Tony, Tim, Betsy & Ray's 2016 Camino

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

One more river.









Villaharta to Alcaracejos Part 1. about 12 miles undulating hill at end.
This part of the Camino Mozarabe crosses the Sierra Morena an area where there are few villages. We have about 24miles to cross, more than some of us would enjoy in a day so we are staying st the Bar Cafe Mirasierra for two nights walking half to a statue in the middle of nowhere where the camino is only a km from the main road and being fetched from there by Senor Ruis in his car and taken back in the morning. Thus narrowly avoiding taxigrino status. The village church is graced by a storks nest with a baby already active and being fed.
The day is wet low cloud only a few hundred metres overhead, rain falls intermittantly at first and then continuously with varying intensity. We all have our waterproofs, footwear varies. We also have to ford the Rio Guardobarbo not a problem when we get there and probably crossable in sandals at all reasonable levels however the second river tomorrow may be different.
There is a puddle with tadpoles (normal sized) and birds continue to sing unperturbed by the rain, though maybe even more difficult to see. The host of daisys have refused to open but all the usual flowers are still out just wet. The path we tread is a dirt road but the mud is not glutinous and progress is rapid with an occasionsl slide. Few vehicles pass us, one near the end stops and warns us the next river is up. Happily a problem for tomorrow.
We cower under the statue of something by the local sculptor and are very glad that Angel Garcia Ruis proprietor of the Cafe is arriving soon in his maroon Opel and has the heater on full.
Back at Cafe Miasierra it is lunch time and we join the wren feeding her family on the covered patio. Last night we were joined in the flat we occupy by Hans the Austrian who was also staying at the house in Cerro Muriano he is forging ahead and doing our two days in one we don't envy him. Another welcome guest was the juvenile preying mantis who dropped onto Betsy's bag annd scuttled off shyly after his photo call.
We stay inside the rest of the day well out of the rain.



Link to where we are on Google Maps
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