Day 16: Monterrubio de la Serena to Castuera. 18km.
We heard our second cuckoo today.
It was bitterly cold all day, the wind or gale at times into our faces was from the north probably all the way from the Arctic. It was the sort of day when the Irish would say: 'If it twere to rain it would snow'. Luckily there was no chance of rain or snow, it was a beautiful cloudless blue sky. Only a short distance from leaving the town I had to stop and put on my rain jacket, Moira already had hers on; I even had the hood up to protect my ears from the wind.
The first arrow of the day was just outside the hostal, and it was exactly 8 am when we made our way through the bar, full of early morning coffee drinkers, to pick it up. Once out of town the directions took us from the main road on to a very minor, practically traffic free tarred road for 15km, where at some shacks and farm labourer's cottages it changed to a gravel track. This small community didn't deserve a tarred road for some reason. The gravel track went for about 3km to join the main EX104 road into Castuera. There were no problems with navigation it was a straight road all the way but we were kept on track with an over abundance of arrows, plaques and even GR route flashes.
Initially we were back among endless olive groves. The area is noted for olive oil which probably explained the museum yesterday where we had our credentials stamped. One benefit of the trees was that they created a type of wind break and it now wasn't so uncomfortable. That didn't last, the olive groves weren't endless and as the road bent to the left to run parallel with a range of high hills we were back to meadows of holm oak. The wind was now coming straight in our faces and there was no shelter from it by the trees, it was freezing and also a battle walking into it. There were still plenty of sheep about their wooly coats keeping them warm. Moira commented that this region was famous for it hams the feed of acorns from the holm oaks giving it a distinctive flavour but we haven't seen a lot of pigs.
There was a town up near the top of the range of hills ahead of us initially, Benquerencia de la Serena. We thought that was was our destination but I couldn't remember seeing such a climb on the profile of the route we saw on the information board at the olive oil museum. It wasn't where we were going and we didn't have that climb but Castuera was just below the escarpment at the end of the range of hills nestled in a little hump. So there was a steady ascent which got steeper when we reached the gravel road section.
Last night wandering around Monterrubio de la Serena we saw a poster for an organised walk, along today's route. With the number of markers and signs, some looking fresh and new, we suspected that the way marking must have been upgraded for the walk. It seemed quite good value, you got breakfast, a bocadillo and a lift back to
Monterrubio de la Serena at the end , all for E6.
When we reached the main road at the end of the gravel track we were in Castuera but it was still the usual long trek into the centre. You never know where you are in these towns, there are no shops until you reach the actual centre and no indication how far to go or if you are heading in the right direction. We assumed that the hostal we were looking for, Los Naranjos was in the centre but stopped and asked, to make sure, as soon as we saw another person. It was up on the main road and we just enquired it time, the direction was to the right and at the top of that street, quite a climb up a hill. Now sheltered by the buildings from the cold wind the sun was beating down and we were sweltering in the heat and had to stop to take off our rain jackets half way up the hill.
It wasn't a hostal, it was Hotel N and a '2 Star' at that. It looked posh not what we are used to, but we had enough of the wind for one day and would have to just spend our money recklessly. It was a surprise when it was E40 and the room though just a little bigger than normal was beautifully tiled. Another thing that probably made it classy was the booking in; at a pub type hostel that get a key immediately, show you to the room and register later. Here it was passports examined and endless details fed into a computer before we were issued with an electronic key card. What made it not so posh was the water wasn't very hot and the WiFi was all right in the dining room and bar but very poor in the rooms.
We had lunch in the dining room and it was quite nice. We both had the same; soup to warm us up followed by chicken and chips. For dessert it was iced cream and also the obligatory bottle of vino tinto. Once connected to the WiFi in the dining room it continued working in the room for a while afterwards. We were able to listen to some comedy on the BBC radio catch-up service in the afternoon. When Moira tried to get I touch with Suzy on Face Time the Internet packed in, we had to go to the bar to finish the call.
At 5pm we went into town to the tourist info office. We wanted them to phone an albergue in Campanario where we go tomorrow, it's the only accommodation there. The bloggers stayed there and we want to know if it is still open. It wasn't very far to the town centre and there were signposts pointing to the tourist info office but it was closed, permanently by the looks of it. We found a supermarket and did some shopping and headed back to the hotel, it was very cold again.
At the hotel Moira tried phoning the albergue in Campanario but the replies were in Spanish and she couldn't make herself understood. We tried down in the bar for somebody who spoke English and the barman did a little, little enough to comprehend what we wanted. He phoned the albergue and said it was still operating and they had plenty of rooms available. We were happy now that we had our accommodation settled for another night.
Back in our room I had the Internet radio working again and we listened to the BBC again until it was time to get to sleep. We just had a snack of bread and cheese for supper along with strawberries and yoghurt we bought at the supermarket.
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