Alquife to Guadix 24km

We got up on time at 0600 but for some reason, it took longer than usual to get ready, I spent too much time looking for stuff, making sure that I wouldn't leave anything behind. Invariably, everyone loses something on the camino, you try to make sure everything is packed but somehow things get left behind, hopefully nothing too important. In the end we never left until almost 0700.

It was quite cool and so for the first time on this camino I wore my fleece, but of course it didn't take too long for us to warm up as we walked in the rising sun. Today's section is described by the camino website Gronze.com as easy and so it proved to be, and so we managed to keep up a decent pace.

Just before the town of Jérez del Marquesado there was a steep but short descent but the path was wide and flat so it did not present any difficulty. However, on the camino, what goes down inevitably also goes up. Once we crossed a small bridge over a river and navigated our way around a flooded section of the path. We then began a long and steep ascent into the next town. The path had been a tarmac path about 50 years ago, it was now largely broken up, but still relatively flat so it wasn't too bad. Still, we were glad to reach the top, not least because there at the very top of the hill was a bench placed there specifically for pilgrims needing a rest after the climb up the hill, there was also a fountain of cold water and so Ken filled his hat, no, really, he filled his hat. We sat for a few minutes catching our breath and taking in the fantastic view.

As we walked further into the town we found a café that was open and so treated ourselves to our usual camino breakfast of coffee and toast. While we were there the unfriendly French lady came in and ignored us, then ten minutes later Jorge came in and didn't ignore us.

Leaving the town we found ourselves once again in the peace and quiet of the countryside, listening to the singing of the birds and the relentless sound of our footsteps on the path. We had to navigate around more sections of the path that were flooded, sometimes we had to cross where streams of water were flowing over the path but it wasn't too difficult. In Collogos de Gaudix we stopped for what turned out to be probably the best coffee of our camino so far. We had to stop for a Roman Catholic procession carrying a statue of a saint, and making lots of noise., but we were soon once more in the peace of the (empty) countryside. It was very hot by this time with little to no (mostly no) shade, and also very tedious walking along a tarmac road with the same flat landscape on every side, all the way to Gaudix. It was so tediously flat it seemed to go on forever. However, as so often happens on the camino, we turned a corner and suddenly the town was right there in front of us. It was of course, up a hill, it seems that every town in Spain is at the top of a hill.

We got to what we thought was the albergue but it turned out to be the bar owned by the same guy that owned the albergue. After all the usual formalities, his daughter drove us to the albergue, along with the two Italian ladies. The albergue turned out to be a cave house, of which there are many in this area, some going back hundreds of years. Despite the fact that it was boiling hot outside, it was quite cool inside the albergue. The shower was good, and the place was clean. We went back to the bar for dinner only to find that they were not doing food today. The owner recommended another place but it turned out to be closed, so we went back to the bar for drinks, there were no shops open so it looked like we were going to have a hungry night. However, when the bar owner realised our situation, he made dinner for us, lentil soup and grilled chicken and chips, it was fab. Once again, we were blessed by the kindness of strangers.

Later we went to the Cathedral so I could light some candles and then went to the Dia supermarket which had opened after siesta to get supplies for tomorrow. Apparently there is a three day fiesta starting tonight and everything is closing for the three days. I was glad we weren't arriving tomorrow, and I felt a bit sorry for any pilgrims who were a day or two behind us. With all our tasks done, it was time to get back to the albergue and get to bed, early rise tomorrow.Read more