Tony, Tim, Betsy & Ray's 2016 Camino

(not forgetting Jane & Ann) A walk along the Camino Mozarabe

Brown river, wider than a mile.










It rained in the night it was still raining when we left town. It rained all morning. The Norwegians had to get it right eventually. Brown rivers flow down our paths and yesterdays dust is todays mud. Several of us are glad we are using walking poles as the sloping mud resembles a discloured ski slope.
The day however is not without its pleasures. Tony spots a tiny frog or toad out for a stroll, Tim claims a dark red wet squirrel and a tree creeper. Betsy much latter, when the sun is shining and we are bowling along up a valley of gorse and, olive and almond trees is distracted by yet another flight of bee eaters.
We arrive in Los Banos it is still raining we feel we do not need a bath the showers have been more than adequate. At 12 we are too early for the Menu del Diario so have various bits including a goat and garlic stew bits of chicken and some asparagus in scrambled egg. We are just about to set off when the continuing shower becomes a down pour. Coffee is in order . Two probably German cyclists enter. They are wet and on their way from Malaga to Barcelona and will try to stay the night here. This and the other towns we pass through all have their troglodyte houses carved out of the claylike rock of the area. Earlier we have taken shelter in an unoccupied hobbit hole when the rain got heavy.
The rain stops we start walking and layers are gradually removed. Ray spots a couple of clumps of yellow orchids no one has seen before and the whole countryside seems fresh.
None too soon we crest the hill and turn right our destination appears a couple of hundred feet below us, a path winds down we start down and in a few yards our feet have doubled in weight the ends of our walking poles are cricket balls of mud . This of a particularly glutinous consistency and provides no little problem in descent. However we shed the worst on reaching the metalled road in town and meet Maria a local lady who takes us to the school, thankyou Maria, and hands us over to the teacher. Who shows us bunks and showers donativo above the school.



Link to where we are on Google Maps
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