Day 39 - Paradoxes and Connections , Part I. 18klms

Tue 24th Oct., Entrepeñas to Puebla de Sanabria

So much to say ...

Let's start with a wolf report. No wolves, but here where we are tonight there's the Centro del Lobo Ibérico, the Centre for the Iberian Wolf. Sadly it seems that we won't be able to visit, as it doesn't look like it's open tomorrow.

One of the paradoxes of today was that for the most part I really enjoyed the walk, and it rained all day and we arrived here into Puebla de Sanabria soaked and cold. (Tomorrow the forecast seems to be for more of the same, and it's a 30 klm day tomorrow, so we may well resort to a taxi.)

Two themes came into my head today. The connections one was triggered by my "conversations" with Jill from New Mexico. She and I have never met, and in all likelihood never will, but through this electronic medium we've established a connection. This then got me thinking about a whole range of other connections. The paradoxes theme is sort of related to this, and yet not - perhaps a paradox in itself. There were a few I noticed today that I want to talk about.

But today time is not my friend. It can take me up to 3 hours to write these blogs, and I'm not going to be able to do it justice. So I'll do what I can, and save the rest for Part II, hopefully tomorrow.

Last night's Casa Rural in Entrepeñas was wonderful. Our hostess Dominga ("Domi") was delightful, and the little two-story house, warm and comfortable. Here's blue Janet sorting out shoes in front of blue Casa.

Because we stayed on the other side of Asturianos we had a short 3 klm walk into that town for morning coffee.

Leaving Entrepeñas I was struck by one of my first paradoxes. An elderly señor drove past us twice in his ancient Citroën CV2 Panel Van ( no photo - I was too slow in the rain). The beautiful old car was probably 70 years old; the paradox being that he was driving on the backrooms over the incredibly busy A-53 freeway; the Citroën's top speed perhaps half that of the highway.

Along the way I was interested to see the local iglesia.

We got to Asturianos to find both bars cerrado. As we pondered our next move the panaderia van arrived, loudly tooting his horn to announce his presence. We looked at each other. I wandered over; ¿tienes pan? I enquired. Si (fairly obviously) was the answer. So we purchased a loaf of bread; the bread man told us that the café in the next town was open, so off we headed.

Along the way a GR fix (not very wolf-like)

It really was a beautiful walk today, despite being very wet and very cold

No kidding!!!

We criss-crossed the A-53 today. As with yesterday’s train-track selfie, today it was a cold freeway selfie

And a few other shots along the way today:

Enterprising taxi owner

Old, new, fancy ...

Entering Puebla de Sanabria

Out of time. Part II, Connections, later. Stand by ...