If I can descend to the refugio and find out if there are people there or not. I feel a bit self-conscious. Day 8, no shower. So that is the situation. I’m here.

They suggest to go up to this peak, it’s about two kilometers, short of two kilometers and then come back down because then the trail continues here. Look it’s cold, it’s the end of the day. I’m tired and my knees start to hurt a little bit. I’m starting to descend and here

There is a refugio if you can see. The refugio is okay but I think I’ll go back and go down. It’s okay, it feels… I don’t know, I prefer to sleep in my tent. Let’s go down then. The sky is on fire. Oh, we’re tired guys. Buenos dias.

We are in this ermita like a church. It’s outside this village, very cold and humid here. But if you put a tent under a roof, it’s gonna be very dry also. There’s no humidity coming out from the floor here. The flysheet was unnecessary, it’s dry. I put a flysheet

Because I was afraid maybe they could see the tent from the road. And the green flysheet makes it a little better when you stealth camp. It’s more difficult to see the tent at night. Now let’s make some tortellini. pack up and get to Teruel and finish this adventure of Montañas Vacías

That’s it, my hotel, back on the road. Last day of Montañas Vacías. Let’s see what’s the adventure today. Last day of sun. These are the views this morning. I’ve been passed again by the two guys from Barcelona that they are not very talkative and they didn’t say hello.

Three days ago or four days ago when I met them. Then I went past them the same day. I don’t know where they stopped but when I was with Lluis I met them again. And I didn’t meet them yesterday and I met them again today.

First climb today on paved road, first descent on paved road. Too bad. Such a beautiful forest. They deserve some dirt. Definitely. Oh, look at this nice picture. Let me take a nice picture of this village. So here you can choose. This is tap water from the village pipes.

And this is the one, spring. Guess which one I’m going to drink. Spring one, the one not treated nor controlled. Mountain water taste better Good progress. Wow, 40 kilometers to go. Nice. Very, very nice. Immersed in nature, that’s the feeling.

I would guess I need to go left, but I’m not sure, so I will just check on the map. I need to reverse. Reverse, reverse, reverse. I need to go right. My GoPro is having a moment, I tap to turn it on and it starts a minute later.

There was a fence, I was saying they love to fence everything in Spain. One of the last views. It’s getting closer to the end. Another fucking fence. I wonder if there is electricity in this fucking thing. It’s actually a plastic handle to open and close. No problem even if there is electricity. Beautiful

I need to check what time the rain starts tomorrow and then make a plan for after Montañas Vacías This is where I stopped to have lunch, to this little village 30 kilometers away today is a little warmer tomorrow is gonna get very cold, it’s gonna be 17 degrees but today is warmer

So I shaved my head because I haven’t showered in nine days today and I washed a little bit myself and I washed my t-shirt that was filthy and the hat so let’s keep on going This must be the most straight street in Spain

Up on the other side, to be on the top on this side, it’s the last climb I think, the last long climb at least, then it should be mostly downhill till Teruel have another two kilometers climbing and then I start to be sent I think I don’t even want to check the map

This better be the highest point today and it better be 99% descent from here to Teruel I’m exhausted I don’t know, I just want to be done I’m already thinking about the next two days of rain this is a highway a dirt highway Looks like we are starting to go down.

I’m gonna take a picture. Back on a smaller trail But I think now it’s really going to be fast, fast and furious. Now where? Where? Where? Turn by turn navigation failed. Let’s say the last hour on Montaños Vacias. It’s coming to an end. Like all good things.

I think now it’s really 10 kilometers to go. I made a mistake before. Now 10 kilometers to go. The end is near. Somewhere around here is where I camped when I got to Teruel, maybe a kilometer back. I can’t remember exactly. I think we passed it. Or maybe not. Cutting closer to Teruel.

That’s where I camped. Trail is over. I’m on the outskirts of Teruel. On the bridge. I’m near to the square. Surya Bikepacking is a bike shop in Teruel where you can rent bikes to do Montañas Vacía

And you can rent the bikes with all the bags, different kind of bikes, drop bars, flat bars, everything. Whatever you need, in Surya we have. Yes, and you can see also if you’re missing some bags or some camping stuff, gas canisters, dry food, they have straps,

They have a bit of everything, Nalgene, so a little bit of everything. And you can get also the maps for Montañas Vacías here. Yes, we have the official maps. We have the kits from Montañas Vacías. Yeah, very nice. With the patch, the stickers.

So, Surya Bikepacking, I will put the name so you can find it and when you start Montañas Vacía, if you’re missing something or you want to rent the bike with all the bags and equipment, those are the guys. Yes. Very good. Montañas Vacías, is in the bag. I’m done, officially.

The plaza, I forgot the name of the square, but this is where you start and where you finish Montañas Vacías. It was a great route, highly recommended. It’s not as brutal as Badlands, very rideable. There’s loads of climbing, obviously, but pretty rideable. And yeah, very, very good route.

Cycling the world – Europe: BONUS episode

Explore the complete Montañas Vacias bikepacking adventure, awarded Best Bikepacking Route in 2020, now republished as a single, continuous journey from Teruel back to Teruel. This video consolidates all episodes into one, offering an immersive experience of the entire route. From stealthy camping in hidden gems to enduring diverse weather conditions, and from navigating challenging terrains to experiencing the unique beauty of Spain’s countryside, this is bikepacking at its most authentic. Witness the highs and lows, the solitude and companionship, as I traverse this remarkable loop, capturing the essence of adventure cycling.

Montañas Vacías bikepacking route: https://montanasvacias.com

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