July 02+03 Ujué to Caseda (not to Sos del Rey Católico)

Walk to Sos was 34 km (21.13 miles), which I had planned to do and then have a rest day.  But I decided that 21.13 miles was just too much once you factor in "issues" along the route.  So, I decided to sacrifice the rest day and walk as far as an ermita about 1/2-2 miles outside of Caseda, a town with a grocery store.  That was the plan.  I never made it to the ermita.  I trudged into Caseda after almost 17 miles, at about 1:20, (start time was 6:20) and was not interested in walking another step.

Navigation issues were a nightmare.  There was ONE waymark!  One!  I followed a route that turned out not to be a route.  The cost over an hour.  Way over.  And while all this "looking for the path" was going on, there were loud rumblings of thunder and flashes of lightening, but Baruch HaShem, the deluge did not come.

Before the thunder and lightening:



It would have been a beautiful walk:



had it not been for that "error" near the beginning—and several other incidences that I shall not bother relating.

Part of the problem is the GPS track. In some places, this being one, the track, or the graphic of the track, is off, so you  think you are on the route, or that you are supposed to turn, but you are not.  sometimes there are three or more paths going pretty much in the same direction, so it is not all 90 degree turns or anything so obvious. The waypoints are clearly too far apart to create an honest representation on a GPS.  And the Garmin map of Spain is a joke.  There is barely a feature on it:  no side roads, nothing. Viewranger is helpful, but all devices have limitations.  So while my ineptitude may be a contributing factor to finding the path—assuming there is one, it is only one.

It is so thoughtful when someone makes a little cairn:




Very old steps in a very old town:



When I got to the hotel, I read the description of the second part of this walk that I had planned to do tomorrow.  It read like a nightmare: disappearing paths, un-navigable  stretches "where you may have to go north for a while and then turn back south."  Though I must be driving Cristina—I really am sorry Cristina— absolutely batty with my changes, I decided not to walk the walk tomorrow.  I'll do another ida y vuelta (out and back) and and explore the town.

Sos de Rey Católico, from here on in to be called Sos, admits no cars.  The streets are too narrow, so I thought it best to figure out where to go to meet the taxi....like for when I leave.  As I stepped out of the hotel, I saw, among the paving stones:

Turns out that from the 12th C until the expulsion of the Jews in 1492, Sos had a Jewish population.  Yes, thirty families.  

Rest day has been sort of a rest day.  Looked for the start of tomorrow's walk—that took some doing—and then planned to walk the last major section of yesterday's walk but instead found myself on a different trail, one I had gotten on-line, and that was good enough for me!!  It was only 8 miles, but it was enough.  You know, once you start to become delinquent, skipping this and that, it is not so difficult to keep right on missing and skipping.