Update, Friday 18th March

My Dad has sent me a text to say that he has had no wifi connection for three days now and is unable to update the blog. As soon as he arrives somewhere less remote, he'll update with the week he (and my Mum) have had.

Thanks,
Hannah

Monday 14th March Priego de Cordoba to Alcala la Real

Given the tough walks ahead it seemed to make sense for Christine to have a rest day today and for me to get to Alcala la Real as quickly as possible. Early breakfast and away. At the last minute she decided to get out of bed and join me so breakfast turned in a slightly more lavish affair than I had planned.


You get much nicer views of Priego de Cordoba leaving it than arriving, a really nice place.


To be honest this is a bit of an "A" to "B" walk - not much to see, other than more olive trees, and just a question of getting there. It seems like the Spanish have the same view and the way marking was poor to non existent and if it wasn't for a good track on my GPS I would have go totally lost.


One thing without Christine, I was able to get totally Ipoded up and today chose a country and western theme, Emmy Lou Harris, followed by Dixie Chicks with Gram Parsons thrown in as I descended into Alcala la Real.
A fast walk, a mix of small country roads, tracks through fields of olive trees, and a few rougher stretches, I was able to cover the 35 kilometres in about 8 hours (despite getting lost, as usual, coming out of town at the start).
Christine of course, didn't in the end have a rest day at all but set off and a couple of hours after me along the same route, without map or GPS. She somehow managed to get to Amedinilla and then got a bus.
Still more olive trees to come but the scenery looks like it's going to get dramatically better. Although pouring with rain as I entered Alcala la Real there were some great views across to the snow covered Sierras.
We're staying at the Toropalma Hotel and it's all mod cons plus menu gastronomic.

Sunday March 13th Rute to Priego de Cordoba

Christine here. John has just discovered that the blog he thought he posted from the bar in hostel Rafi, Priego, disappeared into the ether so I have offered to do it while he sulks.
We started off after breakfast, John with GPS in hand, and marched uphill past orange tree-lined streets and a wonderful anis factory (lush smells).

Anis factory in Rute

We then left town and took the wrong path, ending up on a road instead of a path high under the ridge.

Climbing up out of Rute

I decided we should stop for coffee in a roadside cafe at Palomares. Suitably caffeined up we took off uphill through the olives and sticky mud until we eventually hit the right path, which was delightful - through pine and holm oak, with buzzards circling above. We stopped briefly to demolish the remains of the Christmas cake. Then we got lost, and shortly after it started to rain and I got encircled by 3 dogs. Fortunately they had no cojones ( spelling confirmed with barman).

Broom everywhere

The rest of the walk was a plod in the rain on tarmac and my feet were sore when we arrived at Hostel Rafi in Priego de Cordoba, a lovely little provincial town with a Moorish centre and some fabulous Rococo churches, all of which were sadly locked.
We were the only ones at dinner: a hearty affair of grilled red peppers, oxtail stew then quince jelly with cream cheese, all washed down with Rioja. Felt quite good after that!
John by the way is looking very fit and well, he has a tan and has lost pounds round his middle. His walking clothes are filthy and he could be mistaken for a tramp were it not for the iPod and gps. There's a small crack opening up in his right Inov8 shoe which is giving him sleepless nights.

Saturday March 12th Villanueva de Algaidas to Rute

Bit of adventure today. To be honest it's a good job Christine arrives tonight and not last night, not sure if she would have appreciated today's walk as an introduction.

Started ominously, the rain was pouring down. The hotel didn't do breakfast, in fact it was a just leave your key in the door and go hotel. It was 8 o'clock and all I had with me was an apple, a big apple, but an apple non the less.

It did stop raining after about fifteen minutes but that was when the first part of the "adventure" started. The walk to the first destination, Cuevas Bajas, basically involved going along the side of a river which in normal circumstances is dry - at the moment it's in full flood. Worse still there was a series of lateral streams draining into the main river which were also in full flood. The sides of these streams were incredibly steep but had to be crossed, and eventually the inevitable happened, the soft soil on the bank gave way and I slid down to bottom collecting vast quantities of mud and soil as I went.













The last picture is the bank I slide down, trust me it's a least 15 feet deep.

Arrived at Cuevas Bajas, not a big place, and rebuilt my stocks of chocolate, bananas and some very expensive dried apricots. I was covered in mud so did well to get anything. Cuevas Bajas has some lovely houses suggesting a wealthy past.





Amazingly it was now sunny and I was making great progress to Rute, which for some reason didn't seem so far away. There is an option of not going to Cuevas de San Marcos and taking a more direct path, no choice as far as I was concerned.

Having crossed the bridge into the village of Vadofresno (leaving the province of Malaga and entering the province of Cordoba) the skies opened again, didn't rain for long but very fierce and water everywhere.

Just when I needed the signs they disappeared. There were three route options. The first one seemed to take you back towards Vadofresno. The second one took you down a gulley and then along the side of a cliff next to the river. I could see, however, that part of this route had been washed away. The third took you up on top of the cliff and through the olive trees. My GPS was telling to take the second route but given it's partial none existence I took the third. It was a nightmare, the mud was just incredible, not only was I sinking in it to my ankles, it was sticking to my feet. It then started to rain again. I was also having to negotiate the same sort of deep lateral streams that confronted me in the morning. I guess it took about an hour to cover about half a kilometre but when I found a tarmac road with a GR sign on it, it was a great relief.

The rest of the walk was uneventful although the countryside, still full of olive trees, is getting more attractive. The route took me high above the huge Embalse de Iznajar, a reservoir but pretty nonetheless.





Arrived at the Hotel el Mirador at about 5 o'clock, 30 kilometres and some obstacles in 9 hours, so in the end not so bad. Trying to clean up a bit but the room is now a bit muddy I'm afraid, hair dryer flat out in an effort to dry my shoes.

Friday March 11th, Villanueva de Tapia to Villanueva de Algaidas

Today's 20 kilometre walk was really slow, the time seemed to drag and it took longer than I expected - maybe I'm getting tired. Soaking in the bath I came with three other possible explanations.

The first was the olive trees. It is incredible, I thought there was a lot yesterday, but that was just a scattering compared to today. I am in the land where the olive tree is king (or should it be queen); where it's olive tree mono-culture; and where it's floor to ceiling, wall to wall, olive trees.

Just today, walking 20 kilometres, I think I have walked through 400 square kilometres of olive trees, millions of individual trees. I have no idea how they get the olives from the trees but surely it can't be a net on the ground and a good shake, would take forever.

The first picture has Villanueva de Tapia in a sea of olive trees, after that it's just sea.








Although there are a lot interesting unknowns, to me a least, about olive production processes it does not make for exciting walking, particularly when the clouds remain low and longer views are just not there. Both thinking about olive tree harvesting techniques and the monotony of the olive trees must have had an impact on my pace.

The second explanation is the mud - it is bad and incredibility sticky. Not really sure why, it's not that wet, you don't sink in it, it just sticks. It even sticks to my metal walking poles. After a few steps using the poles, each has an accumulation of mud at the end the size of a small hand grenade which, with a flick of the wrist, you can send flying into the middle distance. Both the mud and the flicking is slowing me down.



The third was my choice of music, D so it must be Dido. Bad move, olive trees, mud and Dido, it's amazing I got here at all.

Apart from being a bit monotonous it wasn't a bad walk, nice if muddy tracks, and the rain basically held of until the end. It took me 6 hours when the Cicerone Guide says 4 hours 30 minutes, so I have slowed down.

When I did get here it started to rain hard. I had decided to stay at the Hotel Algaidas which the Guide says is on the way out of town heading north. Having got the northern edge of town, not found it, I went into a bar full of noisy Spanish men playing dominos. Seeing me in my wet weather gear, and dripping, sent a hush through the room. Once they had recovered they insisted on getting the owner from upstairs to give me instructions because it seems domino players can't point. Well the owner could and he pointed back to other end of town. It's at the south not the north end.

Actually I have noticed a slight tendency for people to stare at me when I'm all togged out. Not sure if it's the gear or just the novelty of seeing someone walking this time of year and in this weather. Come to think of it I haven't seen another walker for a week. When Christine arrives tomorrow she is going to double the numbers.

Thursday March 10th Villanueva de Rosario to Villanueva de Tapia

A big 36 kilometre walk today, I chopped a bit of a Villanueva de Trabuca, and then inadvertently added it on again by going wrong at the end. This meant that having left Villanueva de Rosario at just after 9, I didn't get to the wonderful Hotel Rural Paloma until after six.

Having moaned about the extent of the road walking on some of the other stages, today's walk was a master piece in road avoidance and, ironically, it wasn't until I had to make good my mistake that I had to do a serious road stretch.

I have not really worked out the geography but the route seems to be taking me across, and along, a wide valley or plain between the Sierras Gorda in the south and some mountains to north. It's serious agricultural country, mainly olive trees, but also winter wheat. Lots of olive oil factories, as the first picture shows, you can also see that the weather remains grim, not as wet as yesterday, but wet.




Providing your walking amongst the trees on nice paths, which I was today, this is good walking country, even better when the farmer hasn't got around to getting rid of all the wild flowers.




I had said that spring, using the ash tree clock, was at least eight weeks ahead of the UK, now I'm not sure. Maybe it is because I am a bit higher up than when I was but the field of wheat below, and the trees behind, don't look that far ahead of the UK.





As well as fields of olive trees, some lovely evergreen oak woods, the route took me underneath a motorway, via a flooded underpass, and underneath a brand new highspeed rail line. The rail line was so new that the tracks hadn't been laid and it's route was not on the map.









Had my best dog moment so far, a village with about twenty houses, managed to get every dog barking in every house. Went through it, realised I had gone left instead of right, had to walk through it again, the dogs, which had only just recovered from the first session, thought I was doing it on purpose.





So the cock-up. The cock up was that I hadn't worked out where the hotel was and thought that I would walk past it on the way into Villanueva de Tapia, which is what the Cicerone Guide implies. In fact it's about 50 metres of the route but about 3.5 kilometres to the south of the village, which I got to just as the skies opened up. This was a near disaster as I still didn't know where the hotel was and the truth of the matter is that the Spanish, in general and in my experience, speak English as well as I speak Spanish. In the end I was able to make myself understood through the medium of the GPS and getting them to show me the location. It was then a sharpe walk along a busy road, in the rain, back to hotel.

Well the Hotel Rural Paloma has been well worth finding. The first thing they did was make me a pot of tea, give me a large piece of orange cake and sit me in front of the fire, brilliant. The dinner was also excellent, the best I have had so far in Spain. Lots of fresh vegetables: pasta with globe artichokes, lamb stew with carrots, cauliflower and potatoes, and a creme brûlée to finish.

It's not hard find but just remember if your travelling south to north you don't go to Villanueva de Tapia. You will have been walking alongside a railway line through evergreen oak. The route suddenly turns right and after about a kilometre you hit the main road and head towards Villanueva de Tapia. After about 2/300 metres the signs take across the road and the route takes you cross country to the village. Instead of crossing the road you need to stick on the main road and the hotel is on your right after another 50 metres. You can see it from the route, but of course I wasn't looking and expected to walk past it.

Nice short walk tomorrow which is just as well because the weather continues to look bad. Desperate to get some socks washed and dried.

Wednesday 9th of March, Antequera to Villanueva del Rosario

First absolutely wet day, still raining, and the weather forecast is bad for tomorrow. So a pretty miserable day but actually got some perverse pleasure out of it, have finished it nice and early and I'm now resting up.

If I wasn't on a schedule, than Antequera is worth a stop over. The GR7 brings you in through the new part of town and takes you out of the old and, because I couldn't find the way out, I saw a bit more of the old part than I had planned to and it was well worth it.

Antequera is another Andalucian towns is clambering up around a rock, although because of the town's size it's harder to spot the rock at the core. The towers of the Moorish fortress (the Alcazaba) still dominate the skyline along with a number of well preserved Gothic churches. To the north of the fortress, the well preserved remains of Roman baths have been excavated, and Antequera is also home to the site one of the largest bronze age mass tombs in Europe.





I saw more of Antequera than I had planned because I had the wrong track on my GPS. I could see the route on the ground, although it wasn't well signed, but the GPS was showing something different. Most of my tracks are based on Wikilocs, which is really well used in Spain, but occasionally, when I couldn't find a Wikiloc route and I plotted it myself from the map. This was one of those times and my plotting was wrong.

To make matters worse and because it was raining so hard I wasn't even using my GPS as much as I would have liked to. It is an iPod application, the iPod isn't waterproof and I was trying to avoid using it and getting it wet. As it was it started to turn itself of in a really worrying way.

I guess you could say it's my own fault for being too dependent on a GPS but this is the first time I've used it and I'm a total convert. Part of the reason I'm flying along is that for 90 per cent of the time I know exactly where I am.

As it was I was quite pleased when I saw my first GR sign and my route met up with the E4 proper. This was at 11 o'clock and about 2 hours after I had left Antequera. Being on the right route made no difference to the weather and it continued to rain hard. I was actually walking through the El Torcal Natural Park, centred around the peak of El Torcal which reaches 1336 metres. The picture below is included to prove to sceptics that I didn't catch the bus.


As if to taunt me for using GPS, the GR signs suddenly become reliable, took me arrow like towards Villanueva del Cauche, shot me underneath the motorway and on towards Villanueva del Rosario. At one point they teased me by threatening to take me down a slip road onto the motorway only at the last minute revealing another turning. It wasn't the sign's fault that the route wasn't very nice, going underneath the motorway another two times, or that I missed the sign which would have let me cover the last 2 kilometres across country rather than on the side of the road.

Despite everything I finished the walk in good time. Left the hotel in Antequera at 8.45, walked 28 kilometres, and arrived at Hotel las Delicias at about 3. 30.

A particular pleasure the last two nights has been watching the football in the bar with the Spanish. The Barcelona game on Tuesday and the Valencia game last night. I did not see the mighty Spurs continue their European triumph but was getting regular updates from Christine on progress. I must say I get no pleasure out of seeing Arsenal leave the competition and like many Spurs fans was looking for a north London final (although technically Arsenal are from Woolwich). I have many Arsenal friends, know some of them read this blog, and do not want to add to their misery. In truth of course, their real pain came not with defeat by Barcelona, when they were down to 9 men(Fabragas already in the pay of Barcelona), but with the defeat by Birmingham and the failure to reach the season's strategic objective and win the Carling Cup.

By the way I am now starting northern variant of the GR7. It's a bit lower than the southern variant and the weather should be better this time of year. Have know walked 278 kilometres in 9 days. Christine joins me in Rute on Saturday which is 80 kilometres away, I hope it stops raining.