Day 5 – Jabaloyas to Terriente

After a great night’s sleep, I went for breakfast at 8:30 and found another amazing spread conjured up by Carmen: seven different kinds of charcuterie, three different cheeses, pastries, fruit and bread. And then she brought out the best tortilla I have ever eaten. Needless to say, that set me up for the day and I didn’t eat again until dinner that evening.

This was going to be one of the shorter days, just 16 km. Once again, I was veering off the trail because the village where I was supposed to be staying that night, El Vallecillo, didn’t seem to have any accommodation solutions. There had been no replies to my emails to the only hotel and, given the terrible reviews on TripAdvisor, I doubted that it was still open. So, instead, I would leave the trail at a small village called Toril and head along the valley to Terriente where I had found what seemed to be a pretty swank hotel. This would entail a hike of over 35 km the next day to return to the trail, but after five days I felt up to it and Komoot would find the way.

This was probably the most unremarkable day of the whole hike. A relatively short distance to cover, just 300 m to climb in all, fairly ordinary trails that were mostly tracks across the fields… I knew that I would have to take a long rest somewhere so that I would not arrive too early at the hotel in Terriente.

I said goodbye to Carmen, who blew me kisses as she sent me on my way, and set off across the village that was more or less deserted, except for a few guys doing construction and maintenance work. Then, ahead of me, all of a sudden, I saw someone with a small backpack and a Tilly hat. Another hiker? Not at all. The guy turned off along a farm track after about 200 metres and was clearly on his way to work.

There was an icy wind blowing and it kept up all day. The 200 m climb from Jabaloyas to the ridge above Toril was gentle and far from taxing. Before I knew it, I could make Toril below, with a main road running through it. Well, main road is saying a lot, as there was a very little traffic on it, a car every 10 to 15 minutes or so.

The descent to Toril was just as gentle. The village itself was a quiet place with no one around, the only sound coming from a splashing fountain on the village square. From here, I could’ve continued along the original trail to see a supposedly spectacular waterfall, but that would have added another 10 to 12 km to the day’s hike and, with a very big day coming up, I decided to give it a miss.

Just after Toril, with only six or 7 km to go to Terriente. I found a sunny spot sheltered from the icy wind and flopped down for a long rest so I wouldn’t arrive too early at the hotel that wasn’t expecting me before 3 PM. It was nice and warm out of the wind. With birds singing all around, bees buzzing, and a car passing every 15 minutes or so on the road above I think I actually dozed off at one point.

After this rest stop, it was an easy uphill walk to a small pass above Terriente. I had the pleasant surprise of finding something that had been sorely missing until now on this hike – freshwater springs. Apart from the stream just before Riodeva on the second day, I hadn’t seen a single source of fresh water along the trail, meaning that I set off every morning with 3.5 litres to see me through the day, which of course added extra weight to the backpack. Carlos, the owner of the hotel in Terriente, told me later that water would no longer be a problem from that point on as there were plenty of springs between Terriente and Albarracín. Along the final section of trail alone into Terriente, I saw at least three.

Terriente was a beautiful little place surrounded by orchards, vegetable gardens and fields that were clearly all thriving on the plentiful water. But, like every village encountered until now, the place was deathly quiet. There was a small bakery on the main square but I couldn’t figure out when it opened, and it seemed to be the only shop around. Once again, I found myself wondering how people bought food around here.

I found my hotel quite easily and was greeted by an old Labrador called Elvis, who barked a lot at me for about 30 seconds before deciding we could be best friends. There was no one around and, since it was quite early, I simply sat in the sun and waited with Elvis curled up at my feet. After a while, I nonetheless decided to call the number marked next to the door. Carlos told me he would be there right away and, at that point, a very friendly Anglo-Dutch couple arrived by car, so he was able to check in the three of us in one go. When I mentioned that I had come from Jabaloyas that morning, he instantly asked if I’d seen any witches!

The hotel was very elegant, and I had a huge, very comfortable and beautifully decorated room at the top of the house with a view over the fields.

After relaxing for a while, I went to take a walk around the village to see the church and any other sights I might find, but there wasn’t much to see and, after about half an hour, the icy wind forced me to retreat to the hotel.

Carlos provided a terrific dinner and I had a very pleasant evening chatting to the Anglo-Dutch couple who were trying to make their relationship work while living in two different countries, the UK and Netherlands, in our post-Brexit world. They were on a two or three week road trip around this part of Spain and told me that until retiring they had both worked in the tea industry for Rotterdam‘s biggest tea merchants. A fascinating job that had led them to travel a great deal to tea plantations all over the world.

Unfortunately, I cannot say that I had a great night’s sleep in Terriente. There were some very active rodents busying themselves all night long in the roof just above my bed, and I had the impression that they were wearing heavy hiking boots! Still, I guess that made the place feel like home (we had been having a few rodent problems ourselves in the last few months).