Belorado to San Juan de Ortega 25km

Today is the day of mountains..yes, more of them!

Lucky no one told us how many there was going to be before we left for Spain or we surely would have found an alternative route to walk!

We meet a lovely oldman from Sydney who very kindly shows us a topographic map at the beginning of one of stages. Turns out that we both prefer living in ignorance of whats ahead.

We knew we were going to over 1300m, however, we did not expect to be dropped back down to 700m no less that 3 TIMES, and have to climb back up every one of those 3 times to 1300m..

The scenery is very pretty though, as we get higher and higher there are some very steep ups and downs, before a never ending dirt track through a forest.

Suddenly we leave the forest behind and emerge into San Juan de Ortega which translates to St John of the Nettles. This turns out to be a very tiny little village with a church, the hostel and a bar to its name. Nothing else. Fun fun, afternoon in the bar we decide.

With absolutely nothing to do Isabel becomes increasingly distressed about these disasterous tan lines that are developing, and how to combat them...any suggestions welcome?

The hostel woman informs us that dinner is Garlic soup, a local speciality she tells us. yum. .

The onlyplace to buy food is a vending machine..

After a long search we thankfully find that the local B&B do some food - we dont care about finding it or walking there, the shoes are back on and we are two very happy irish girls knowing we escaped a dinner of garlic soup. Black pudding and salad.. very gourmet!