Guillena to Castilblanco

After what I can only call a rubbish nights sleep the day didn’t get any better. I managed to not tighten up the valve on my water bladder, filling my whole rucksack with water before we had even left the accommodation! Luckily all my clothes are in waterproof bags but stuff that wasn’t was soaked as was the back and straps of my bag. I was not happy!!

The river crossing was too high today to ford so we had to go via the road until turning off up a really muddy track, not helped by overnight rain. I’m happy to say this didn’t last all day and we slowly climbed out and into the Cortijo del Chaparral meadows with grit pathways. It was such a relief to be sure footed again.

The wildflowers today have been amazing and the terrain slowly ascending, we thought we may get wet at one point but it brightened which was a bonus. Saw some crazy cattle, brown heads and legs and what looked like white shirts and some fearsome horns.

We met a few fellow walkers today, two who we came across yesterday. One in particular, Ben, kindly adjusted my rucksack straps for me, taking some of the shoulder strain off. So happy for that.

Tomorrow walk to Almaden del La Plata (28 kms) will be fun - the forecast is for 55mm of rain ……Read more