Tuesday 10th April 2018

22 km (319.4km)

Well what to say? It rained all day but whilst my feet were soaked they were, and are, relatively fine AND the poncho is just as waterproof as my good waterproofs, for now at least. Although having chosen a bright blue one so that it’s easy to spot amongst a heap of green ones (not that this is a problem as there are so few other walkers) I think the dogs and cows find it rather alarming; this blue blob marching along, billowing in the wind. The wind is a bit of a problem with the poncho as I’m sure I will sooner or later take off due to its parachute-like properties…

I left Casa Rural Abuela Maxi after many checks that I had indeed packed everything as I was alone in the Casa overnight, which was rather strange. I had a b&b reservation but in the absence of the revelling hosts I had to make do with some stale bread and dubious looking homemade jam; it looked and tasted red…The rain was pretty unrelenting and I was happy to see Gallisteo appear on the horizon, promising coffee and more breakfast. Gallisteo is an impressive hilltop walled town and dates from a period of Muslim rule. I have taken very few photos due to fear of drowning my phone but it can of course be googled :). Apparently one can walk along the tops of the walls, it was too wet today unfortunately…(phew!)

The walk from there was 11km on a road but in the lashing rain this is probably preferable as at least one doesn’t gave to negotiate mud as well as dealing with water logged boots and flapping ponchos. I arrived at Shelter Elena, changed and quickly dashed out to the open farmacia (I can now pronounce this word perfectly in Spanish, practice makes perfect). I have to admit to acting slightly like you do when you go grocery shopping whilst hungry and now have 10m of omnifix (a great spanish product for all sorts of ailments) and enough ibuprofen to last a life time, but I’m relieved to be stocked up :). The strange hospitalerio doubled up as the barman in the bar next door but when I asked for menu del dia he sent me to another establishment, although he did serve it there, which makes me wonder just how bad it was there as the alternative was barley edible… The other bar was quite scary, sometimes I’m really glad I’m over 50 and so can go unnoticed… It is a fairly unpleasant truck stop type of town, with a very strange clientele in the bar…not one of my recommendations for future visits.

Trying to convey size of poncho…