Category: Andalucía

I was awoken early by very strong winds trying to blow over my tent. After attempting to weight it down with big rocks, I had to eventually bail and pack up before the tent got damaged. The winds reminded me of our easterly winds in Perth and whether there was a connection between them and these winds and the Santa Ana winds of southern California – all locations with Mediterranean climates.

The town of Cumbres Mayoress was very small and not so friendly. There were few places to eat, but we did manage to find a place open for coffee next to the square in the morning. We also found a supermarket to restock our supplies in.

Once we were stocked up and packed up, we parked our van on the outskirts of town, hiked up to the village castle, and embarked on what was supposed to be a ten kilometre hike to the neighboring town of Cumbres de Enmedio.

The hike was beautiful and a real interesting find. We could only conclude it was the original laneway connecting villages from back in Medieval times. It followed old rock walls on either side and passed scores of small farms along the way. The spring flowers were blooming everywhere and the rolling hills of the countryside were wonderful to look upon. The hike only managed to extend about 8kms in the end, but we all enjoyed ourselves very much. The village of Cumbres de Enmedio was very small, but a nice place to relax for a bit after the hike. From here we headed back into Portugal for the night.

Woke up to a few friendly toots from local farmers passing by in cars, but the beautiful pastoral scenery of lush greenery and mist rising over the Rio Alcarrache surrounded us while we cooked up and ate a hot breakfast.

From here we headed into the small town of Aracena. It was nice and a bit more developed for tourism than most of the other towns we had visited, but our frustration grew adjusting to Spanish schedules. Many sites close early for siestas and evening dining is never available until after 9pm.

We hiked up to the Castillo de Aracena, only to find it locked up for the afternoon – so we attempted to hike to other locations around the town. Nothing really worked out and we found ourselves walking around in circles.

There was free camping in town in a vacant lot, which did not appeal to my fellow travellers, so we headed out of town to find another place to camp for the night. We were having trouble finding a suitable place, but finally found a farmer happy to have us camp on his property just outside the town of Cumbres Mayoress.