Electricity came on at 05:09 and I immediately plugged in my devices. I had left the light in my room switched on so I knew immediately it happened. 

I didn’t get any useful signal on my phone until close to reaching my destination today. What a palaver!

Elevation gain 120 m

Elevation loss 346 m

Total distance 167 km

About 1 km out of town we are directed down a very steep hill and join the Via Verde de la Sierra that… “uses the old railway line between Jerez and Almargen, which joins the municipalities of Puerto Serrano and Olvera”.

“Construction began in the early 20th century, but was halted during the Spanish Civil War and never fully completed. The Via Verde, now a popular tourist route for cycling, walking, and horse riding, follows the old railway line, including tunnels, viaducts, and old railway stations.”

The sun already feels quite strong at 8 o’clock, but there is some cloud cover today for the first time. We soon reach the first of the 20 tunnels on this stage of the Via Verde (there are 30 tunnels in all)

It’s a gently undulating path with more twists than I would have expected for a trainline line but sadly it’s been tarmacked, presumably because farmers need to access to their olive trees on either side of the track. It eventually changes to gravel at almost 8 km, yay!

I looked at my phone around 09:30 and saw I had signal but couldn’t get the radio or any other service I tried. 

The weather has been kind to us today with the sun hiding behind the clouds and a cooling breeze. But the novelty of walking on flat track is beginning to wear off. 

At 17.5 km we come across a hostal with a bar and it just happens to be situated opposite some massive craggy cliffs where vultures are circling in the air currents. We have a double treat – a cold drink and a fab view. We peregrinas are easy to please.  

When we leave the hostel, the sun has fought its way through the clouds and the wind has dropped and suddenly it’s very warm – the few tunnels that remain are very welcome places.

We leave the track at 23.5 km and start our climb to our stage end of Coripe, partly on road and finally on a track alongside.

We are staying at Casa Rural Coripe (€49) in a lovely spacious apartment with a washing machine – yay, no hand washing chores today! Coripe is a quiet town of a few long streets and sufficient facilities. We eat at Bar Cuchara, where the food is good and inexpensive, and share a table with a lovely Canadian couple who are cycling around Andalusia.

Walking back to our accommodation we marvel at the horizontal hanging slither of moon – quite extraordinary.

We are hatching a plan for tomorrow’s stage – watch this space!