After an early night, I woke at 5:30 but after a decent sleep. Breakfast was wonderful, with lovely molletes to toast, six or so varieties of homemade jam as well as homemade cake, fresh lemonade from their own lemons and good coffee. We enjoyed chatting with our host and his mother (maker of said jam and cake) over breakfast, learning more about the history of the old farm building and the surrounding lands.
It was hard to tear ourselves away from this slice of paradise, but we didn’t want to be too late leaving with a toasty 27° in the forecast. And never was it so easy to rejoin the camino, through the gate and turn left! We continued on a paved road for a good while and then were happy when that changed to a dirt road.
Our host had explained about the tearing down of olive trees to replace with solar panels. 60,000 torn down so far in the area with 200,000 slated for removal. We saw one such area just as we left the cortijo. And that also explained the posters we’d seeing when passing Cartaojal: “Cartaojal sin parques fotovoltaicos” (Cartaojal without solar parks).
Today we had a slow, gradual climb and much steeper descent but all very manageable and with the warm day, it was lovely that it was short—just 12 kilometres. We had seen some smog as we walked and as we approached Villanueva de Algaidas could see it was close by. An olive mill where truckloads of olives were arriving, as well as tractors pulling loaded wagons, was the source. That was also perhaps the smell that had permeated the day rather than the olives themselves.
Algaidas is a cute little town and we were directed to the upper edge of town when we inquired about a hostal (small hotel) as we hadn’t booked ahead. Hostal Algaidas was technically closed as new owners are just re-opening and had their the restaurant opening the next day, but they were flexible to open for us and at €40 the price was right.
We lunched on our remaining bread and cheese at a small park across from the hostal and then explored the small town from top to bottom. Eventually we had a drink in the more central part of town and initiated our long-running game of “Name That Tune” as often English-language oldies were a mainstay of bar background music. We ended the day at the Turkish kebab place (each small town seems to have one) for chicken, salad and fries. Good and cheap and we have Día flan for dessert so a full meal deal!