In common with the wild plains between Fort Davis and Del Rio, the Texas Hill country is based on a limestone geology. Here, however, the land wells up to form round topped hills and ridges.
The hills are not large, perhaps up to 1000ft above the valleys floors. Unusually for this part of America, the hills are closely packed together with steep sided V shaped valleys in between. There are no easy ways up and down some of the biggest hills, giving rise to some short but challenging climbs for the visiting cyclist.
I was given a harsh introduction to what was to come, climbing steeply up a winding road out of Camp Wood. Locals had warned me to be careful on the road: It has only 2 lanes, 1 in each direction; no shoulders; sharp bends; and steep hillside falling away on one side and a wall of solid rock on the other. This is indeed quite unusual in southern America. It was much like any normal a mountain road anywhere else in the world.
This is where the USA team trained for the Sydney Olympics, the steep hills are 7-9% apparently. That is just about as steep as I can ride in my lowest gear, laden down with all my worldly goods.
HG Wells said, "In Utopia cycle tracks will abound."
Leaving Utopia, Texas a sign said 'Utopia 100k Bike Route'. I'm not sure these narrow roads are what Wells had in mind.
Fortunately for me it has been the weekend whilst I have tackled the best of what the Hill Country has to offer. There has been barely a car, Utopia indeed.
The Hill Country is largely wooded. The high hillsides are cloaked in Juniper and Pine whilst the valleys are home to a great many varieties of deciduous trees. At times the tree cover is dense and impenetrable, at times open with grass beneath. Limestone boulders and crumbling buttresses can be seen between the trees whilst turquoise rivers run deep in the valleys.
As I climbed the steepest, western hills I mused that this was described to me as the most beautiful place in Texas. It certainly was nice. However, it reminded me of many other places I have been in the world. I found it ironic that 'the most beautiful place in all of Texas' should be so reminiscent of Europe and not distinctively North American.
This area is the home to the 'Lost Maples'. Don't worry they are not disorientated, rather left behind from a bygone age. During the Pleistocene era the Texas climate warmed and dried. The thirsty forests that covered the land were forced to retreat to the North. However hidden away in steep sided valleys an isolated population of 60ft tall Maples trees lived on in the Hill Country miles from where their cousins now reside.
I spent a night in my hammock halfway up a steep hill, unable to continue. No flat ground was to be found. With fences all around I was forced to set up my bed 10 feet from the roadside between to convenient trees.
I am using a new hiding strategy, I am calling it 'demi-chachée'. I hide when possible but in such a way that if you do notice me it is immediately obvious that I am a stranded cyclist and does not look at all as if I am trying to hide from view.
Last night it worked very well, a couple of locals spotted me and stopped. I thought they were going berate me or see if I was an undesirable type in their neighbourhood. However they merely checked that I was not in trouble stuck out in the cold.
It is still legal to camp out at the side of the road in the US countryside if circumstances force you to do so, as it was in England prior to the passing of the Criminal Justice Bill.
After some serious hill climbing the following day, I arrived on a sort of plateau. These are a common feature of limestone terrain, having once been the floor of an ancient sea bed.
The plateau was largely ranch land, lightly stocked with cattle,sheep and goats. The country has that same wild feel that I found on the open plains, as if there could be just about anything living in those woods. Human population numbers are low in the hills, though the crack of rifles is ever present at dusk and dawn.
Oak trees seem to dominate in this terrain. At 10 -20 ft tall, gnarled and leafless, they mingle with the juniper and pine. There are a lot of evergreen oaks too, with the familiar oak silouhette but covered in tiny leaves. They give a very fine feel to the wintry woodland, they are named 'live oaks'.
The higgledy piggldey clumps of trees with grassy spaces in between went on and on for miles, with barely house or a car in sight. The lightly rolling landscape gave me views to much,much more of the same in all directions.
It reminded me of home. Yet Britain has never been like this in my lifetime. If you took all the houses, roads, industry and crops away from the home counties and left it for 300 years this is what it would look like.
Much of the British countryside was managed in this way for thousands of years prior to the industrial revolution. Under a system known as wood pasture villagers would run their animals in the woodlands to feed. They would harvest the wood for fuel and building materials by cutting branches above head height, the regrowth would then be beyond the reach of browsing livestock. The woodland provided the perfect home for wild animals which could also be hunted.
With the advent of fossil fuels, the woods were no longer needed for fuel. Many were harvested wholesale for building, never to be replaced. In fact after thousands of years of living alongside the trees, it was between the industrial revolution and the second world war that we lost most of our remaining sustainably managed deciduous woodlands.
Descending a little I turned onto another road. Here the ranches had a more coiffured appearance. The overall impression was reminiscent a royal hunting park. Capability Brown would have been pleased with his efforts here.
On the rolling slopes with stands of oak and open spaces there would be plenty of room to ride a horse. The long dried brown grass would not offer the quarry much cover once it was flushed. I imagined Henry VIII having a wonderful time out hunting on these properties.
A few miles down the road and still caught up in the hunting park theme, I saw an eland. The eland is the largest antelope in the world, a native of Southern Africa and a traditional source of food for the San people of Botswana.
Smiling to myself about seeing the eland I rolled right past a small herd of addax. These desert antelope, are amongst the most endangered in the world. They have come very close to extinction in their native North Africa, yet are quite successful in captivity. These ones seemed almost tame, they approached my bike as I stood and watched them. It would not be much of an accolade to gun one down.
Within the next 2 miles I had spotted a roan antelope (southern Africa) and 3 emus (Australia) , whitelail deer,axis deer and a goat. To finish it all off as I arrived at the Guadeloupe river I came across a herd of Texas Longhorn Cattle, a rare breed. Longhorns were originally bred for the Texan ranches, they are no longer commercially reared but kept by enthusiasts who love the breed and the state.
The cycle safari continues.
Following the Guadeloupe river this evening it has become increasingly clear that I have left the wild west behind me now. The river hosts small but wealthy communities living in large and desirable riverside properties.
I have entered a region known as the Heart of Texas. The residential countryside. Some houses have their own stables, tennis or basketball courts. Placards encourage the residents to re-elect local conservative leaders. Signs in the grocery stores denounce gun control or derride Barak Obama.
After such wonderfully positive experiences with the country people of West Texas. Have I now reached the Texas the Californians warned me about?
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