Invierno 2 – Villavieja to Puente de Domingo Flores
Just some photos now
Just some photos now
Sorry, but no time to write much, or search through photos. I had lots of thoughts while walking and should probably learn to dictate them, but I haven’t, so you are spared. It was a very pleasant walk to the luxurious albergue in Villavieja. Five of us – from Canada, Australia and Spain – spent…
As Laurie described it, today we are repositioning to Ponferrada. There, we will separate for a few days at least. She will zip around to explore some new sidetrips and monasteries, and I will attempt to walk the standard Invierno route. I did it in 2022, but found it a bit unsatisfying, maybe partly because…
This is a fairly short stage. We are already into the greater Seville area, so had to navigate the commuter transportation networks out of town. At one point, we found ourselves wandering among some uncertain paths. But our first view of Sevilla made it clear that we couldn’t really go wrong. With a population of…
We left at 7:00 am since Laurie had a long day ahead. Saw the moon go down, and the sun come up. The track for the morning was a bit like walking across Saskatchewan, not that I’ve ever done that. A lot of wheat fields, some oat (maybe – my guess), sunflowers at various stages.…
Today’s walk was extremely scenic. I find that anything over 25 km is too long for me. There isn’t time to rest or dawdle en route, which I like to do. I can’t get to the destination in time for a decent mid-day meal. Furthermore, I am exhausted. Laurie and I start out together but…
This was a day mainly along a Vía Verde – a railway route (apparently never used as such) converted to hiking, biking, etc. There was no actual train track, but we went through 20+ tunnels. Some were lit, but even so, it was hard to see and balance in the dark after entering from bright…
A reasonable distance, cooler weather, nice variety of walking, another hilltop village with castle to visit, and a Michelin listed restaurant. All in all, a very good day! First, some agricultural highlights… Olvera was a nice town… Hostal Medina… The very delicious meal…
We had a bit of uncertainty about the route out of the city, but sorted it out. First destination was the Roman ruins of Acinipo. (For Laurie, it is not enough to go from A to B, if there is also A point C within striking distance.) We couldn’t figure out what inspired the Romans…
I was quite fine in the morning, but the planned distance included some ups and downs in the second half. Given my exhaustion yesterday and a very convenient train schedule, I decided to save my energy for the second half, which was the approach up to Ronda. I got on a 7:30 train for 10…
First half was a rather strenuous hike through a canyon. Second 45% was lovely walking. Last 5% was 1.5 km walking steadily uphill to the white village of Jimera del Libar. A bonus 1.5 km off the Camino. Well, my body was out of gas when that last slog started and it took me an hour…
I didn’t like typing “21 km” since Laurie and I agreed that it (and we) deserved a much higher number. I was concerned about the elevation profile with today going up to 30°C and the uphill parts being at the end of the day. See the profile. Sure, it wasn’t Mt Everest, but more than…
This was supposed to be just 18 km, but add on a piece at the start, a piece at the end, and a detour in the middle to avoid a bramble patch, and we are up to over 24 km. The stage was very pleasant – country roads and green fields, curious cows, and avocado…