41. Calzadilla de Tera to Mombuey

A Spanish guy on a bike arrived just after eight last night, which meant two of us in the little Calzadilla albergue 1/3 full! He had himself sorted and settled by about 9.30 and, once again, I had a pretty good sleep. 

We both rose at six and were on the road by half past.

The path followed this irrigation channel until the next little village, and then wound up into the hills to get around the embalse (reservoir) further upstream.

It looks like a fire burnt through these parts in the last year of so. 

The cloud cover today was as thick as I’ve seen since starting in Almería, but no rain so far.

I spent the best part of an hour crossing the dam wall and traversing the far bank of this embalse. It was a very pleasant path with no one at all around. In fact, I felt as if I was in the forgotten back blocks of Spain.

Note those mountains in the distance. I’ll be walking into this country in coming days.

This is the kind of spot where I get the urge to stop and boil a billy, and maybe throw a line into the water. Alas, with no billy and no line, I kept walking.

There was a bar in this town when I passed through five years ago, and after three hours of walking, I was eagerly anticipating a coffee break. That bar, I discovered, has since closed and the whole town looked very much deserted. So much for coffee.

On, I walked, up a hill and the rest of the stage was meandering across a scrubby plain. 

Not far from Mombuey, the Camino path merged with the main road and I spotted a Hostal/ Restaurante just ahead. I dived in for that long awaited coffee, and then left to complete the stage. Six hundred metres later, I decided to check where I was staying (a couple of days ago, Fernando and I had agreed to share a room in Mombuey). To my amusement (kind of #*%), I discovered that the room Fernando had booked was back in the hostal I’d just left! 

And so, 25 kilometres becomes 26 as I retrace my steps. And that’s how it is sometimes - one step forward, and two back!

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Buen Camino

Neil💚🙃