Day 36: Funny Photos

September 16: It was a little chilly overnight, probably due to the cloud of clouds during the night and the fact that I wasn't under trees to help keep me warm. 

 

 

I ate breakfast, packed up camp, and headed out. That last part turned out to be somewhat problematic for me. The evening before, I had scrambled up a short but steep cliff to get to a perch where I camped, but looking down the slope, it looked positively dangerous to go down the way I came up. It’s a little strange how you can safely climb up a slope that’s not safe to descend. 

 

I followed the edge of the cliff, hoping it would reconnect to the dirt road below me, but I hit a dead end when I reached a thick tangle of brush.

 

It seemed safer to scramble up the small cliff than scrambling down a small cliff.

 

So I doubled down and climbed up the next cliff, and it was indeed an empty field that had been used for farming. I quickly found the exit from it to the adjacent dirt road and hoofed it back to the Camino.

 

The rest of the day was largely uneventful. I stopped a few times for hour-long breaks admiring the scenery. I kept my eyes open for interesting photo ops and I took a couple of fun ones. =)

 

In the last town I passed through for the day, San Juan de Oretega, neither of the two vending machines in town seemed to work. What’s up with that?

 

And I set up camp just beyond the town. I tried to find a place that was a little protected within some trees.

 While writing in my journal for the day, I added the day’s mileage to my running count and concluded that as of this campsite, I had hiked 1000.3 kilometers. Seemed like I should celebrate the accomplishment, but I didn’t. I just read my book for awhile before eventually drifting off to sleep.

 

 

It’s hard to believe, but this is the same sunflower when
I tried to pose with it for my own photo!!!! Darned
thing tried to eat my hand off!

 

It was a blustery day and all I could do not to have
the wind blow me away!

Yeah, okay, maybe it wasn’t so windy….

Maybe I just found a bunch of branches trimmed from a forest
laying in a heap on the side of the trail. And maybe I lifted one
of them above my head.  And maybe I edited the photo later 90 degrees
to the left to make it look like I was sideways instead of
standing straight up…. =)

 

Another wind farm. I tried to think of a good Don Quixote
photo op, but none of my ideas panned out. *shrug*

 

I don’t see praying mantises on the trail very often!
But it somehow seems appropriate for a mantis to pray on
a pilgrimage route. =)

 

Stacks of lumber along the trail.

 

I kind of admire these “little plants that think they can!”

 

In the heart of San Juan de Oretega.