Tocón de Quentar to Quentar 15km

Today was to be another short day so I was not too quick to get up when the alarm went off at 0600. However, it did not take long for everyone else to get up, and start getting ready, moving about and making noise. So, Ken and I got up as well, when I went to the bathroom I noted that the other pilgrim's washing was still in the machine, I hoped that they would get it sorted today.

We had a light breakfast of toast and jam that had been provided in the albergue, but we could not find the box for our donativo and so we had to leave without paying for our stay. We set off following the arrows that brought us back to the main road, then stopped to have a look at the map and noted that the main road was quite a bit shorter than the camino path, and the camino went up and over the mountain whereas the road, as it turned out was almost entirely downhill. We quickly decided to walk on the road, there was a decent verge and it was also a Sunday, and so we guessed that there would be little to no traffic on the road and this turned out to be the case. By doing so we actually bypassed all of the steep ascents on the camino path and walking on the road was much quicker and easier. The wisdom of our decision was confirmed quite quickly when we saw Jorge coming along the road behind us. He had started on the camino but after about 10 minutes had turned back to the road. He said that the camino path was very steep and uneven terrain.

So, we ended up in Quentar in just over three hours. The guest house was easy to find but we couldn't check in until 1400hrs but they let us leave our backpacks. So we did that and then went off to the cafe bar for refreshments. Once we got checked in, and showered, etc. we went back to the bar for dinner and phoned to reserve beds in Granada for tomorrow night. The albergue we had hoped to stay in had closed for renovations and so we booked a room at a monastery run by nuns, it had good reports and was possibly less busy than some of the other albergues. Granada is a tourist hotspot, so whilst there is plenty of accommodation to chose from, it tends to be a bit more expensive and busy. The plan for tomorrow is to leave quite early, it is only about 20 km to the city but a lot of that is over some long ascents,. Today has been good though, it was a short and pleasant walk.Read more