5. Huéneja to Alquife

Hola amigos! It feels as though we’re in the rhythm of the Camino now - rising early to set out from our accommodation, walking the first few kilometres in hope of a good cafe-bar and then on for the rest of the stage, finding accommodation when we arrive and figuring out whether we need to have our main meal as late lunch or whether dinner is an option (often not, in Spanish villages!!).

It is an amazing thing to get a glimpse of the life of these little communities. Yesterday evening, we strolled through the town and found ourselves vigorously pursued by this fierce guard dog, much to the amusement of his owner. 

We had seen that the church (unusually) was open with a bit of coming and going, and clumps of people standing in the street nearby. Later, as we stood watching, a funeral procession came down a narrow sidestreet, the hearse followed by mourners on foot. Later again, we had our final snack for the day in the only open bar - and saw some of the same locals as were there at lunch. Little snippets of daily life. 

Today was a great day for walking, sunny but cooler and with little wind. We passed this wind turbine convention…

And then through acres and acres of almond trees carefully planted in rows along the terraced hillside.

Here was the next village Dolár, ideally located for a morning coffee break. We are gradually gaining altitude and as you can see, that snow covered ridge is getting closer. Dolár, bathed in morning light, looked glorious against that background. 

The next part of the stage took us past more almond groves…

and on to a very similar looking and situated pueblo called Ferreira.

The third little pueblo we passed through stood under the watch of an impressive Moorish fortress, which looked to be in wonderful repair. 

Walking in, we came across this monument to the tough guys of the spaghetti westerns made in this region (no comparison here!!).

And now we’re even closer to that mountain - almost in its shadow. Alquife is, surprisingly, an iron ore mining town, located right next to the biggest mine in Europe. We walked past a massive pit, so deep we couldn’t see the bottom from outside the fence and everything around was bathed in red dust. 

The lovely town church was open, so here’s a shot of the inside for a change.

It wasn’t such a long stage today, so we’ve had time to wash and rest which we’ve appreciated (especially our legs!!).

Buen Camino, 

Neil and Sarah 👣👣