Day 7 (to Torres del Rio): … keep movin’, movin’ …
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Its still dark outside and I nearly missed the yellow arrows. Idyllic morning … peace and quiet as the dawn slowly breaks. Couple of Koreans pass me by, roommates from last night. … then I pass them by … but they end up being faster.
Next town is 12 km away … in the meantime there is just the countryside. It kind of looks like default desktop background from Windows XP.
Out of the blue I spot a signpost for a bar saying 3 km … then 2 … then 1 .. then 500 m. And so it is … a camper van with few plastic chairs and tables and voila ….bar in the middle of nowhere. I decide to sit down for a cafe con leche (practically the official Camino drink) and a sandwich. The coffee is poured into a cup from thermos bottle and warmed in the microwave, but it tastes good. In fact practically all the food tastes pretty good … walking is a great spice to it all.
As I finish my breakfast the group from yesterday catches up with me, headed by the Hungarian with Johannes still limping behind. I walk for a while with two Italians as we pass the sign which says 5.6 km to the next town. “An hour” … says the Italian guy … “An hour and a half”… says the Italian girl …“two hours” … says I.
To my considerable surprise the Italian guy was closest to the mark … it took me only 10 minutes more.
I look for and manage to find the supermarket. The guy behind the counter pulls out a machete (no kidding) to slice the cheese and salami. I notice a small Croatian flag sticker on the scales but the guy with a machete doesn’t know how it got there. An Irishman and a German girl join me at the store and quickly move on.
As as finished packing my lunch at nearby bench I lost track of direction so a kind granny pointed me in the right one.
After a small bridge the path leaves the town. Couple of estates in the suburbs then straight on through the vineyards and the olive groves. Not a fountain in sight … naturally I didn’t remember to refill the water bottle in the town and under the scorching sun I quickly ran out.
There is a town in the distance …. and it feels like its taking forever to reach it. The paved road leads to town (I checked twice, no path nearby) as two Spanish ladies pass me by. After finally reaching the town, I parked at the first bar where I join the camping German and English guys, Australian couple and a Austrian girl I saw yesterday.
The today’s stop is 1 km away because the town after next one is 12 km away. I arrived at Torres del Rio around 14.15 and parked at the albergue at the end of the town. My roommates are Koreans from yesterday and Jan from Prague.
Around 19:00 I went out for a dinner with Mick, Dieter and Maren, where we joined a Dutch couple and another German. Nice place … for each of 3 courses on menu peregrino we get 5-6 different options
That was day no. 7.