29 May, 2010 - El Real de la Jara

I was later than most leaving, but walked with Eduardo for a short while, past a solar farm on the edge of town, and lovely fields with wild flowers. I missed a turning and had to back track, but not too far. Through a river valley, missed another turning, but short way back to track through lovely free-range pig farm in the hills. Caught up with Hans and Knees, they are from Cologne. Ran into Gerry and Laia taking a break by the river, then began a steep climb over a big hill. Sure enough, Yuri the Italian appeared alongside us, further up the hill. We could see El Real de la Jara in the far distance, but it was still quite a long way down the hill on a narrow track before we joined a quiet local road that took us into the town. The Albergue is just as you enter the town, very nice with small rooms. Some confusion over the key but Eduardo had one and we shared with him. Renato walked on to Monestario despite having rubbed his ankles raw, but a visit to one of the many pharmacias bandaged him up. Very hot in the afternoon, town was deserted and everything closed. The castle was officially closed for rebuilding, but once it started getting a bit cooler in the early evening Gerry and I jumped the fence and had a look around. Magnificent view from the parapets, but a bit dangerous. Beautiful evening, big group of cyclists came through.