Yesterday started heavily, with a steep climb up to Benaocaz. I'm not sure why, but I felt really weak just from the start, and my backpack was heavier than ever (which it technically wasn't). When the sign said "20 minutes to Benaocaz", I actually laughed out loud, because I made a break every 5 minutes and would need at least double the time.
(Info map explaining that the road was built by the Romans. I thought about this between my heavy breaths quite a lot. It's just crazy that this road has been there or such a long time.)
Finally, the village came into view. When I entered, there was a map of the GR7 route and the elevation profile, which made me kind of proud.
I was very much looking forward to a nice cafe con leche and a place to recharge my phone, but the two restaurants that showed on my map in the very west of the village were closed. Great. So I just filled my water reservoirs and went all the way back east to just continue without the well-earned coffee.
Luckily, the internet doesn't know everything yet, so I found several small cafés on the way out of the village and finally had my coffee. Unfortunately there was no wi-fi, so I could only update the blog today.
Re-energized I continued downhill towards Villalengua del Rosario, admiring the mountains to my sides, with eagles circling above them once again.
The "outdoor climbing wall" mentioned in the guide turned out to be quite disappointing :D But the village itself was as charming as every other place I've come through so far.
There was supposed to be public wi-fi at this plaza, but I couldn't connect to it, so I moved on and had lunch in the bullfight arena while feeling like the queen of the world.
I felt really tired all of a sudden and realized that that was probably the reason of my powerless ascent in the morning - somehow those nights in the tent have to show after all. But there was no way of sleeping in the arena, so I just continued walking.
Exiting the village, I entered yet another national park. Some goats seemed to be truly distressed by my appearance and kept running away from me up the hill for at least ten minutes. Then they probably realized that I'm just trying to walk through and stepped aside :D
After a section of steep downhill walking, which I hate, I got to the beginning of valley with a map indicating where to go. I had expected that I would've to walk around those mountains somehow, but no...the path led right through them. It's probably not visible on the picture, but it was when I stood there, and it looked frightening and exhausting.
But I do love mountaineering after all, so once I was on the steep stone path that led up the mountain, I very much enjoyed the exercise. The only thing that was worrying me were the clouds that seemed to get darker and heavier with every step I took..
When I reached the top of the pass, it had already started drizzling. It didn't really feel like rain though, more like a very very humid fog.
My goal was to reach an old and closed albergue that is mentioned in the guide, because it was supposed to come with a camping area and toilets. To get there, I had to walk through what I called the Valley of Tears in my diary, because it felt incredibly long to get through and well, it was really wet.
There were puddles all over the place already, and I was glad to cross them now instead of the next day, when they would probably double the size. I could only pity the Dutch woman, who will probably fight the water right now.
The biggest puddle waited in front of a gate I had to pass, and I jumped over stones several times and even had to climb along a shaky stone wall once to finally reach it.
When the albergue came into view, it was around 5pm only, and the 'camping area' didn't look too inviting, and I couldn't find toilets anywhere nearby, but I was done for the day, so I decided to stop.
I found myself a spot under the trees next to the house, because I thought they would save me from some of the rain that might fall at night. What I didn't take into consideration was the super strong wind that blew through the valley from time to time, but when I realized, I was already set and in no mood to anything but cook my dinner (Carbonara noodles, which tasted great, even without extra cheese).
Then I crawled into my tent with as many layers of clothes on as I could (I even wore my jacket), and listened to my audiobook. There was no connection at all in the valley of tears, so the daily 8pm-phone call with my dad didn't happen that night. I hoped that my parents wouldn't worry too much and fell asleep quite easily after an exhausting day.
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