Arroyo Frio - Coto-Rios

Dear Friends,
There are those among you who complain of the lack of human interest and
plotline in my daily postings. Let me tell you why that is. Essentially,
this journey has become a job. I do the same things every day. I get up,
have some breakfast, brush my teeth, pack my rucksack, walk, find a hotel,
eat some food and go to bed. The incidents along the way are incidental.
In some way I am getting more tired every day. It costs me more effort to
keep going than it did at the start, and I'm looking forward to the end. I
don't have any doubts about being able to finish, but I think I will be
glad when I have.
I now have two shirts torn apart by brambles, and I'm a sock down. Because
we had to come off the mountain to find a hotel, this morning I worked out
a route that would join up with GR7 further down the valley. It started
well, but deteriorated into a scramble over scree, through brambles (where
I lost a sock*) and into streams. It took about three hours to cover ten
kilometres. Once we found the route it was easy and short walking to
Coto-Rios. I expected a large tourist centre like Arroyo Frio, because it's
next to a major reservoir on the Guadalquivir river, but the village itself
is a sad semi-deserted place, which looks like it was built for the dam
and/or electricity workers and has really outlived its purpose. There is a
campsite nearby, and hotels spread thinly along the main road, but
seemingly no real town centre. It's a bit depressing.
I've been to the end of the settlement. There are three camp sites and an
activity centre. That's it.
We dined alone at the hotel.
Distance today 20km including brambles.

*the sock was drying on the back of my rucksack
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A wayfarer in Spain