Anyway. I slept surprisingly well last night, I only woke up around 3 times. Sometimes I could hear some sheep from far away and I remember having the early morning thought of setting an alarm clock with the sound of sheep. Must be funny.
As expected the soil was muddy, and I found myself walking on pillows again for at leat half an hour, this time uphill. Out of reflex I had out in the rain trousers and was now damning myself, because I was sweating like a pig and it wasn't raining at all.
The walking was beautiful though (after the strange mud ended), and the clouds played funny games again.
After an hour or so the well known drizzle came back, and this time I was even a bit glad, because that way didn't wear the trousers for nothing. Looking back, I was surprised by a rainbow.
Soon Ardales came into sight, although I had to walk another 4km until I finally got to enter the town. There I had the most expensive meal so far: a cafe con leche, one tapa, and a plate of cheese and ham that was of course much bigger than needed, added up to 10€. Frustrated, because at least the cheese came directly from the supermarket for sure, I will certainly go back to my only-tapas diet for now.
Around 1:45pm I continued, after I filled up my water, uphill and into the wilderness again. I felt really slow and exhausted and had to drink a lot, so I felt. But instead of the signposted 5 hours, it only took me 4 hours to get to El Chorro in the end. The whole way was really well marked and I just followed the signs.
For a while I was accompanied by this cute little dog who didn't bark at all and look like he wanted to show me something. When the path ended into a road, I was worried he would get lost and hit, but then he turned around by himself without even saying goodbye.
These are already the cliffs that made El Chorro famous as a climbing eldorado. I could admire them for whole time while descending on a steep path towards the gorge that lies beneath the village.
On the way down I saw the skeleton of a goat and the half deceased corpse of a fox. Also there was traces of a red substance all over the stones for at least a kilometer, but I couldn't find the source of it. Creepy, anyway.
When I finally reached the village it was around 6pm and I surely had earned myself a bed. So I followed the signs indicating a variety of accommodations, not knowing how far away they would be though. Again I had to climb a hill, which was even more exhausting now that I had thought I had already arrived. But soon I saw some climbers on the rocks in the last sunlight and was unbelievably happy.
Finally a sign directed me towards the Olive Tree, a B&B with the possibility to camp. Unfortunately they didn't have any beds available anymore, because it is apparently high season for climbing right now, so I set up my tent. I was ready just before dinner, which is cooked daily by some volunteers of the hostel. There was bread and butter pudding for desert and it was just heavenly.
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