Cycling across Spain Ruta de la Plata Part 1

Summer 2021, join me as I explore the amazing Ruta de la Plata, part of the Camino de Santiago network, from stunning Cadiz in Andalusia in the south of Spain, and heading north into the big sky and wide open spaces of Extremadura, the second of nine different regions I will explore on my travels.
For music, Epidemic Sound:
www.epidemicsound.com/referra...
Other music:
Stoned by Alexander Nakarada
filmmusic.io/song/4823-stoned
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#cycletouring #biketouring #cycling #bicigrino

[@kmikzezgz]

Karl, you are an authentic pro! great edition, good devices, and the best... YOU!!

[@kvbcycles]

Jajaja 😄 Gabriel my friend you are too kind! I am humbled, thank you so much for the kind words 🙏🏻🙏🏻

[@keraptisblackrazor2658]

Super inspirational I've been tossing up between the via de la plata or walking the primitivo. You might have sold me on this. My wife will be most displeased.

[@kvbcycles]

Good morning, thank you so much for watching and the kind words! Glad you were able to gain some inspiration from it, very humbling. I have not done the primitivo myself, so cannot comment on that route specifically unfortunately. Hope you manage to swing the missus around! 😅

[@MrChrisBarrett]

Great video

[@kvbcycles]

Thank you 🙏🏻🙂

[@leepretorius4869]

Every video is improving. This was truly a relaxing and inspiring experience to watch.

[@kvbcycles]

Cheers boet, appreciate you watching and commenting! :)

[@Gettinglostonthetrail]

Beautiful to watch. Thanks for taking us on your awesome adventure. 👍🚲

[@kvbcycles]

You are more than welcome! :) thank you for watching and the kind words!

[@Eric-rt6tg]

Another wonderful impression of a wonderful journey by bike. You show us a Spain that is a beautiful country to cycle through, old castles, beautiful views. Yes, of course, now I want to go too. I think it's beautifully filmed and edited. Also the sounds you here, great. Anyway, I enjoyed it tremendously. Thank you!

[@kvbcycles]

Eric, once more, thank you for watching the kind words! Hope you are well! Yes, the interior of Spain is for me very special, so much to enjoy like you say. If you make it to Spain...drop me a line and see if we can make a plan for a drink (on me!) or a ride in the country :)

[@Mike55516]

Looks like an awesome trip, one of your best videos so far, drone footage is pretty special. Really enjoyed the whole thing, looking forward to part 2

[@kvbcycles]

oi oi bro! Thanks for watching Mike, appreciate it and the comments, glad you enjoyed! Hope you and fam are well! :)

[@samsimpson120]

Another great relaxed video of paths less travelled in Spain. Awesome. I do believe that I just crossed paths with you a few weeks ago in Agen, it was a hot Easter Sunday afternoon and you would have just crossed the famous Pont Canal in Agen. Pity I was slow to react I saw you and had that Why Do I know That Guy Feeling, but we had moved passed each other when I realized that it was KvB. Well who knows another road another time. I was the old grey beard pushing an overloaded black bike with black panniers. Yes I'm from ZA an old Joburg boy. Keep rolling it keeps you young.

[@kvbcycles]

Sam, cheers boet! Thank you for watching! Sam, it was not me in Agen :) I was riding over Easter but I was in Almeria, Spain around that time. If I am not mistaken Agen is in France - could be my doppelganger you passed :) However, I will from now on keep my eyes peeled for any grey beards on overloaded bikes! :) Are you living in France?

[@JohnM-cc6gc]

Fantastic video! I really enjoyed it.

[@kvbcycles]

Glad you enjoyed it John - thank you for watching and the kind words! :)

[@biketouringaddict]

Muy bonito el vídeo, con los momentos de relax, los comentarios y las vistas del dron. Esperando a la segunda parte

[@kvbcycles]

Muchas gracias :) ¡gracias por ver y comentar de nuevo! ¿En qué parte de España vives?

[@biketouringaddict]

@@kvbcycles Vivo en Alicante ciudad. Si vuelves a pasar cerca, a ver si te puedo acompañar algunos kms con la bici

[@petesig93]

Great video of a wonderful tour. So much of that rural countryside looks just like the Mawson Trail in the Mid-North of South Australia - rough country tracks and farm roads, the open dry pasturelands, and even that lovely swimming gorge. Great riding country.

[@kvbcycles]

Cheers Peter! Mawson trail bookmarked! Just looked it up - almost 1000km of trail, amazing. Would love to make it to Aus one day.

[@a1yallop]

Looks like a route I would enjoy, 700km, 12 relatively short stages and a wealth of wonderful places to see. Was it easy to navigate? I read there are green and yellow arrows to point the way for the old Roman road and others. Navigation on a previous long duration bike tour was not my forte and if I like somewhere I stay for a while rather than keeping to tight schedule. Did you ever get lost along the way?

[@kvbcycles]

Cheers Frank, appreciate the message. Yes, super easy to navigate and yes, there are arrows and signs aplenty and while I might have taken a wrong turn here or there, it was very quickly evident I was on the wrong path. I know yellow arrows point to Santiago, green I am not sure. But, yeah, really easy to navigate - one of those routes where you barely have to think about navigation, which is nice as it leaves you to enjoy your surroundings a bit more. Buen camino!

[@user-ng8xp3jm4o]

Great Video! Myself and my partner are setting off from Santander for a month cycling but we don't know where in Spain yet. This route looks great! Were there many campsites along the way? We want to camp most nights. Thanks!

[@kvbcycles]

Hey guys, thanks for watching! To answer your question: No, there were not! I never used a single official camp site :) I do not remember seeing any either but I was not looking to be honest. I mean, I find wild camping very easy in Spain and I often just ask someone if I can camp on their field/garden for the night and I just make sure I keep the place tidy and make sure I do not leave any trash behind when I leave. Spain has plenty of picnic sites which can also be good places when they are in the middle of nowhere. So, in this video I travelled along one of the Camino de Santiago routes, Ruta de Plata, and in the CdS towns you will find "albergues", hostels for pilgrims. Get yourself a pilgrim passport as it is compulsory for some of them. The albergues tend to be pretty cheap and they have beds and showers, and you can sometimes meet other pilgrims there. The Camino Frances is the main CdS route in Spain and they are pretty common along that route. Santander is on the Camino Norte and while it is very beautiful, it is very hard on a loaded bicycle. I have cycled out of Santander before, check out my video "Cycling Spain Camino de Santiago", maybe it will give you some ideas :)

[@deliriobimotadb6]

Great video! The off road gravel sections on the Plata are stunning! Are these filmed on the Camino for trekkers or did you follow a specific gravel/mtb itinerary? Mark

[@kvbcycles]

Cheers Mark! Yeah pretty much, the Ruta de Plata seems to be mostly 1 trail for all, unlike other caminos which have an separate bicigrino/MTB route. I guess because it is almost all pretty flat (compared to other caminos). I can only remember one "difficult" section going up a hill where I had to push a bit, and that´s in part 2. An unloaded MTB would easily get up there without pushing though.

[@deliriobimotadb6]

@@kvbcycles splendid! I’m off mid April! Thx for this useful piece of info. LLAP🖖. Mark

[@dianal.1279]

What a wonderful, relaxing video! I'd like to do this route. Did you have problems with dogs? Was it easy to find water? Did you need do use a filter? Was it really as empty as it looked in the video? Thank you for sharing!

[@dianal.1279]

Another question: where did you charge your devices? (Camera, drone, phone...) And how many liters of water were you carrying? Thank you for the information!

[@kvbcycles]

Thank you for watching and for commenting! To answer your questions: No problems with dogs at all. Very easy to find water, pretty much every pueblo has a fuente, or a bar, or someone. I chose not to carry a water filter this trip, instead I got myself a 4L ortlieb waterbag so I had a water capacity of 8L. I would always make sure I had minimum 2L then at the end of the day, top up to 8L and find a place to sleep. Yes - the camino was deserted as it looked...it turns out that summer is the quietest month because of the heat. People were surprised to see me on it.

[@kvbcycles]

I use an Anker 14W solar panel and I use it to charge a 10000mah power bank charged. I also have a dynamo hub which is far less effective but I use that to charge a 5000mah battery. The solar charger in Spain in summer is excellent. Another nice thing about the camino are albergue´s, so if I used one I would charge everything on the mains over night.

[@alexflorance1111]

hiya how did you find wild camping here? did you get disturbed and what was it like finding places to camp? i'm doing a similar route ina. few weeks and really dont know what to expect// whether wild camping is an option for me!

[@kvbcycles]

Morning Alex, personally I had no problems whatsoever to find places for wild camping, all without being disturbed. In Merida Juan is an excellent warm showers host too, and you’ll find albergues along the Camino, especially along the Camino Frances.

[@Eric-rt6tg]

Another wonderful impression of a wonderful journey by bike. You show us a Spain that is a beautiful country to cycle through, old castles, beautiful views. Yes, of course, now I want to go too. I think it's beautifully filmed and edited. Also the sounds you here, great. Anyway, I enjoyed it tremendously. Thank you!