Day 8 Santa Cruz - Córdoba (last day of walking)

26.6 km   Total walking 5:49 hrs     9 hrs including pauses, even the very long pause at the first bar coming into Córdoba. Average speed 4.6 km/h.  Up 420 m, down 513 m

We made it! Hurray! There was no question that Andrea and Duncan would make it, but after the painful beginning I made it too!

Today was the most difficult day because the walk was long and hot. A fair length of road to begin with and a number of lorries overtaking us. So Duncan and I took to the ditch every time a lorry approached and at one point I slipped and fell on my left knee. Nothing really hurt, but my trousers were torn at that knee and the knee looked bloody, without any blood flowing. Since I was six years old I have not had a bloody knee. At that time I always had a bloody knee because I always fell again before the crust of the previous wound had fallen off. - I ran about so much. So now I have this crust and I hope I will not repeat the way I carried on when I was six!

The landscape began to change today - olive groves gave way to vast fields with nothing growing, ploughed up and tidied, looking ready for planting and some were freshly planted with more olive trees. And we were wondering: grain had been grown here previously - there were huge stacks of straw bales next to the empty fields. More olive groves? Is the EU subsidising this?  Anyway the stacks of bales give most welcome shade for a comfortable rest.

Lately we had been walking together with Ilka, rather than just coming across each other in the evening and having the occasional meal together. She stayed behind with me, finding it difficult as well, while the other two were well ahead. Today she went on to find shade when I needed a rest and we stopped in a ditch in the glaring sun - no shade anywhere. So I rested in the shade of my umbrella.  And we saw Ilka again, quite far from the track, in the shade of one of those bale stacks, waved to each other and went on. Next stop for us was behind another bale stack and when I woke up from my siesta there she was and stayed behind when we went on...

The chalky tracks became larger and larger, the width of a proper road, but still with a rubbly surface which made walking difficult. And the whiteness reflecting the heat right into the space under my umbrella. And the wind which used to be cool was hot too...

So we arrived at the first bar as we came into the somewhat scruffy outskirts of the town - discussion: let’s go on to the Roman bridge, there is bound to be a bar, much nicer surroundings than here. But no, here it needed to be, could not wait any longer! A long pause with deliciously cold drinks and as we were leaving this bar closed (at 4 pm). And on to the town center and our apartment. And all the bars near the bridge were closed by the time we got there! 

This apartment turned out to be a small patio house which we are having to ourselves in the old Jewish quarter next to the Mezquita. Each floor is built round a very small courtyard: entrance, bedroom, tiny bathroom and spacious kitchen on the ground floor and another large bedroom, bathroom and livingroom on the first floor. They are building a pool on the rooftop ie more like a gigantic bathtub, but that is not finished. The whole house is tastefully made up with lots of the original materials being used, the original old floor tiling etc.

Of course I dropped onto the bed immediately and went to sleep! After the shower I tried the washing machine - had been looking forward to get all my clothes washed properly - but the machine was broken, literally, and so I washed a minimum, since the items I used for walking only could wait until later.

Andrea and Duncan meanwhile went out to buy some food for breakfast - having a kitchen we do not have to find a bar in the morning for our breakfast! And for 8 pm, to celebrate our safe arrival, Andrea had booked us a rooftop table in a fancy restaurant round the corner! She is very good at finding such things, does research and comes up with excellent results! We did not look too much out of place in our walking gear amongst all the other guests out on a Saturday night. Andrea anyway is always dressed impeccably. Delicious food of which I have forgotten the names except for the seabass, bubbly wine which the waiter suggested upgrading to Champagne, 60 € instead of 40 € which we did not accept. He then became less haughty when learning the reason for our celebration and took our photograph together. 

In the end I could not keep my eyes open any longer, had difficulty waiting for the bill to be paid and get back “home”. And so to sleep while Andrea and Duncan went out for a final stroll amongst the hordes of people milling about in the narrow streets and squares....

Ina and Ilka

Duncan ahead