Day 7 Castro del Rio - Santa Cruz


23.1 km         Time walked. 6:16 hrs         Total time with pauses 8:30 hrs                                            Average speed 3.7 km/h                     up 480 m     down 498 m

Difficult day, but beautiful all the same.  Above all practically no road until right at the end, but bumpy stony chalky white track most of the time. Not lose stones, but mostly biggish stones set immovably in the white dust. So with stones sticking out I had to watch carefully how I put down my feet and had difficulties putting them down in flat places - you see the picture.

But as usual it was a lovely fresh morning and we advanced nicely to a small town almost half way. We stopped at the main square which was really just the main street enlarged. This street came over the top of the hill in a way that, sitting in the bar in the middle of this top you could see the curve of the street coming up to the top one end and the curve of it going down the other end thus giving you the feeling of sitting on a globe, on top of the world as it were.

After a longish pause on top of the world we went up even more to a castle, another one! which was closed, so we continued on our way. No more villages, but a lot more heat and hardly any wind. So the umbrella came out again after two days without. The landscape is less dramatic, plenty of ups and downs, but no interesting rock formations. And of course olive groves everywhere....

In the end Andrea and Duncan were always well ahead while Ilka, the German pilgrim we had met on Day 2, and I struggled with the stony ground behind. On the last stretch along the road however we advanced so nicely that we caught up with them at the beginning of the village  when they had just settled down in the bar next to our hotel.

Sleep immediately upon our arrival in the hotel, followed by the usual shower and washing of our clothes and lying on the bed writing this. Out for a bite to eat now.....

By the way, the church Madre de Dios yesterday was closed and looked closed for good. Pity. Maybe back home I will write to the people at the townhall.








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