A rather straight forward march up unto the high plateau covering as good as all of central Spain. The afternoon involved quite a bit of hard work as I didn’t have my GPS-device set up at a good enough resolution and that resulted in some sliding about on slippery hillsides until finding my way back to the track again.

A thunderstorm passed by with a couple of heavy showers that completely got me completely soaked. But I reached El Sabinar a village with 300 souls, two restaurants, and a guest house with a bar. It was raw and chilly and I was a bit concerned that my boots probably shouldn’t dry much over night.I went down the stairs to the guest house bar at around seven o’clock and asked if I could have dinner.

The answer was affirmative but I had to ask to times more before the barman understood that I wanted to eat at once at a, for him, extremely early time for dinner. But as soon as he had understood he swiftly presented a very nice casserole that he held warm on the stove with some bread, a salad, and a glass of Rioja.