Mazagon, near Huelva, 40 miles from the border of Portugal, is where we are starting our cycling adventure along the coast of Andalucia.
Our aim is to cycle to Mazarron near Cartagena in Murcia on the Mediterranean coast, 80 odd miles south of Alicante, over the next two months.
As the crow flies, it’s about 350 miles; around the coast it’s about 500 miles. However, we will be doing twice this distance in order to return to the camper each night. Also, we intend to do some circular routes inland for variety too, but will skip any coastal routes that are not safe for cycling.
So it will be about 1,000 miles over the next 8 weeks, or 125 miles a week, which should allow plenty of time for relaxing, sightseeing and blogging too. The mileometers are currently 9,500 on Penny’s bike and 704 on Mike’s (he had a new bike last year).
Interestingly, Christopher Columbus set off on his voyages to the New World from Palos de la Frontera near Mazagon in 1492. The beach bar below, Costa Colon, is the Spanish name that he adopted when he emigrated from Italy where he was born Cristoforo Colombo. In Spain he was known as Cristobal Colon; is this the origin of the word colonisation?
