The Road from Santiago

  It is a day for appreciating the rolling road and the magnificent hills.  We will try to squeeze all the excitement out of what is to hand such as La choza del santo Manuel. Saint Manuel has taken a bit of putting together because most sites seem to suggest you already know about him, so why explain.  It seems that Mauel Rubio Sanchez turned Venta del Molinillo into a pilgrimage site in the last decades of the 20th Century, claiming the spring water bought about miraculous healing.  A month ago Miguel wrote ‘I had never been to a saint's shrine other than a church. Entering that sanctuary, all filled with flowers, you feel an enormous peace and tranquility. I recommend you go and visit Saint Manuel.’  Sandra reported ‘This is the farmhouse where Saint Manuel del Molinillo lived. He died in 2001, and his followers still maintain it. It has three shrines, a living room with a lit fireplace. You can visit both the exterior and interior without any problem. CASH I...

  Of we go, along the road less travelled.  Well, Google was up here in 2009. The reason for that is that the road disappears, swallowed up by the new A-92, so, we will have to head along tracks to make progress. We are going to be near a hill top castle.  The Castillo de Pena aka the fortress of Diezma was built in the 11th century by the monarchs of Granada. It is a small place, on top of some rocks, guarding the border.  When the Caliphate of Cordoba fell apart the local region sided with Almeria - our castle stayed loyal to Granada.  https://rinconesdegranada.com/castillo-de-cabrera   Well, that’s that.   We are heading to the city of Granada and so, we are in the province as well, so lets talk provincial.  940,000 live here, making it Spain’s 17th largest.  Time for a rabbit hole. There are 52 provinces. The big ones are Madrid [7.1 million], Barcelona [5.9 million], Valencia [2.7], Alicante [2], Seville [1.9] and Malaga [1.7].  The...

  Along the old road we go.  The A4005 gives us trees, and trees, and scrub and trees and an absolutely huge roundabout to service a rather modest petrol station - but seeing it is all we have, let's visit. Estacion de Servicio Repsol, for such it is, has been reviewed 406 times.  It gets 4.2 stars, which, given what it can offer, seems fair.  Juliet tells us, from five years ago, what it has to offer. ‘ Easy access just off motorway. A bit of a wait to get a coffee in the small cafeteria as same member of staff covering the shop till and café. Small shady area to sit outside, only one table and 4 chairs. Covered parking for half a dozen cars. Shop well stocked with snacks, cold drinks and local artisan products’ Two years ago Christina added balance to the force. ‘No cheese or jamón 🤦‍♀️nice local oil and fresh bread though. Clean toilet but no paper. 🤦‍♀️ I feel sad that I stopped here. Please fix these things. …’  Three weeks ago Sandra said ‘ We stopped at...

Less of a walk today, a mere 5.7km. Having worked out what a Camino de Servicio we are not on one but a regular regional road - the A-4105.  In writing this I have kept straying off it and heading south then scampering back. It must be the lure of the lake - of more, later.  We are rising up - a little over 200m and we are almost 1100m above sea level. Below us is the Embalse de Francisco Abellan.  Floods in October 1973 saw people scratch their heads, stroke their beards and felt they ought to do something about it. The thing they thought was one big flood and make a reservoir. The twenty years before the construction had seen migration away from the countryside - that and a dictatorship made it easier to move people out. W ork began on….. May 1991.  It was done by January 1998.   The dam is 250m long and made, according to Wiki in Spanish, of loose materials. The dam has a wiki page in Spanish, English and Norwegian.  Who was Francisco Abellán Gómez? Well...