Midnight Robbery (bikepacking Montañas Vacías)

Midnight Robbery (bikepacking Montañas Vacías)

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.

Cycling the world – Europe: 135 episode
Back on the trail of Montañas Vacías, I kick off this episode in the village of Beteta, where my detour to Madrid comes full circle. As I press on, I cross paths with a light-traveling bikepacker from the Basque country, highlighting the contrast in our journeys. Our brief encounter ends as we head our separate ways. The night brings an unexpected visitor—a cunning fox steals my food-filled mesh bag, leaving me with a tough lesson learned in the wild. Unfazed, I continue the trek, ending the day with a camp set high upon a mountain, basking in the twilight hues cast by a full moon.

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

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