The included breakfast at Hotel Zuhayra on my birthday was great: fruit, muesli and yogurt, toast with homemade membrillo (quince paste) and just because it was a special day, a slice of cake. So not surprisingly, not the earliest start but we took the lovely trail back to the Vía Verde and then were quickly back into Doña Mencía proper where we had a coffee and bathroom break.
It was a very steep climb out of town, with lots of very ferocious, barking dogs—sometimes seeming that their fences wouldn’t be quite tall enough or strong enough to keep them in. And although kilometre-wise it was a short day, it was very challenging with very steep ups and downs pretty much all day. We had toyed with going a different way from Zuheros to Baena, as there appeared to be another spur of the Vía Verde, but we decided we’d rather keep to the camino.
There were lots of small groups—some looking to be multi-generational—out harvesting, often with a pole vibrator (akin to a leaf blower with a backpack-like power source) to shake the tree while someone else bashed. All the ups and downs gave us lovely views though and the entry into Baena was impressive. Nedjo’s knees were bugging him so I took more of the water and that may have made it a bit more challenging for me.
The simple Hostal Los Claveles (€45) was quite nice and we headed out after showers—and some quick laundry for me—to see the castle and other sights in the town. But being Monday everything was closed, including the olive oil museum I’d been looking forward to. Nothing at all was open in the upper, historic part of town but eventually we did find a place for a drink and scoped out a dinner option. I was glad, though, that we’d mainly celebrated my birthday the day before where we knew the food would be good.
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