Coto-Rios - Pontones

Distance yesterday 29.6km
My Dear Friends,
I'm sorry this post is a day late. There is no mobile coverage in Pontones
and we arrived quite late so I didn't get an opportunity to write it up
anyway.
We started out walking up the gravel road by the side of the Rio
Aguasmulas. The river feeds into the enormous reservoir on the
Guadalquivir, which starts just after Coto-Rios. The road climbs, gradually
at first, then more steeply, away from the reservoir (which we didn't see).
The river has cut deep gorges through the rock, and there are huge solitary
rocks balancing on thin pillars at the side of the road. Here and there on
the way we saw isolated farmhouses, all deserted and ruined. After 12km the
road stops abruptly at one of these, 'El Cortijo de la Fresnedilla'. It
faces a huge cliff on the opposite side of the river, with great curtains
of rock running from top to bottom. We could see eagles wheeling about in
the sky above, and hear the river below. It's hard to understand why the
road exists at all. At most it can only ever have served about 100 people.
After a break, we carried on up a well signposted path that rises steeply
to a pass looking over another valley and another sierra. Along through
young pine forests, then up again to a higher pass where there was a wide
alpine field with green grass and a herd of wild deer grazing. We passed a
group of four or five deserted houses, still climbing up, and skirted the
base of another long mountain, before turning north to Fuente Segura. By
this time we were at 1730 metres, the highest in the whole journey from
Tarifa. The scenery had changed here to more open spaces with contorted and
weathered rocks thrusting up from the grass. A signpost pointed to a
mirador, so we diverted for a look. The view was stunning: a complete
panorama of the Sierra de Cazorla, with sunlight filtering through clouds
into the valley below. Another deserted settlement could be seen below,
with a group of what looked like people lying on the grass in front.
Overhead an eagle screeched at us. Fantastic.
At this point my walking companion realised he'd left his mobile phone on
the grass 2km before. He decided to leave it there.
Just as well, because we didn't get to Fuente Segura (the source of the Rio
Segura) till 7.00pm, to discover that it consists of 3 houses and a herd of
goats, and that the hostal I was looking for is in Pontones, another 3km
away.

The picture shows a general view of Pontones.
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A wayfarer in Spain