10th day of walking
Ventosa to Ciruena
Book. 15.1 miles
Map My Walk - 17.67 mi, 1 1/2 hours
Fitbit - 39,842 steps, 16.99 mi
Elevation at Ciruena - 746 meters
This was a day of walking through vineyards.......so many vineyards that it was like driving through a game park in South Afica and seeing zebras. But nevertheless, you get to see them too
All the new grapes have drip tubes along the rows. Here is a solar powered radio controlled irrigation valve which is used to turn the drips on and off
Brand new little baby grape plants
And the poor guy who was planting. Not a particularly attractive pose, but he ignored me when I asked him to turn around and smile for me. The size of that field makes me exhausted.
Another fountain - a warning I am going to take a photo of all different fountains
A new motif for the Camino scallop
A medieval boundary marker for delineating between them and us
New and different plants - sorry for all you that were botanists/horticulturists
Blooming ice plants with an intense magenta color
Last year's cat tails shedding their seeds and growing in a deep wet ditch.
We walked through the town of Najera and followed the advice of Jenny Nilson which was to find a convent and buy a torte or something yummy.
It's shortbread! Not exactly a torte but yummy
Leaving town we had to walk up a
very long long long steep hill. We're struggling a bit. Then we hear laughing and excited German voices overtaking us. Probably about 20 very clean men and women (women with beautifully coiffed hair) were overtaking us. Yep -they were day trippers with tiny packs and no identifying peregrinos scallop on their packs. They passed us by quickly and vanished into the grapes.
Read this pretend travel brochure-
"Enjoy a morning hike on the genuine Camino. See vast numbers of grape vines which produce the wine this area is famous for. In the plaza of the medieval town of Azofra feast on local cuisine and wine."
They were indeed in plaza. So were we, sitting on a concrete bench with our shoes off eating a salami and cheese sandwich.
We finished our lunch hoisted up our packs and were just a bit away when we saw this coach awaiting their passengers. Everyone does the Camino in their own way.
Early this morning we came over a rise and saw this mountain ahead of us to the east. We panicked! Surely we don't have to walk through snow.
We didn't, but the day's walk took us totally around to the other side of the mountain. Look, I'm pointing at the peak
At the end of out day we walked up an endless steep hill and found a golf course!
Back in 2002 this area outside the old town of Ciruena was developed into a new community with new homes, olympic size pool, golf course, etc. then the Spanish housing bubble burst, and now it is basically a ghost town.
Blocks and blocks of this. It was creepy to walk through this area like watching a Will Smith movie where he is the last man alive
On to our albergue
Fortunately just for two people
And the view out our window - happily not a vineyard.
The "ghost town" is interesting. I listened to a podcast about that kind of thing happening in a few places. It must feel weird. I'm glad you found a pastry!
ReplyDeleteJust hop on that bus and take a break for a couple of days!!;)
ReplyDelete