Hinojosa del Duque to Monterrubio de la

We had a good night's sleep in the albergue, the only other occupant was a police officer who was going on duty at 11pm. On this camino you have to book a lot of the accommodations, and if you are staying on a Saturday or Sunday you have to let them know by 3pm on the Friday. When we called to book this albergue the lady taking the booking volunteered to book a taxi for us, so we said yes. The fact that we were getting a taxi for the first section of today's stage meant not only that my blisters would get a rest, but we would also be able to have breakfast. We normally just have a piece of fruit or a magdalena cake with some water, so it was a real treat to have coffee and tostada. At 0730 a taxi pulled up right at our table in the square and sure enough it was for us, so we downed our coffee and set off. Twenty minutes later we were being dropped off in the middle of nowhere, but the taxi driver pointed us in the right direction and we set off.

There was a lack of yellow arrows or any camino signage so we were glad to have the camino app plotting our position, you would not want to get lost out here, especially in this heat.

The walk was initially on a good hard-packed earthen track, we almost got lost when we lost the GPS signal but managed to find the right track. It took us up towards a disused railway building, (the track was clearly still in use as it was very well maintained). Ken was quite excited to have his picture take there as the building features in some of the Mozárabe guidebooks. So, after posing for some snaps, we set off once more. Almost immediately, the path became less clear but seemed to take us along the edge of a field that turned out to be difficult to get out of. We followed the GPS and found ourselves confronted by a fence, but we followed the fence a bit further and there was a gap in it that we were able to get through that took us up onto a gravel road, very typical for rural Spain. So far it had been an enjoyable walk, even Ken's jokes seemed reasonably funny, but then we arrived at a proper tarmac road.

The road was very long and straight, there was no shade and it seemed to go on forever, as it turned out the section on the road was 7km long. The more I walked on the tarmac, the more painful my feet became, the blisters were stinging with every step. The town did not seem to be getting any closer no matter how far we walked, and then as is so often the case on the camino, suddenly, we were there. I was greatly relieved to be able to sit down in a cafe with a cold drink, followed by a coffee.

We were both tired and stayed in the cafe for a while before setting off for the albergue, which, according to the GPS map was on the far side of town. On the way we passed the Town Hall and I suggested to Ken that we should go there first, as I thought that's where we had to register. It turned out to be the right choice as that was indeed where we registered and got the key for the albergue. Once we had completed all the formalities the girl in the office walked us round to the albergue and showed us where everything was and gave us our instructions as to what to do with the key in the morning. We were the first to register and so got the choice of beds - we chose the only two beds that were downstairs, near the kitchen and far enough away from the toilets to be convenient but not be annoyed by people going in the middle of the night. It meant we also got our washing done in the machine and hung out to dry before anyone else arrived.

We had a twenty minute walk back into the area of town where the cafe bars were, the Casa Victor had been recommended as a good place for an evening meal. when we got there it was closed for the day and according to the very grumpy and unfriendly cleaner it was the only restaurant in town. So, we headed back towards the albergue, and noticed a bar so decided to go for a drink, Ken asked if they did meals, the barmaid said they did but that the kitchen wouldn't be open for another hour, so rather than walk back to the albergue , we ordered coffee and waited at one of the tables outside. It did not take long for all the other tables to fill up, I guess the competition was closed. It turned out that the meal was excellent, and well worth the wait. The only problem now was that it was late (after 9pm) and were had to be up early in the morning. So after dinner we hurried back to the albergue and got our bags packed for the morning, I had a clean disposable sheet on my bed so I opened up my sleeping bag and used it as a duvet, and that worked very well. I don't like being in a sleeping bag, I always feel hemmed in.

I listened to Electio 365 and thought about the walk tomorrow. I had gone to the health centre around the corner from the albergue, I was sure that one of my blisters was infected, and they said I needed to take a couple of days off the camino. Ken wasn't too keen on that and to be honest it's not that easy, you can only stay in an albergue for one night. So, I had a look at the guidebook, and tomorrow's stage is only 18km and graded as not difficult. The day after will be 28km on difficult terrain. So I thought i would compromise and walk tomorrow and see how I got on, if I do have to get a bus it would be better to do it on the longer, more difficult stage.Weiterlesen