From this day on, we would do a lot less walking, as we did today’s stage, the last long stage, by taxi. The route from Jayena to Albuñuelas would be equally long as the previous one, and would pass through a nature area without houses or places to refill our water bottles. The past few days we had often doubted if we were on the right track, even when we were following the GR 7. The waymarking is so-so, sometimes the signposts were lying horizontally and it wasn’t clear where they pointed. Sometimes the cross, indicating “do NOT enter this path” had fallen off. Many times we stood examining if we saw traces of a cross that had previously been there: is this a normal sign or a “don’t go in here”-sign?
So, still tired from the day before, and not wanting to get lost in the hills after dark, we decided to opt for a taxi. This meant that we arrived in Albuñuelas ridiculously early, but the extremely friendly owners of B&B La Casa Azul (now closed) didn’t mind, kindly received us, made us coffee and let us drop our bags in the room.
We had read that the end of today’s stage was incredibly beautiful, so we followed the route backwards a bit. Indeed it was beautiful:
And the village of Albuñuelas is lovely. It has a nice cafe with pretty disgusting tapas (everything fried, the fat dripping even from the vegetables), but for having a beer the place is just fine. The very tiny village even has a library, offering free internet. All in all, we had a very relaxing day here, ending with dinner served by lovely Mary of La Casa Azul. A day of recovery.
-> November 1: Albuñuelas – Granada
<- October 30: Alhama de Granada – Jayena