Day 4: Jimena de la Frontera

Today was a day completely on the road – gravel farm track for the first half, then along the edge of a 2-lane road for the 2nd half. Luckily the scenery was pretty….

I started walking by groves of oranges; then fields of horses, cows, donkeys, bathtubs, and up into a wind farm….

6k – walking the dirt road along the ridge of a hill, quite cool and breezy (ergo: the windmills). I espy small white villages tucked into the mountains across the valley, is one of them Jimera?

Just before 10k my track over the mountain dropped down to a minor paved road with little or no shoulder passing farms and fields for ever…

11k – a bicyclist stopped for a chat, basically wondering where I was from and what on earth I was doing walking a random country road. He’s a monster cyclist, often riding 200-300 kms at a time, and last year rode from Rome to Santiago!

11:30a & 13k and still on the road but am walking past a long ditch and with every 3rd step there’s a plop as little frogs dive for the safety of the water so big, bad Allison can’t get them. Small things can be entertaining….

At 15k I went past the arrow pointing off to a dirt road (sigh) and stayed on the pavement all the way to Jimena. Mis amigos walking in January said the trail was basically impenetrable due to brambles, even a sheep had got caught and died on the spot!

17.3k and Jimena is in sight! But it sure looks a long ways away….

As I walked down into the town just before my destination Jimena seemed to grower taller and even farther away. Maybe I could ride the rest…

20.5k – made it to the base of Jimena and I stopped at the first open restaurant for my first proper meal of the trip! I’ve been subsisting on sandwiches and grocery store salads so far so what did I have? Salad, steak & fries! To be fair, I asked for the Menu of the Day and these were the only Spanish items I recognized from the list the waiter spieled off, lol.

Another 1k UP to my hotel. I was glad #1 to have rested at lunch, and #2 not have had dessert! I’ve given up sweets for Lent, or maybe it was for Fridays… 😉

I’ve a massive room with a window facing south so I quickly did my hand laundry so it’d dry tonight, showered, put my feet up, then went out to see some of the town and source dinner and snacks for tomorrow.

My hotel is at the far end of town from the main square so I never really got a sense of Jimena being more than just a residential village with a few little bars. I strolled a bit around the narrow streets that crisscross the hill below the fort but they’re so solidly packed with houses you can’t really see anything.

I wandered up the hill to the Jimena Castle complex which dates back to Roman times (3rd C. AD) with later additions made as necessary especially during the conflict between the Moors and Christians. The site was just open to explore, one could clamber around the rocks and ruins at will. And the timing was perfect: just as Jimena was dropping into frigid shade, the castle at the top of the hill was bathed in glowing warmth. I had it all pretty much to myself so roamed with awe and abandon.