28.4 km today.
3.4 km/h average today.
8 hours 26 mins walking time.
30.6 km this trip.
419.7 km from start.
0 metres minimum height.
20 metres maximum height.
33 metres ascent.
16 metres descent.
Track Log: Logged.
Travel: Bus.
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2005-03-28-Sanlucar-to-Rota.kml
2005-03-28-Sanlucar-to-Rota.gpx
Beach almost all the way. Slightly busy road near the end.
Sanlúcar de Barrameda to Rota via Chipiona. Most of the route was along a quiet sandy beach. The last few kilometres were along fairly quiet roads. The tide had come in and the soft sand was tiring to walk through.
Neil and I took the 7.30 bus to Chiclana and got our connections to San Lucar as before. Back at Stansted, Ryanair failed to return out filght details with our boarding passes so we went into the Cybercafé in the bus station to try and get our confirmation number from Ryanair but without it you cannot log in to your details. We tried various ways and eventually gave up and simply wrote down their contact numbers both in the UK and in Spain, including the Computer Helpline which at £1 a minute we hoped to avoid. We couldn't ring straightaway as it was Easter Monday but planned to do so the next day.
We then headed off south west along the beach and enjoyed seeing the wreck again from the other side. We had our first break after about 3km. We were making good time - 4.7km average.
There is beach all the way to Chipiona but, where the land juts out slightly into the sea, there are sections which are cut off at high tide. We make our way up the cliff and carry on keeping as close to the sea as possible. There are irrigation systems all the way along so occasionally we get sprinkled. We are passing through carrot fields and in each field that we pass the carrots are slightly further on than the previous one. Soon we shall be able to have a carrot. We had been very much fancying a carrot, when we were given a big bunch of them by some pickers. Neil is now carrying these as a dangler as my dangler was not effective. They even had their barcode on ready for the supermarket. We hope they don’t notice they are a bunch short.
We soon reached Chipiona and hoped to have an ice-cream there or even a Pizza as we knew we would not be back in time for supper. Chipiona is a delightful seaside town where it would have been lovely to stay except that it was too much towards one end of our route. The beaches are stunning and the architecture attractive. The church is honey-coloured built in a traditional style but could be new. We didn't get close enough to tell. The lighthouse is visible on a clear day from Matalascañas and beyond. Neil noticed its light was rotating even though it was not lit. We did manage to get an ice-cream but not a pizza.
(In Sanlucar, we hadn't even managed an ice-cream as the season hasn't really started yet. Beyond Chipiona some 15km out we left the beach because the tide was continuing to come in and as this was an equinoctial spring, we knew it would be a big one. On the way to Rota, we passed through Casas de la Ballena from where there is a bus to the town so we could have called it a day. We decided to continue on foot to avoid having to get a bus out the following day.
We entered Rota at 6.15. We discover now that we are on the wine route which is exciting. We had no idea where the bus station was so, having got somewhere near the centre, we asked a pair of nice-looking women the way.
"Por favor, can you tell us the way to the bus station?"
"Si, but it's an awfully long way."
"We've just come from San Lucar."
"In that case it's no distance! Just keep going arriba arriba arriba past a statue of a hand and eventually you'll get to it."
Anne forgot to write about the doggie so this addition is by Neil. There was a very sad skinny unbrushed mut at Rota bus station. We fed hin cheese rinds and bread. He was calm and well behaved and did not beg even though he was clearly half starved. The next day he was on the local TV news. He had been lost for three years and must have found his way home soon after me met him.
Looked up entorno: it means environment, yesterday we saw iris and daffodils.
Fraile means a monk or friar (from Gran Canaria put in here because I happened to have the dictionary out.)
In order to prevent getting blisters this time, I decided to plaster up those areas prone to getting them before setting out on our first long walk. This would have worked well except that the plasters came off and I failed to notice so, in future, I must put plasters on and also check at stops that they are still in place. Sticking plasters aren't at all what they were. They used to be on for good and even survived a swim in the sea.
The daffodils were in a great big field.
We took buses from
The return journed also needed three buses.