It was once again a glorious morning for walking. We met up with Esther and Karsten as we were leaving Alcalá la Real and its castle behind us, and enjoyed 12km of conversation as we meandered through the country lanes.
Walking on these cool sunny mornings with fresh legs is sheer delight. It gets more challenging as the temperature climbs and our legs get tired, but the vistas are still amazing.
It was an undulating stage; there were no steep ascents or descents but there were some long uphill sections where the legs weren’t screaming but were definitely starting to complain!!
We stopped for a breather with an hour or so of walking to go. A shared banana and some very melted chocolate (Sarah having mistakenly left it in the lid of her pack) were much appreciated.
Not long afterwards we passed what we assume is an olive processing plant. Later, when we sat down to the ‘menu del dia’ we noticed that the oil for our salad was produced locally - perhaps in this plant.
The olive groves certainly make for a richly pattern landscape.
The town of Alcaudete is an interesting place. We were struck by the amount of work being done on a kilometre long park avenue leading into the town and by the beautifully kept pots of petunias hanging from lamp posts and in the plazas. Yet in other respects, the town seems to lack a centre and to be a hodgepodge of scattered shops and facilities, with many neglected buildings. We have found it hard to get a sense of the whole.
Our evening walk took us to the Ayuntamiento (mayoral offices).
In the same plaza, there was this striking depiction of the Akedah (the story of the binding of Isaac from Genesis 22). Why it was there, like much else in this town, made no obvious sense??
Further up the hill was the mandatory castle and church just below it. The forecourt gave us sweeping views of the countryside around the town, lovely to behold but hard to capture in a photograph, as well as the town itself.
We passed this distance marker today. Eleven hundred and fourteen kilometres to Santiago. It means we’ve passed 300 km since leaving Almería. It also means I (Neil) have just over 1200 kms to go (if you add the extra leg from Santiago to Muxia and Finisterre). Nothing daunting about that!!
Buen Camino
Neil and Sarah 👣👣🧡
A corduroy landscape. What’s the deal with the albergos? There’s been mention of apartments and landladies but no snoring. And few other pilgrims.
ReplyDelete1,200 kms is no joke! A French Camino and a half!
ReplyDeleteI am pondering the experience of a town that doesn’t feel coherent. Important signs - the story of Isaac - but no way to decode … have you read Russell Hoban’s Ridley Walker?
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