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
Plans
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.
Tracklog
Photos
Here I can turn around the bike and park it without blocking the narrow road.
An almost three kilometers walk on this unpaved road along the canal.
The mystery of the tomatoes: many are laying on the road, but no tomato plant in sight.
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.
Just eighty meters into this olive plantation.
Here we are. Looks like olive trees are not very demanding concerning the soil (but I know that from my garden).
The geohash is where I put the mobile on the ground.
The view towards the canal.
On the walk back, towards La Puebla de Montalbán.
There is also a river, situated much lower than the canal.
While walking along the canal, I am overtaken by a big truck, and as the dust settles…
… that solves the mystery of the tomatoes.
I manage to capture a cormorant in flight with the telelens, a bit motion blurred despite the short exposure time.
