(okay, breathe... breathe...don't totally lose it before dinner....)Right, then. Hang on a second. I'm getting a drink and something to eat and then I'll settle down and write this up.
(SFX: Sound of muddy shoes crunching across a tiled floor.)
After a particularly rough day, there's nothing like a glass of good wine and a nice tapa of fried aubergines in honey. Alcohol, sugar, carbohydrates. And now, some photos which I hope will show why I'm so exhausted and angry.
(Sip of wine.)There's no nice way to say this: Until someone takes responsibility for the upkeep and development of the Vía Verde de la Subbética, it's probably better NOT to use it. No kidding. Using the section of the Vía Verde between Doña Mencia and Lucena means risking getting bogged down in mud and clay, risking falling and/or bike damage, and possibly putting you off ever using a Vía Verde again.
I know, I know. One of the aims behind the Trans-Iberian was to develop the use of Vías Verdes, but it's useless to promote the use of something which isn't well cared for, where their use is risky or dangerous (or just plain disgusting), where tons of money is invested in creating something which is just left to go to wreck and ruin afterwards.
What we have in these photos, folks, are two of the seven mud/clay pits that we (literally) ran into today. Some were only three or four metres long. With others, we were forced to slog through 250 metres of crap. Three times we had to take out dull steak knives to shave the mud off the wheels, the mud guards, the pedals and frames which, if you'll excuse the expression, totally screwed up the bikes. Two times we were forced to totally unload the bikes and carry stuff to the closest safe or clean area.
I know that some of you are probably wondering, So what? You're cyclists. You're supposed to like getting muddy and stuff like that. My answer: Um..... NO. Let me give you another example why this is a bad thing. Given that the Vía Verde touts itself as having been re-done so that everyone can use it, "everyone" should include people with mobility problems, such as senior citizens and the disabled.
Take a look at those photos and then imagine that you're a secondary school teacher who's got sixty kids on a field trip, including two who use wheelchairs. At no point have you been warned that sections of the Vía are intransitable; you get there - and what do you do with sixty kids who have energy to burn? In the best-case scenario, the kids who don't have mobility problems will return home with mud up to their knees, which will not endear you to their parents. And what will you do with the kids in wheelchairs, especially if they can't go anywhere - or worse, their chairs get caught in the muck?
A greenway which is not accessible to all users cannot be considered a recuperated greenway. That goes against the rules of the FFE, the organization which approves greenways in Spain. Why were there no signs or no indications along the way that that section was screwed up?? Ultimately, who has the responsibility for guaranteeing the safe use of a greenway? And that's not even mentioning that the once-lovely Interpretation Centre in the town of Cabra has been left to wreck and ruin, with broken windows and graffiti, without any plans, as far as I was able to find out, to cede management to anyone else. (BIG sip of wine.)
Now I'm trying to find information on who actually has the responsibility for running the Vía Verde de la Subbética because I'd really like to give them a piece of my mind. How much money is that organization getting which is not, in turn, being invested in the upkeep of the Vía Verde? SHAME.
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