Santa Maria la Real de Nieve to Coca (13.10 miles / 21.09 kms)

Today I started around eight and I am still working on starting earlier. It was the warmest day since I started and I only put on a long sleeve shirt. The last few days I’ve had to put on the warmest wool base layers I have.

Within the first block of starting the Camino the directional arrows turned onto a sidewalk and then up ten to twelve step, so I decided to stay on the road as it lead to Nieva, the next town only one mile away.

I went back onto the Camino in Nieva and it followed the road for about a half mile and then it turned into the a beautiful pine forest. The Camino road was wide and very smooth and I was ecstatic thinking of how great it was going to be walking through the forest most of the way to Coca. My euphoria lasted about a half mile when the Camino narrowed and became a deeply rutted two wheel trail that was soft and deep sand! I tried to zig zag trying to find the hardest surface because the Wheelie sank into the sand, and though it was level I felt I was pulling the Wheelie uphill with extra weight. If you ever walk on a beach with deep sand you probably know what it is like, then imagine riding a bike through it.

Interesting that through this isolated section of the Camino there were benches in the middle of nowhere about every quarter mile, and I think I know why. I used several of them to stop and rest. Now I remember the mountain biker that had stopped to check on me telling me of the deep sand areas north of Segovia.

I pulled through about three miles and wondered if I could even do another seven miles? I was in an area where there was a 5-6’ berm to the right of the Camino when I saw the head of a bicycle rider pass at a fast speed! I had no idea where he came from and what he was riding on. I walked over the berm and saw what turned out to be another abandon railroad track that had been turned into a bike path with a solid hard-packed surface. Looking at my map it look like it had been running parallel to the Camino for at least two miles, and another two or three miles more. Why did they not run the Camino on that trail?

I moved onto the bike trail and happily trekked on it to the next town, Nava de la Asuncion, where it ended. I went back onto the Camino and just out of town it looked like it was going back into the forest and the sandy soil. It was another seven miles to Coca and I did not want to chance going on the sandy surface and decided to stay on the highway. There was not much of a shoulder and fortunately there was little traffic. After about two miles there was a frontage road directly next to the highway and it had a hard pack surface and I moved onto it the rest of the way into Coca.

I actually got to Coca around three. Coca is a little town that looks like a mix of newer dwellings and the older stone house that may be hundreds of years old. There is a large castle in the middle of town that’s impressive looking for such a small town.

I had not decided where I was going to stay as there was an municipal albergue, which aren’t always nice, and two hotels. I ended up staying in the albergue after seeing it. As usual, you have to contact someone to open it and you get a key. It was €5 for the night. The albergue is a nice two story house that had belonged to a local school teacher. It has a living room, kitchen, a wash area with laundry soap, etc., and four bedrooms (4 beds each) upstairs. I am here all by myself and thought that Alan and Kim would show up. This would be a nicer place with more people because the individual bedrooms.

Tomorrow I will try and leave early again. My goal is Alcazaren, which is about 16 miles from here if I stay on the Camino. It will be five miles longer if I walk on the road. I will be trekking on the road. I have read information on this next section warning bicyclist to use the highway because the Camino in this forest area has very deep sand that will be difficult to ride through. And in my case, pull the Wheelie through.

As always, please excuse the typos, grammar, and spelling, etc., because I am writing this on my phone and don’t always review it.

Until tomorrow, best wishes to all,

Ted

Starting the Camino in the forest first thing in the morning.

Walking through the pine forest with the sandy soil that makes it difficult to pull the Wheelie.

The bike path that parallels the Camino that I moved to due to the difficulty with the deep sand.

The Gothic-Mudejar castle, built by the Moors in Coca.

The dude of the castle.

The albergue, my home for the night, in Coca.

Albergue.

Albergue.

Nothing is flat!