Venta del Alto to El Ronquillo

Leaving the old country inn near Venta del Alto, our morning started with more climbing up through the dehesa on the N630. After our troubles getting out of Seville the day before, it was great to be right on the route as we exited the hotel.

Then at signpost 775 km, Jim spied some signage just off the road for a Via Verde route. It looked like it would be a good diversion off the N630 and would still take us in the right direction, the small town of El Ronquillo that was our destination for the night.

So we headed off down the track of the Via Verde del Ronquillo and within a short distant came to the most beautiful body of water, the Minilla Reservoir and the route of the old Minas de Cala railway that runs along the lake between two old stations. The station at the beginning of our route has been restored as a cafe and accommodation, though it didn’t seem open. It would be great place to stay as long as you could get your meals there.

The reservoir is between steep hills of cork oak and olive trees and actually looks like a long beautiful lake. There was nothing else around except for cattle here and there, and there were a couple of livestock gates we had to go through. There is a dam further along apparently on the Huelva River that feeds the reservoir. You can get an idea of the hilly terrain that surrounds us from this little map of the Via Verde route along the reservoir.

It was a gorgeous sunny day and it was a lovely flat ride on a good track above the reservoir. We only saw one person and dog the entire ride.

The Minas de Cala (Huelva) - San Juan de Aznalfarache (Seville) railway has its origin in 1905. In existence for little more than 50 years, the 96 km railway transported iron, copper, lead and zinc, in addition to other goods, as well as passengers. Mining closures caused the suspension of the passenger services in 1933, leaving residual merchant traffic that also ceased in 1960 and the tracks were lifted shortly after. Abandoned rail routes make such wonderful cycling paths and it was a complete surprise to encounter this one. It was not mentioned in our Ruta de la Plate book.

So we carried on for about 9 km, feeling that the effort of the previous day had been quite worthwhile just to have that terrific ride.

We had to leave the Via Verde before we got to the site of the second train station and had another big long climb in front of us pretty much until we got to El Ronquillo. The grade was not terribly steep but it did go on and on so we walked a good part of the way just for a change and to be able to enjoy the site of the reservoir below and some small farmhouses along the way.

The smaller road climbing up from the Via Verde eventually connected again with the N630 and we arrived in the small and very quiet little hilltop town of El Ronquillo, at 350 m elevation in the Sierra Norte. It has a population of maybe 1500 people and mainly offers outdoor recreation opportunities, including hiking and fishing. It was very clean and tidy with some picturesque old buildings but didn’t seem to have too much else going on. We found a cafe with the usual old guys yakking, drinking and playing dominos and had a coffee while waiting to check in to our new accommodation.

Due to very limited overnight options in El Ronquillo, we had had to book a minimum of two nights (€185) in what seemed to be a townhouse-type unit in a resort development. It was quite a contrast with our stay of the previous night in the old country inn. SierraMagna turned out to be a large gated complex of units built just on the edge of the village on a small hill, with four swimming pools. Obviously geared to on-season visitors, probably mainly Spanish, it seemed a bit of a ghost town and looked like noise was not going to be an issue.

We were met by the very nice manager who after filling out all the registration details in her office, showed us to our two storey, one bedroom unit. It consisted of a main floor open space and bathroom, with a terrace off the living room and a second floor loft bedroom and bathroom. Very spacious, clean, comfortable, though the exteriors of the units looked like they were due for a paint job and the landscaping was pretty minimal.

Curiously, it was furnished with the exact piece of IKEA furniture we have our TV on at home - and the same woven placemats we use all the time.

There were units for sale as well as for rent. It all looked a bit like some developer’s scheme that had never been entirely realized and there were some areas where roadways, lighting and shells of units were in place but construction had stopped some time ago.

Although two nights in El Ronquillo was not by choice, we were happy to have such comfortable roomy accommodation with cooking facilities in which to recover from our couple of pretty strenuous cycling days. And Jim tells me our route ahead is flattening out. Too bad - I was just about getting to love hill climbing!

Our day - only 25 km but a heck of a lot of climbing.