Back from Spain - It was Hot Hot Hot

Spain was incredibly hot, averaging 36 degrees in the shade and 40+ in direct sun almost every day.
The temperatures made the running out there tough!
My first run was supposed to be a gentle 5 - 6 mile trot out towards the nature area, to make sure I remembered my way around from last year.
I set off at about 4.00pm. After 1 mile I felt great, 2 miles pretty good, 2.5 miles tired, 3 miles exhausted!
I was amazed by how much the heat grained energy from you.
That initial run was very tough!
A week prior to this I had run the Yorkshire 3 Peaks, 24 miles and 3 mountains and not felt as tired as I did after and during that 5 mile run in Spain.
In total I had 6 runs in 9.5 days, covering 42 miles.
This and a combination of a minimum of 3 hours swimming a day wasn't bad for a holiday!
On the penultimate day I ran out to the nature area at Mil Palmeras and decided to cover around 8 - 9 miles to check out the route by the river bed.
When I got there, there was no water, just a bone dry, arid, dusty area.
On the run, I kept a close look out for wildlife.
On my list of animals I saw was a snake, lizards, rabbits, dragonflys and butterflys.
The snake was a little disturbing, as they are poisonous out there and I'd seen a number of snake trails on previous runs. A local told me they had found an 8ft snake in that area a month or so ago!
Half way out I came to a camp area, last year there was water here, nothing this year.
It really was that dry.
I've uploaded a series of images of the route.
I still can't believe how tough the runs out there were.
It will be interesting to get a run in now I'm home to compare.

 Bone dry, arid ground - not easy running

 8ft+ bamboo on both sides of the trail for the first mile

 Where there was open ground - it was very hot

 When not rocky, the ground was very sandy - still tough running

 On the left is the dry river bed

This was taken from a bridge crossing the river - still no water. Last year there was flowing water here.

You can see from the following graphic there wasn't a huge amount of climbing, around 700ft in total - but still really tough running - Heart rate to 165+ 

At home this happens when I'm flat out hill running!