12%

 The plan was to walk to Santiago.  The new plan was to walk to Santander.  The newer plan was to walk to Calaceite.  The newest plan is to still do that but take a loop round the battlefield of the Ebro and arrive in Holy Week.  After that, visit some local places. After that - walk all over Spain seeing the places I have always wanted to go to and then open it up as to where I go next.


I need to get a step on.  Luckily I do 6 km on a lot of days so I shall use them to top up the standard 3.6km.  There are rules. I understand them.  You don’t need to.



The road has been carved through the landscape to make it a smoother and more speedy journey.  A small park and garden is indicated on the map at KM71. No one has reviewed it.  



We are still in olive oil country.  My original route was to take us through the middle of many orchards.  Time for a bit of History.



People argue where olives were first domesticated, Persia, Mesopotamia or even Egypt.  Presumably before that they just hung around of the edge of human campsites until one could be tempted to jump of a primitive bowl and was eaten.



While olives were being grown before the Romans arrived, locking Hispania into the international market that was the Empire boosted the development of olive oil production, especially in Andalusia.   Lucius Junius Moderatus Columella, a native of Cadiz born in the first century AD, noted in his book "On Agriculture" that olive trees planted on the slopes of Italy and Baetica produced the finest oils.  



Olive oil was used in cooking - the victims of Vesuvius got 12% of their daily calories from it, cleaning, lubricating and lighting.  Apparently Roman regarded it as so important five years worth was stockpiled in the early 2nd century.  So important was olive oil that Lindsey Davis sent her investigator, Falco, to the oil rich lands of Spain.




The Moors improved production, but that is for another day.


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