Crossing paths

El Real de la Jara – Monesterio 21km

13 May 2023

The day started off with the usual routine – waking up early, breakfast, packing up our panniers, and heading out for second breakfast. Today’s journey would take us from El Real de la Jara to Monesterio, but we decided to break it up into smaller segments before reaching Zafra.

As we set off on the dirt road out of town, we were surprised by the great quality of the road. Along the way, we stumbled upon a castle ruin, which made for an interesting stop.

Not long after, we ran into two Italian friends walking the Camino. We had met them couple of days ago in the Castiblanco de los Arroyos Albergue. Anzo hoped to take our bikes rather than hiking!

They were thrilled to see us and we ended up taking more photos together on the track.

We eventually reached a large service station where we stopped for a quick snack before embarking on the uphill journey to Monesterio. However, just 5km up the road, Greg realised that he had left his backpack behind at the service station. Without a second thought, he raced back down the hill as quickly as he could, I think he was also driven by the prospect of finding an ice cream. We all waited anxiously for his return, hoping that he had found his bag.

The rest of the journey was all uphill, and it seemed like the mountain was never-ending. But eventually, we reached our destination and settled into our albergue. An hour later, Anzo and Lu walked in, and we were all ecstatic to see a familiar face. Anzo then cooked us dinner using ingredients that mum had bought from the supermarket. I shared Vegemite and Penny shared Tim Tams with Anzo & Lu. Their facial expressions showed they liked the treats.

Grace & mum