Montanejos-San Vicente de Piedrahita

 We had a slowish start this morning. We were staying in Hotel Rosaleda de Mijares, a very nice hotel with views over the river Mijares. There was some confusion over the breakfast which I had forgotten I had booked two months ago. It was a fine breakfast though. 

We went to the cash machine which last night refused to give us any money to see if it had changed its mind. It had not, so we had to start off the day’s walk in hope of a more understanding machine in San Vicente. 

It was a steep climb out of the town and we soon got confused about where we were going because of differences between the route I was following and the red and white waymarks along the way. In the end we got back on to a route that both agreed with but it added an hour to the walk. 

Training ground?

Tame donkey

Flags of many nations

A long trek down to the impressive dried up riverbed of the barranco de palos, then back up to the tiny village of la Artejuela. We were both very tired by this time and the long trek back up dusty roads and rock-strewn paths was enervating in the afternoon heat. It was during this section that my brother’s boots started to fall apart! He changed into sandals for the final stretch to San Vicente, and we arrived at about 17:45, a great deal later than i expected. The bar was closed so we found the local shop and stocked up on pizza and beer for supper. Casa la Prosa where we were staying for the night had very little in the way of home comforts but was clean and warm once we’d worked out how to operate the heating.  My brother stuck his boots together with glue from the shop. We will see how they perform tomorrow!