Lessons learned and trip summary:
- Even in October, the weather can get crazy hot here
- Beware of vipers!
- Useful phrase: “¿Puede/puedes darnos agua, por favor?” (“Can you give us some water, please?)”
This morning I feel way better than after the first night – rested and refreshed. I had a good night sleep except for the bizzare dream that I’m still trying to shake off. In my dream 4 Japanese girls came camping next to us during the night. Instead of being in the mountains, we were suddenly on an island where we became captured by Malfoy (yes the one from Harry Potter) with aggressive agama on his shoulder….just weird….When I manage to get back to the reality, I repeat yesterday’s ritual – sitting on a rock wrapped in my sleeping bag, eating breakfast, watching the sun go up. Thanks to our yesterday’s bakery shopping in Trevélez, we can treat ourselves this morning with a big breakfast. What a nice start of the day!
We begin our hike again around 10 am. My ankle hurts a bit more today and so I sing to myself as I go: “Just because it hurts doesn’t mean you’re gonna die, you gotta get up and hike, and hike, and hike….“
We are dealing with water issues again. It’s quite a hot day and the first stream that we should have encountered simply wasn’t there! The next water source – most likely a basin given its shape on a map – lies 7 km far. When we finally get there, we find out that it’s of course a private property. We see few people around – some are working on the field, others are picking tomatoes. Seems like we have no other option than to go and have a little chat. „Hola. ¿Puedes darnos agua, por favor?“ („Hi, can you give us some water, please?) I’m asking young sun-tanned fellow who is gathering tomatoes. As he answers to me, his strong accent just totally puts me off my stoke. I understand only every fifth word or so and my Spanish conversation confidence is gone in 10 seconds. From the little of what I understood, I figure out that he has no water here at hand but he points us to a spot ahead where the path is turning right. We should search for something blue in there. We thank him and continue in the proposed direction. When the other farmers see us, they start shouting on us pointing at the same spot as that guy before. They obviously understand what we are up to. Likely we are not the first wanderers lacking water. We do find a blue barrel full of water in the curve. The hosepipe which fills the barrel is covered with green algae and it doesn’t look twice appealing to be honest. Well, I guess beggars can’t be choosers. Luckily there’s a clean source spring just few feet above the barrel. We filter the water from there and fill all our bottles. Soon we are back on trail and we continue – hydrated and relieved.
Lunch time! Just next to the trail, we find a beautiful glade with a valley view. Well….beautiful…coming closer we see that it’s a minefield of cow’s poops. Whatever…That can’t stop us. We just push few dried cowpaths aside and prepare our feast. As we are enjoying the food, we suddenly hear cow bells approaching. I turn around and see a big sheep herd coming our way. I stand up as I have no desire being trampled by sheep. When the sheep notice us, they immediately change the direction allowing us to finish our meal in piece. Sheep were not the only animals that we have met today…we were also accompanied by cows, horses, wild goats, bats, hornets and a viper.
All day long we have been exposed the ruthless sun. But the heat is getting worse and worse throughout the afternoon. Drought, heat and never-ending dusty road – that is today in a nutshell. After 20 km and 1,000 m ascent, I’m weary. We want to get out of the big road though and so we climb the last hill of today’s stretch. It takes a bit longer for us to find a good camping spot for tonight but we succeed eventually and are rewarded with a perfect flat spot under a grown tree. We’re enjoying a dinner with a sunset view. What’s on the menu? Instant pasta with an extra load of cheeeeeeese. I’m trying to watch a goat family grazing near us after the dusk but it’s already too dark to see anything. Falling asleep under the shining stars, I feel (again) extortionately happy to be here.
Hopeful Wanderer 