Caudete to Almansa, 27 km, Jan 23

After our cold night in Caudete, we made a quick departure from the albergue and headed down the hill for a breakfast bocadillo in the bar El Chato.  The walk out of town was easy (we heard a shouted "Buen Camnio" as we passed another bar) and we were soon on quiet roads.

Interesting architecture on this church in Caudete

We walked by (not too close) a large marble quarry and into a mix of olive orchards and vineyards.



A few km out of town, Miguel drove up to check on us, and offered a ride a few km up the road which we declined.

As we continued to walk the wind increased from our left (north) side.  It was so strong that gusts practically blew us off our feet; we would have to stop momentarily to catch our balance.  We must have looked like drunken sailors as we wove our way along.

After about 7 km of staggering in the wind our route turned north, right into the wind, and it was very heavy and slow going.  We ran a little paceline with Ellen tucked in close behind me.  I was really leaning on my hiking poles to move forward, and we struggled to maintain forward progress, even at a relatively slow walking pace.

Not a lot to interrupt that wind

As we inched along, I reminded myself that a pilgrimage is supposed to present challenges.  Compared with the devout we've seen in Mexico making pilgrimages on their knees, we had it easy.  Still, the only time I can recall experiencing sustained winds like these was on an aborted attempt on Mt Shasta (shout-out to Dave and Aaron).

Around the mid-point of the stage we passed the 100 km mark.  We were fortunate to find a little piece of a ruined building alongside our route where we hid behind a wall for a snack break and brief respite from the winds.





We staggered into Almansa after 4 pm after 7 solid hours of walking.  After our earlier experiences freezing in albergues on this Camino we were looking for something a little higher on the comfort scale.  The first two places we called for a room were full so we ended up at a very basic pension.  Even though the shared bath down the hall was quite chilly, we had heat in our room and hot water for a shower so were happy.  After cleaning up we had a lovely dinner and excellent bottle of local tempranillo at a nearby bar.