We woke early in our little room and Tom wandered off for a much needed shower in the downstairs bathroom we were deliberately not told existed. But why? It is a perfectly good shower room! Near by and clean and ready and functional! I arrived out a little while later later to find him nervously prowling the hallways looking for a mop. The foyer was semi- flooded and he was terrified at being discovered that he had used the forbidden downstairs facilities. The dangerous flood levels were a fairly big give away and I could feel his trepidation at being discovered to have broken the rules. Of course, neither of us disclosed our true feelings, Tom nonchalantly enquiring if I had seen a mop about and I, casually responding that I would take a look. But I had seen the fear in his face, felt the panic rising within his working class subservient soul… I looked for a mop. There was none in sight! I discovered an old rug nestled on a high shelf in the outer courtyard and considered dragging it from it’s resting place but then imagined a scenario where the flood waters were polluted by dirt and debris from a filthy, heavy carpet piece and the situation got out of hand (did anyone see the Father Ted where the raffle car starts with a just a dent…?) I checked out private doorways and cupboards before getting lucky! Two mops and a bucket! We set to work. Neither one of us disclosed our fears that we must get the job done before our rebellion was discovered as we set about clearing up the evidence before the owners arrived back on site. I was cleaning my teeth (multi tasker that I am) as I mopped, attempting to also obey the ‘out by half eight’ rule plastered on the door, when a face appeared on the stairs. A member of the unknown pilgrim group upstairs, having paid for his 2 euro breakfast, had found no coffee and was most disgruntled to start his trek caffeine free. He shared his disappointment with us, exclaiming that he had been expecting coffee but had found none. Ever happy to help I informed him that we had some coffee he could have, or, as I was cleaning my teeth at the time, it may have sounded more like bwehafsumbcofyusher…. He didn’t understand and continued to enquire so I turned to waskdawdtotellim…. Tom,oblivious to what was going on, perhaps driven by his inner panic and need to cover up his terrible crime of having used the downstairs bathroom uninvited, took a while to respond, then, upon hearing coffee, turned and gave a thumbs up to the irate pilgrim, exclaiming that, yes, he would love a coffee! The miserable man looked non to pleased, and I gave up cleaning my teeth, rinsed the foam from my mouth, and explained that we had coffee and were happy to share. I gave him the coffee and he left a little happier but not at all as grateful as I might have expected. I had given him our lovely ground coffee! A smile would have been nice! It was only later that we worked out that he had no idea that we were also pilgrims and not workers. I guess when you find two people mopping so fervently at 8am you might think they are paid employees! No wonder he had been irritated by Tom’s responding to his complaint by telling him he wanted a coffee too! Demanding cleaning folk! We got the water up though and whilst we may have lost out coffee to an ungrateful pilgrim, we were out of trouble with the owners! Our blatant disregard for the albergue rules would never be discovered and neither us would be on any naughty steps today!

We set off out of town and stopped to ask a local if there was a supermarket. We knew we would not be passing through any towns, having consulted Kelly’s guidebook, and needed to buy some food for lunch. He said he knew of a very economical shop! 🙂 We stocked up on sandwich materials and headed out of town and on to a lovely sandy track bordered by huge, wild cacti to one side and olive groves to the other. The path grew rocky, and the rolling countryside all around was dotted with beautiful vegetation and wild flowers that almost looked landscaped. A stunning walk today!

We entered the small town of Castilblanco de los Arroyos and located the municipal albergue. Situated in an old, white washed building set back from the main road, the lodgings were sweet and comfortable. Payment was by anonymous donation to be left in a hole in the wall. A friendly hospitalero welcomed us in and showed us around. There was free tea and coffee, a decent kitchen, comfy lounge area and giant roof terrace. The showers were hot and all in all we were happy with our lodgings for the night. It was time to venture in to town for a well deserved jarra of cerveza, before buying the ingredients to make a super spicy chickpea chilli and a lunch of veggy cous cous for tomorrow’s mammoth 29km trek! We enjoyed a lovely home-cooked meal on the roof terrace overlooking the town below with tasty local wine. A gorgeous day and a sound sleep in our cosy bottom bunks.