Bicycle Trips from Puerto Real - Romans (part 2)

As you head out of town, you will see large Roman oven across the field to your left. (The age and origin of the oven are debatable. There is a good chance that it is not Roman, and maybe not even an oven.) Continue straight ahead and pass under the highway. Coming out from under the bridge the trail marker presents two options. You can either go straight, which takes you up a hill. Or you can turn left on the dirt road that runs parallel to the highway. Both are interesting options as either of them will lead you deeper into El Parque de las Cañadas. In any case, the trails all interconnect with the network.

A NOTE ABOUT THE ROMANS: At this point, if you wander into the field to the left of the trail, you will be able to see a large deep pit with water at the bottom forming a pond. This is what remains of the large Roman quarry that produced clay for the oven in the photo above. This quarry used to be a lot bigger, in fact reaching the area near the oven. The recent construction of the new bypass has since covered most of these historic scares carved into the land. When the new highway was being build, an enormous Roman mosaic was also unearthed just south of this area. That has apparently been transferred somewhere for safe keeping.

It is also interesting to note that the amphoras produced in the oven were taken (probably by ship) to a coastal settlement some 80 kilometers south of here. There they were filled with garum (from what I gather a sort of fish liver pate, highly prized by discerning Roman palates), and sent to Rome. The bike trail that is described here leads right up to the ruins of that Roman village, which produced garum.

The path to the right is El Corredor Verde Dos Bahias (The Two Bay Greenway), a well marked trail that connects the Atlantic and the Mediterranean. It also overlaps a section of the TransAndalus route. The trail along the highway soon comes to another trail sign indicating the middle path of three options. There will soon be stables on the left, and you may see horses all over the fields around you. The large white buildings of the University Hospital Complex should be visible ahead .