Today was a unique day as it was almost completely on a Via Verde, a trail converted from an old railway into a pedestrian & bicycle path running from Olvera to Puerto Serrano. The whole length is 36k with 30 tunnels; I’ll stay on for 22k as far as Coripe.

I left just before 8am and caught the sun just starting to warm Olvera’s castle as I made way onto the Vía Verde, walking through olive groves as soon as the last building of town passed by. In fact, there’s nothing but olive trees as far as the eye can see…

The Vía Verde was easy, level walking with fantastic scenery the whole route. The longer tunnels had lights on motion detectors which I thought was quite extravagant yet necessary as of course they were pitch black inside. The first cyclist that I saw passed me inside a tunnel – the echoing of his tires on the concrete walls sounded like a freight train charging towards me.

As the day wore on I saw more and more cyclists; at 14.4k one passed me and wished me my first “Buen Camino” of the trip!

The day started out at 30° and at 11:30a I’m still dressed in my puffy down coat. The tunnels have held on to the cold with frost still on the plants in the shade on the north side of the tunnels and ice on the puddles within.

About 1/2-way thru the walk the Via entered a Nature Preserve, important for also being a rare refuge for griffin vultures. The surrounding terrain became more rugged, and I walked past a jagged canyon formed by the Rio Guadamanil yet my Vía remained railroad flat.

At 20k I arrived at a pleasant picnic area and although close to town I stopped for some lunch and a rest. It was too nice under the trees to not enjoy the peace and quiet in nature before seeing whatever town awaited me.

Excellent walking, gorgeous scenery but my feet were getting hot and bored with plodding along with no variation…

Well, ask and ye shall receive! The Vía ended at 22.5k and I was thrust onto the verge of a steep, twisting, narrow uphill road! AND, someone tacked on 3 extra kilometers to my walk; I was only expecting 22k’s and ended up with 25k!

Coripe is an extremely small, deathly quiet, little town. It has all the services: bank, doctor, swimming pool, car dealership, activity center, police station, just no people. Very odd place.

My very simple pension is located above a bar which does meals and has internet so all my needs are met.