2021-09-30 39 -4

Thu 30 Sep 2021 in 39,-4: 39.8518287, -4.4146417 geohashing.info google osm bing/os kml crox

Location

By the side of the Canal de Castrejón near La Puebla de Montalbán.

Participants

Wingman (talk)

Expedition

A canal? In Spain? Which does not have a single navigable river? That sounded weird… and interesting.

A little research revealed that the purpose of the canal is to bring water from a reservoir to where it is needed. It is also very well known for its fishing opportunities.

It was a relatively long motorcycle ride, about one and a half hours. I was on vacation, but had some private stuff to accomplish, so I could not leave home before 15:00. I was thinking it should still be easy to be back home well before sunset at about 20:00.

I had been in that area before in expeditions 2021-05-26_39_-4 and 2021-06-13_40_-4, so I knew already most of the route. This one was a bit further south, so the last about 20 km were new to me, but they turned out not to be particularly interesting.

On the Maps it had looked like I can get in reasonable walking distance on a paved road, but the routes I tried all turned unpaved more than five kilometers away from the geohash. That was not compatible with my time constraints, so finally I dared to ride on on an unpaved road, although I was quite reluctant after my experience in expedition 2021-05-22_39_-4. I was happy when I found a place directly by the canal where I could turn around and park the bike, even so it was still almost three kilometers away from the geohash.

The walk by the canal was nice. I met a few joggers, bicycles and cars (and one truck), but most of the time it was very quiet. I could smell the water and hear a fish jumping from time to time. But the walk to the geohash and back to the bike needed its time. With breaks for taking photos, it took almost one and a half hours. On the ride home, I took a diversion to pick up something for dinner, which also took some extra time. Finally, I was back home and rolled into the garage just at sunset.

Photos

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  Here I can turn around the bike and park it without blocking the narrow road.

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  An almost three kilometers walk on this unpaved road along the canal.

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  The mystery of the tomatoes: many are laying on the road, but no tomato plant in sight.

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  The geohash should be close to the path along the canal, but it looks easier to access it from the back, so I take the left path here.

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  Just eighty meters into this olive plantation.

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  Here we are. Looks like olive trees are not very demanding concerning the soil (but I know that from my garden).

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  The geohash is where I put the mobile on the ground.

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  The view towards the canal.

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  On the walk back, towards La Puebla de Montalbán.

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  There is also a river, situated much lower than the canal.

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  While walking along the canal, I am overtaken by a big truck, and as the dust settles…

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  … that solves the mystery of the tomatoes.

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  I manage to capture a cormorant in flight with the telelens, a bit motion blurred despite the short exposure time.