After the torrential rain yesterday, and some rather violent storms that woke me up in the night, it was a relief to find the sun shining this morning.
Unfortunately the clouds peeking from behind the hill were just an advance party. By midmorning their bigger, and darker, colleagues had arrived. Fortunately I only had to put up with one short shower, but there were others threatening.
I seem to be a bit focused on the weather in this blog, but that’s probably inevitable when you’re doing a long distance walk. You don’t really have the option of not walking on a given day, so you just have to live with whatever it throws at you. It’s part of the attraction of a long walk: your day revolves around simple things, like the weather, getting enough to eat and drink, following the route, and finding shelter.
The importance of rainfall was apparent all around me today. The walk took me through a valley that has clearly had a long history of cultivation, growing almond, olive, fig and carob trees which are now scattered across the landscape.
There are still signs of the effort that cultivating these trees must have taken.
While this particular apparatus is fairly recent, the technology used apparently goes back to Arab times. A donkey walks round pushing the handle, which turns gears that bring full buckets of water up, tipping the water into an irrigation channel.
Later on, the route took me up into the hills in the background of the last photograph, where the track wove its way very pleasantly through semi – arid bush before giving way to orange plantations.
The technology watering the oranges has advanced, but the basic need to store and move water to get things to grow hasn’t changed.
Day 3 Route: Salir to Alte. Terrain: tracks, footpaths, and minor roads. Weather: sunny to start, then a mix of sun and cloud with some showers. Daily distance: 16.2 km/10.1 miles. Cumulative distance: 61.6 km/38.5 miles. Accommodation: Alte Hotel, just outside Alte.
Come Wind, Come Weather 