Sunrise pic looking back for the last time look at Granada/mountain near the horizon before descending from the high ground.
7:30 am and the only bar in town was still not open. The owner of the bar told me 7 am. Bah. No towns in between for today's walk. My map shows a petrol station (maybe there's coffee there!) after one of the main road crossing, my ETA 9:30 am.
Later it turned out to be an olive oil plant, not petrol station, bwah.......
Openstreetmap is going to hear about that from me...
Other than that the walk was great. It was slightly cloudy so it wasn't as hot as yesterday. Olives and more olives. A watch tower on a sloping hill (hard to see in the picture) that looks like the Mozarabe logo. Midway plots of land growing wheat (for a change). To avoid walking on main road, the path goes up and down the olive hills, crossing one main road at least 3 times.
Had some food outside the church at a small village with a few houses and no bar. I have to get used to hills and no towns between stages along this Camino.
22 km later I was greeted with a spectacular view of Alcalá la Real's fortress on the way down after the last hill. No albergue here. Check online and the central Hostal Rio de Oro looks most reasonable (28 euros). I even had a view (just little bit) of the castle from my room's balcony.
After shower, wash, rest I walked up to the big fortress to find it closed. Opening hours daily 10am- 5:30 pm, 6 euros. I just took shots of the city instead. In any case it's not like I am going to experience much more paying to go into all the castles around. Much better to enjoy a drink from town looking up at the fortress than vice versa.
Prepared myself for another town-less day by grabbing some stuff at the Dia supermarket.
Still no sight of any other pilgrims. This route can be quite solitary. Last year cycling the Camino Mozarabe from Cordoba to Merída I'd only encounter a English guy, a Spanish cyclist and a German couple, and that is the ability to move 3 walking days ahead every day.
Darn, one can get really spoilt by staying at hostals....
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