Day 5. Saturday, 27/05/2023. Hinojosa to Monterrubio de la Serena

24.8 km    Total time 7:40h, walking total 5:20  Pauses 15,  50,  30 minutes plus short stops just standing

Breakfast in our hostal/bar and out into a wet town - it had rained during the night and the forecast was for more rain during the day. So we left dressed in our raingear and then nothing happened - for a long time.  Once we had left the town behind us no more walking on roads, rather on farm tracks through the same sort of flat landscape as yesterday. Easy walking.

At one point I realised that the very old oaks in the vast countryside I mentioned yesterday are in fact very old olive trees. They are planted at irregular distances from each other, sometimes quite close, mostly at great distances. I suppose the trees which used to be in between had died. And what I thought was dried up grass covering the ground is in fact some sort of grain - I cannot be certain whether it is wheat or barly or - can’t think of the English for the German Roggen. However the plants have reached a height of barely 40 cm!

The landscape began to change, ondulating, mildly hilly which of course meant ups and downs with our path. At lunch time a longish pause, a bite to eat and a siesta. And then the rain started, spitting at first for quite a while. So I did not bother with my umbrella. But in the end the umbrella came up and proved very good as protection from the rain as well as from the sun previously. The path became more difficult too in that the earth was sticky like clay now and clung to our boots - very difficult to not only carting your backpack and your bodyweight, but also a kilo of mud clinging to your feet!

When the rain eased up a bit I was ready for another pause, just sitting under a tree under our umbrellas. This was next to what I think used to be a small railway station which in turn was next to very newly made railway tracks - a single line. The path became more difficult going over rocky outcrops  - always a problem for me because I can’t see properly.

The rain stopped - so I put my umbrella away, it started again a while later, it stopped again, and started and so on, So in the end I just kept the umbrella up until we found our taxi. 

Did I mention that today was going to be another taxi days? 32 km not for me. The last few kms were along the road anyway and just before we arrived the rain came down in buckets, so much so that the taxi driver parked the taxi and we waited in the car for the rain to ease up a bit which took quite long time.

Nicely installed in our hostal we decided to do a minium of washing - no hope to dry anything! Out for a drink - no food to be had at a time reasonable for us. So we will eat what is left in our packs. Photos next when we are back in our room…

Andrea found an eatery after all where I am finishing this while nibbling delicious finger food!