Fresh and well rested again, we start a much shorter stage than yesterday. We won't see much of the ocean today, unlike in recent days. We walk via the Vias Verdes de Entre Rios to Chipiona and on to Playa de la Ballena. About 18 kilometers in total. This Vias Verdes is another former railway line, turned into a cycle route. So it promises to be a flat route.
We leave the hotel and walk through the centre of Sanlúcar de Barrameda. It is Monday morning, but the streets are still quiet. Tomorrow is February 28th, a public holiday here in Andalusia. They celebrate Dia de Andalucia, the day they became an autonomous region in 1980. The confetti from last night's parade is still te be seen on the street. It seemed a bit combined with carnival, featuring lots of people dressed up and partying. Today most Spaniards here also have the day off and only a few bakeries are open at this time. It takes a while to get out of town and onto the Vias Verdes. Once there, it turns out to be, at least here at first, a bit less idyllic than the previous cycle route, Vias Verdes del Litoral, which we followed. We walk a few hundred meters behind houses when we emerge onto another road. Fortunately it's not a major road and it runs along some built-up areas and agricultural land with the by now familiar plastic.
After about two kilometers, the road turns into a dirt road with a cycle path next to it. The landscape stays pretty much the same until Chipiona with occasional houses we pass, but mainly lots of fields. In Chipiona, the route comes close to the sea. There we take a break at the water's edge, before the route turns further east. In this second stretch, the landscape becomes more natural with more vegetation. Mainly large eucalyptus trees, clover sorrel and white affodil provide the greenery along the way. The paths are easy to walk and we reach the campsite quite early, where we are joined by some hoopoes as we pitch the tent.
It was a very different stage from the previous days in terms of landscape and length. The Spanish inland certainly has its charms too.
