Day 13: Villaharta to Puerto del Calatraveno to Alcaracejos. 21km.
We were up at our usual time and surprised while having breakfast when Thea and Dirk appeared packed and ready to go. They were heading down to the roundabout on the main road to catch the bus to Cordoba. They were giving themselves plenty of time, it was only 7 am and their bus wasn't for another 90 minutes. I thought about offering them a lift in our taxi at 8am down to the roundabout and save the walk but it was just as well that I didn't. We were down in the bar with 10 minutes to spare but the taxi didn't arrive until 8:30am, he said he had problems with his battery. He must have driven faster to make up time as he had us on the trail at 8:45am.
When we walked over to the taxi from the bar it felt a bit cold but I thought it was just the early chill, the sky was a cloudless blue and the sun was shining. I also had noticed on the weather forecast while in the bar watching the TV that the temperatures for the day were 4 - 15C but didn't think much about it. We did think about it when we began walking, there was a breeze blowing and it was freezing. We stopped after a short distance and put our rain jackets on top of our fleeces. That helped but our legs and hands were frozen, so another stop a little later to don our leggings and put a pair of gloves on our hands. We felt quite comfortable now but it stayed cold for a while, it was another couple of hours before we got rid of the leggings and 'gloves' but had to keep the fleeces on all day.
Angel had told me that the route flattened out today. Initially we had a long steep drop on a rough stony track and it looked flat on the land that stretched out below us. But, it was an illusion, the route was very undulating for 10 km until we crossed the A435. This road goes back one way to the N502 where the taxi had dropped us off earlier and the other way continues to the town of Pozoblanco. The ups and downs on this first section weren't particularly long but were quite steep in places. On one hill we were going down while a bunch of mountain bikers were coming up, the leader well in front looked strong but the rest in varying degrees were struggling and 'tail end Charlie' was off his bike walking. The guide book gave a couple of rivers or streams to cross where we thought we might have to paddle but found that by-passes or good stepping stones have been constructed. The vegetation was a mixture of bush and moorland, there were no crops grown here but we did see sheep grazing, the first farm animals we had seen. The route markings were excellent and we didn't have to think about taking a wrong turning as they were all indicated clearly. At the A435 I sat on one of the marker stones for a seat while I brewed up some coffee. The wind was still very cold but we managed to get some shelter behind a bush.
The route once we crossed over the A435 now became flat on a wide gravel track. There were now lots more farms some with sheep and cattle, the fields were cultivated with Holm Oak trees. These trees are important for the hard wood and also the acorns are used as feed for pigs but we didn't see any pigs about. Truffles are also known to grow under the ground near the Holm Oak. After 5 km we reached Merendero which was supposed to be an Ermita or chapel but it was a cafe with a covered outdoor eating area and a park and picnic tables opposite. There were a lots of cars parked here and the cafe was doing a good business. The route now turned to the left onto, initially, a tarred section of road then changed to gravel. There were a lot of cars coming and going along the road to the cafe and park. It wasn't dangerous as the road was wide but on the gravel they create a lot of dust as they pass. This was now 5km on a flat straight road to our destination at the end. In the distance we could see the red roofs of houses and a large bank of solar panels hoping this was Alceracejos, happily it was.
There were a lot of narrow winding lanes before we reached the town centre where we saw a bar. It wasn't a hostal so Moira asked for directions; they sent us to an hotel not far away that wasn't mentioned in our guide book. We nearly booked in until I asked the price, E50, no thanks! We wandered about a bit more and eventually found the Hostal Las Tres Jotas, this was the place where our blogger friends stayed, and we paid the same price, E28. We had to go to the Tic Tac Bar opposite to book in and after showering went back there for 'menu del dia'.
It was late afternoon when we finished our meal and as normal we were full with eating too much. It had become cold again even though the sun was shining brightly, we decided to head back to our room and get the heater on. The WiFi was excellent and the BBC radio came through loud and clear. We spent the rest of the day reading and listening to the radio. For 'dinner' we satisfied ourselves with a cup of coffee still feeling full from lunch. It was 9pm when we turned out the light and got to sleep.
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