We spent the night in Castroñuno. A typical rural Spanish village almost entirely focused on agriculture. About 1,000 inhabitants, a church, bar and restaurant, an organic shop and a small supermarket that's not listed on Google pretty much sums up the village. On the supermarket door are the opening hours: mornings from 10am to 2pm and afternoons/evenings from 5pm to 8pm. Convenient, so we can still buy some water, fruit and vegetables for tonight. The tapwater in Spain should be drinking water, but it tastes very much like chlorine. Besides, in Toro the water wasn't drinkable due to too high levels of arsenic, which can cause health problems. So whenever possible, we drink bottled water. At five o'clock, the shop should be open. The shutters are open, but the lights are off. At ten past five it's still closed. At six, we go back to check again, but alas. Finally, at seven, the lights are on, the door is open and we can get everything we need in this tiny shop. Truly Spanish, things come as they do. From the church in the village you have a magnificent view of the Duero river, which forms a big loop here. It's one of the largest meanders in Europe. Because of the dam a bit further on, the river is quite wide here and the flooded stretches have lots of reeds and trees in the water.
An ideal area for birds, especially as the big loop is a nature reserve, so nature can take its course undisturbed. From the village, we walk the 2 kilometers back to the dam. We have stunning views of the other side where storks and eagles nest on long poles, high above the reeds. Via the bridge, we cross the river. We were quite looking forward to this nature reserve, as its swampy wetlands make it really different from what we have seen so far. But on the other side, the paths turn out to run a lot higher and away from the river. Instead of being among reeds and water, we walk on cork-dry sandy soil among the familiar oak trees, occasionally passing by a farmhouse, abandoned or otherwise. A landscape we no longer expected to encounter, but it's very beautiful. Because it's a protected nature reserve and we are still quite early, we are lucky enough to see our first big game of the trip.
At a little distance the path, two deer are quietly grazing among the oaks. They see us, but continue undisturbed. A little farther on, a large animal crosses the path. It resembles a large cat or fox, but it's a lot bulkier in stature. It looks like an Egyptian mongoose we have encountered in the south, but that species shouldn't live around here. So it remains a mystery to us...
For ten kilometers, we walk through this landscape of yellow grass, sandy paths and oak trees. Then we walk out of the nature reserve and the landscape changes back to the farmland we have seen more often in the past few days, although there are many grapes on the northern slopes here. Farmers are busy working the land in this season between winter and summer. The roadsides along the fields are full of flowers again and teeming with butterflies. We also see many hummingbird butterflies here, unusual flyers that can hover so silently and use their long tongues to nibble nectar from the flowers. Dozens of bee-eaters skim past and perform capers as if they were swallows. If you didn't see the beautiful colours and hear their soft sounds, you could be easily mistaken.
We walk for almost 15 kilometers along Canal de Tordesillas. This canal about two meters wide that brings, or rather brought, water to the fields is over a hundred years old. Due to modernisation work being carried out, it now lies empty and runs through the landscape like a long concrete slot. The paths beside it are completely flat and run wonderfully past fields and the occasional wooded stretch. Today's stage is quite long at 32.5 kilometers and we start to notice that the first 10 kilometers on dirt tracks have taken quite a bit of energy. Our legs feel tired and struggle to recover during the breaks. It probably still has something to do with the flu we had earlier, because normally we don't really suffer from it. So we don't mind at all when we see Tordesillas looming in the final kilometers. We pass under a motorway and walk into the built-up area. We keep up the pace a bit until we reach the campsite on the other side of the town, as there is quite a bit of rain with a brisk wind on for later in the day. By then we should have the tent well fixed and set up. It'll be the baptism of fire, or rather baptism of rain, for our teepee, as we haven't used it in the rain yet. But we are completely confident that it'll pass this test with flying colours and that tomorrow we can take it easy and see the city with dry gear. In any case, the next stages will be under 30 kilometers. Better for our bodies and ideal to get back into the rhythm of hiking every day.
