Elevation gain 566 m

Elevation loss 438 m

Total distance walked 260.5 km

It rained in great style last evening, just as we left the accommodation to find a much desired glass of wine the sky is opened and we got drenched.

By the time we leave this morning, admittedly not very early, it seems that every other pilgrim has left the establishment before us. I’m not at all sorry that the first considerable portion of this stage runs alongside a road which we reach as soon as we leave the village and hurrah it has a shoulder

The sun is rising to my right. A guy cycles past and wishes buen camino to one and all. By all I mean we too peregrinas and a guy about 20 m ahead and another far beyond. There are certainly a good number of pilgrims walking this route but it doesn’t feel in any way overbearing.

I seem to have been using my walking poles much less on this camino. I’m not sure why that is. They help me up some hills, certainly helped me balance in the mud, but I am quite enjoying the freedom of swinging my arms.

The scenery is beautiful – barley fields to my left and dehesa type land to the right.

That’s a new one for me – a guy just pulled up and asked me if I wanted a lift, which is very strange and possibly creepy. I’m not limping along – more bounding if anything so obviously I wasn’t looking vulnerable. I should put it down to kindness rather than anything more lecherous. I guess when he pulled up as saw how old I was he made a quick getaway.

In pretty much all of my ten years of camino walking, whether it be a relatively short camino or an extremely long one (although to be honest there haven’t been many relatively short ones) I have averaged a daily distance of 27 km. This year is going to be rather different to that. I haven’t worked out an average thus far for this camino but I would be surprised if it reached 20 km per day.

It is a day of much recording of bird song. There are lots of trees and bushes alongside the road and when there are no cars passing it is extremely peaceful. Normally the Merlin Bird ID app has to deal with the scrunching noise of my feet along the track, but today I am as silent as a hunting cat and the App picks up a few new birds.

Still on the road at 10 km and to be honest, I’m quite enjoying it for a change although I’m sure there will come a time fairly soon when I am hankering for a rough track but in the meantime this road with an adequate shoulder and not one speck of mud suits me just fine.

Almost immediately after recording that I notice the two guys walking ahead of me divert onto a track to the other side of the road but I continue as I’m so comfortable walking where I am. A couple of kms further along I see some cows in a field and can’t resist moving over. It’s a comfortable sand track lined with pretty flowers.

My progress is definitely much slower on the track for various reasons –

1 it’s more ululating than the road

2 you just can’t walk as fast on gravelly sand as you can on a smooth surface

3 I keep dawdling to take flower photos because they are so abundant here

Nina catches up with me and we stop for a break at 10:30 and 12.5 km

We walk through a vast area of cork oaks, some of which have been recently harvested and some are beginning to grow back their bark. There’s a massive field with trees dotted about amongst grass and flowers – nothing that seems like a crop. Google tells me that… cork oak is unique in its ability to regenerate its outer bark. After a tree reaches 25 years of age, it can be stripped of its cork once every 9 to 12 years without causing damage to the tree. A single cork oak, which lives up to 200 years, can be harvested over 16 times.

That doesn’t seem to be a very profitable crop. Maybe the land is used for pasture at other times of the year, but there’s no sign of animals right now.

After we’ve turned away from the road into a gated area I realise we are in a parque natural and so I guess there doesn’t need to be a cash crop. Some Junta de Andalucía trucks pass us and a bit later we see workers busy strimming the grass and tidying the palm trees that surround a Casa Forestal. I imagine there must be some event about to happen here.

This is a wonderful walk on a flat sand path through the cork oaks with a huge array of wild flowers. We are steadily and gently walking downhill since entering the area and just know what will eventually greet us.

We change direction again and suddenly there’s lavender growing and cistus of all colours. I see a singular iris and the tiniest of bright blue lupins.

I look across a shallow valley and the hillside opposite is covered with white cistus. This place is remarkably peaceful and charming. And now the cistus is growing alongside the path in abundance – some with tiny little flowers and some are big and blousy and others mingled with lavender and a yellow flower which Google tells me is broom but I’m sure it isn’t.

The common chaffinch (which apparently is uncommon) and the nightingale compete with each other to sing the loudest, and combined they make the happiest song.

The stunning walk through the cork oaks and the cistus comes to an end at 21.5 km. It’s been absolutely beautiful and it’s made up for every sticky, sloppy, clingy bit of mud that we’ve put up with in recent days

We are still in the parque natural in a totally different landscape – rolling hills with yellow and white daisies and lavender. And a bit later through pine trees.

There are a couple of fords to cross, but with the assistance of some well placed and distanced stepping stones.

We take another short break at 21 km and soon after we are directed through a huge and unexpected gate and are immediately on a loose gravel track – the sort that moves under your feet. It goes on and on and the scenery has changed yet again to holm oak trees, still with lots of beautiful flowers.

Well we certainly pay for all that beauty and that gentle descent. I see a looming hill. I say to Nina that it can’t possibly be track. It’s just too steep. It must be a fire break. But guess who was wrong – it was ridiculous but of course we made it to the top plodding ever upwards – the steepest incline was 100 m over a distance of 700 m. And of course there was an equally steep descent into Almadén de la Plata.

We are staying in Casa Concha, a bar/restaurant with accommodation. We have a triple room for the cost of a twin – €40. This is a very weird village (it feels a bit ‘League of Gentlemen’ to me). There are a couple of shops and an excellent farmacia and an abundance of bars.

Birds of the day..,

Cuckoo

Common Chaffinch (listed as uncommon)

Common Nightingale

Corn Bunting

House Sparrow

Thekla’s Lark (listed as rare)

Eurasian Hoopoe (yay!)

Iberian Magpie

Willow Warbler (listed as rare)

Eurasian Blackbird

European Turtle-Dove

Eurasian Nuthatch (listed as uncommon)

Eurasian Blue Tit

Sardinian Warbler

Long-tailed Tit

Short-toed Treecreeper

Wood Lark (listed as uncommon)

So happy to hear a hoopoe 😍