Day 33 – at Castril

At 850 metres above sea level only, I’m lower than I’ve been for a while, and that does make a difference to how cool it gets at night, only about 14C here. But I’m at a very shaded park up, so much so that the solar power gathered was just 10% of a usual day; still plenty to run on though.

There’s a walk through the river gorge here that attracts many tourists in season. It is boarded for a few hundred metres, similar to the Borosa gorge I was at a week or so ago. The sendero continues by traversing round the town above before climbing steeply up to it from the opposite side to the road entrance to it. I then continued by heading up to the castle and the statue, Sagrado Corazón de Jesús.

The thirteenth century castle was of great strategic importance as it was on a route that joined the important cities of Baza and Guadix with other parts of Andalucía. The once majestic structure has a tremendous defensive situation, on the impassable canyon of the Río Castril, immediately discouraging any potential invader.

After a visit there coffee at Bar Emilio’s was very welcome. Prices here are noticeably lower than elsewhere I have been. A coffee is like it was for so many years, one euro, but it’s crept up to 1.20 or 1.50 in many places. Beer, bottled or draft, is 2 euros, and, as we are in Andalucia, includes tapas. The tapas was good, varying from anchovies, tortillas, lamb, chicken, pan tomate and of course olives, presented in many different ways.