Today was a fairly unremarkable day (in comparison to previous days). I had a couple of stops, one at the Casa de Ojo Guareña – an interpretive site for the Ojo. The information contained is a good starting place to plan your visit to the OdeG. It’s also a good refresher if you have already been. I recommend a 30-45min stop there.

In Quisicedo, I think I saw another pilgrim. But he disappeared and I didn’t see which way he was headed. He might have been just a hiker on the local trails.

The second stop was at the Tumbas Antropomorficos. A series of tombs carved out of rock already in the ground. It’s thought to be of the first Christian’s to settle Castilla in the 12c.

In the first half of the trail, you will find plants with thorns overgrowing the trail. Wear long pants as they will get you. If you have trekking poles, use them to keep the thorns away from your legs.

For much of the trail, you will go through what I think is a live oak forest. In May, the buds are just starting to come out so it’s pretty grey. June/July would be fantastic with the new growth on the oaks.

After a climb to Alto de ??, the trail heads down towards Pedrosa. It’s a nice forest but it’s steep, narrow, rocky, muddy (slippery cow pies too) and wet. Trekking poles would help out a lot in this section. Trying to avoid getting wet and muddy, I slipped and pulled a muscle in my ankle/shin which slowed me down a lot. Now it’s just stiff, nothing a bit of ibuprofen won’t help.

Observations:

While this etapa was only 24km, the trail was quite technical due to the water and mud, and was tiring.

In May, the forest was unremarkable as the trees were still grey as they were just starting to bud.

It was a beautiful day to hike in Spain.