A slightly shorter walk today that took us just four and a half hours. For the past few days we have been walking along La Mancha, an immense plain in the very heart of Spain. It's landscape is richly patterned and dramatic: undulating plains of rich henna-coloured earth, neatly striped and spotted with olive groves, and golden wheat fields and grapevines – all stretching to a horizon you never seem to reach. This has been a daily feature for us; paths that seem never-ending.
This is Don Quijote country, although we have only seen one windmill that in any way resembles the ones that Don Quijote did battle with. I wonder what he would have made of the giant wind-turbines that blot the landscape from time to time. It is an arid harsh land, the earth everywhere peppered with stones of various sizes. It is truly amazing that any farming can be done here! Every so often you see piles of stones gathered by the side of the path, no doubt gathered from the fields. The Arab name for this area was "no water", so we have to make sure that we carry enough water with us to last the day. This can be a problem as each litre of water weighs one kilo so one has to balance the need for water with the need not to carry too much weight.
The paths are still quite stoney in the main, and one has to look down all the time to ensure you don't step anywhere that could cause an ankle sprain. At the same time you try to avoid stepping on the thousands of ants that Criss-cross the paths going about their business, which in turn means it's difficult to gain a steady walking rhythm!
Throughout the day we have met and talked with two Italian pilgrims, Lorenzo and Aldo, from Milan, who are travelling a different route which today uses one of the Don Quijote Paths that we are using. They walk thirty to forty kilometres a day so we let them get going while we slowly but surely made our way to today's destination, Minaya. Tomorrow we estimate 27km to our next stop El Provencio (which means added water- ouch!)
Our highlight today has been skypeing with our children and their families. Seeing our grandchildren Hal, Austin and Magnus has made all our aches and pains vanish, at least for a while! Slowly but inexorably we continue to make our way westwards in the direction of Toledo, our next rest destination. We aim to reach there on or around the 1st of June.
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