Leaving Sierra Nevada behind made me a little sad. We had had company for a long time and it was constantly visible to me. Early in the morning I found myself on a huge, red, dusty plain where several square kilometers were covered by huge solar panels that made spooky sounds as they moved with the sun.
Today´s stage was to be over 50 kilometers and went mainly through a natural park. It is not as great as it sounds as the major part of the day was spent on dirt roads lined with densely growing pine trees. So it really was a struggle with few rewards in terms of nice views and other interesting things to see, and there wasn’t a single village in my way.
After some 50 kilometers I reached the recreational facility of Narváez. In the high-season accommodation and food is available there but not when I passed by, but there were some people. They had held a course that day and were preparing to leave. They asked if I wanted a ride to Baza and I happily accepted. We were five grown men that packed ourselves into a very small car and I besides that carried a 20 kilo backpack, but we managed to find the space and had a pleasant chat on our way to the city.
The guys dropped me off near Baza center and wouldn’t hear of charging me for the ride. I made my way to a hotel by asking the locals and called it a day. The big leap that had worried me for some time was over and done with and I had proven to myself that walking 50 kilometers in one day carrying a (to me) heavy backpack was quite feasible after all.
