When we wake up in our little tent, it just starts to rain. We look a the weather app and see that it will continue to rain until at least 10 o'clock. For a moment we doubt whether we shouldn't ignore the alarm and stay in bed, but a jet-lagged rooster has been treating us to his cackling all night. So even though it's very tempting, we decide to walk to the next campsite anyway. We have mapped out a varied walk that starts inland and runs along the coast later on. The tent is soaking wet when we pack it, but fortunately it's no longer raining so hard. It only drizzles a little when we leave the campsite and walk the first kilometers along a major road. There are many puddles, but fortunately the Spaniards drive around them well. We leave the main road and turn onto a dirt road. Here, these are more often just through roads alongside houses. There is some traffic trying to get around the potholes with puddles of water here too. A friendly lady who is taking her child to school stops after passing us, backs up, and asks if we don't want to ride with her. Super friendly, but we turn down the lift. We wouldn't have wanted to mess up her car with our big backpacks and wet rain gear, either. A little later it's dry again and we leave the built-up area.
We walk through a forest with many oaks, of which at the bottom 2 meters of bark is removed. They are the cork oaks, clearly old and beautiful trees. The paths of red sand stand out against the deep green of the trees and the flowering heather plants on the verge. A little further on, we continue along a paved road for a few hundred meters and then turn right again into a forest. At the beginning of the forest path, we see a sign with a text, which our translation app translates as 'forbidden to take pineapples'. We're in the middle of the forest here, so we should be just fine 😉 . But just to be sure, we also translate the second sign we come across: 'coto privado de caza', meaning we are entering a private hunting area. This one seems a little trickier, but Google tells us that you are allowed to walk through it, and hunting season in Andalusia should be over now. But we are still glad to have our bright orange rain covers over our backpacks, to make us more visible. Fortunately, we do not encounter any other hunters or hunting dogs and it's a beautiful piece of nature. This forest continues all the way to the coast, a few kilometers away. We walk briefly through a dune area and then stand at the top of a magnificent cliff overlooking the ocean. It's always a mighty sight...
Even the sun makes a brief appearance. We follow the path at the top of the cliffs and arrive at the town of Fuente del Gallo, where unfortunately we are unable to walk on the beach due to high tide, so we have to continue via the built-up area. When we reach the sea again some time later, the wind picks up and it starts to rain heavily. It cools down considerably. We walk along the beach for a while until we come across a river that flows into the sea here, the Rio Salado. We cross it with a bridge and continue walking through the dunes, a few hundred meters inland. By now it's quite cold and the rain is pouring down. We walk briskly to keep ourselves a bit warm, until we stumble upon another river running up the beach. We see the remains of a bridge, but no way to get across or around it. Our shoes are already completely soaked so the choice is made quickly: we go straight across. We wade to the other side in water up to our calves. We speed up the pace a bit more to get to the campsite faster. Because of the stormy weather, there are high waves on the ocean and many surfers can be seen on the beach. There are quite a few campers and cars with surfboards in the car park that we cross. Under one of the cars sits a surfer dude on a chair under the tailgate: legs high, pan on a burner and he calls out to us. He asks if we like spaghetti and points to the pan. Very tempting, but we are completely soaked and cold, so unfortunately we have to turn down this hospitable offer as well. But today shows again how friendly people are!
It's another three kilometers or so to the campsite, most of which are on a road along the ocean with numerous closed restaurants and bars. We share the coast with surfers and some fellow hikers. We are glad when we arrive at the campsite and the tent is set up. Lucky for us, the shower is warm and the sleeping bag still dry, so before we know it we lay cosy in our furnished tent again. Quite a few things of our gear got wet in our backpacks, so we hope the sun shines tomorrow to let everything dry. Next time we'll be sure to take a few more precautions, for packing in bad weather....
