We left This morning at 06:45 for what was going to be a long day. Shortly after the sun started to rise in the East. As we are walking in La Mancha it reminded me of the Prologue to Cervantes' Don Quijote, which I did many many years ago as part of my GCSE A Level Spanish. It went something like this "Apenas había el rubicundo Apollo tendido por la faz de la ancha y espaciosa tierra las doradas hebras de sus hermosos cabellos cuando el famosos caballero Don Quijote monto sobre su caballo, Rocinante y empezó a caminar por el antiguo y conocido campo de Montiel"
It is without doubt the most beautiful description of a sunrise in the Spanish language.
34 Kms later we arrived at the door of our albergue for tonight , another Polideportivo! This one is better fitted out for our needs with locks on the door, a welcome relief. We arrived exhausted. There were two options on th route today. Walki most of the way on a path next to a motorway or taking the scenic route. We decided to take the latter which proved a mistake as it added quite a lot of kilometres to our journey. Notwithstanding the long trek we enjoyed today. Ana Maria is still having problems with one blister in particular and I have begun to suffer from an old hockey injury which cracked my big toe. Aft the pounding we received on the paths today which oscillated between stoney, pure gravel and pure fine sand , my toe had had enough and started to hurt like hell! We had to stop a couple of times to tend to our feet and in the end we walked for just under eight hours.
The highlight today was seeing an immense plantation of garlic. We stopped to chat to the workers who were collecting these. There were 18 Romanians who were delighted to see us. Their overseer came from Timisoara, a place in Romania I know well, having worked with severely mentally handicapped children in a nearby town of Caracal and Cezieni in the early nineties, following the downfall of Ceacescu. We were able to exchange pleasantries about Romania, Gibraltar and Argentina before continuing on our way. All in all a very tiring by enjoyable day.
DIA 14 - MINAYA A EL PROVENCIO
Salimos a las 6.45 después de muestro desayuno clásico de tostada con aceite y café. Caminamos mucho entre los campos de cultivo, trigo, cebada, etc. Luego nos encontramos y hablamos con un grupo de 18 rumanos cosechando ajos en una plantación de 3 has! Más adelante pasamos por Venta de Alcolea, una aldea abandonada y medio derruida. Es triste ver tanto abandono, los pobladores se han mudado a las ciudades... Seguimos caminando nuevamente por la Ruta del Quixote pero no queda ni un molino de viento a la vista. Muchos viñedos en esta parte. La entrada al pueblo de El Provencio es larga y difícil de seguir. Las flechas amarillas desaparecieron y nos costó encontrar el polideportivo donde pasaremos la noche. Finalmente conseguimos las llaves del encargado. Que diferencia al de La Gineta, limpio, seguro y nosotros con dos llaves, completamente independientes del resto de la instalación y la gente muy amable y simpática! Hoy fue un día largo, de 34 kms hasta nuestro destino, mañana serán sólo 19 kms!
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