Tuesday 7 March - Higuera de la Sierra

Where's Bertie? He's spending a third night at the Aire in Higuera.
Weather: Low cloud to start the day, rain late morning, then some sun this afternoon.

We didn't open Bertie's blinds before we went out this morning, for a circuit of the hill that sits above the town, thus it wasn't until we stepped outside that we saw that the cloud was down over the hill, brushing the village. We were soon up in that cloud.

Not a dirty lens, but cloud.

It was only 4km to the village of La Umbria, but by the time we were on our way down there, the cloud had lifted...

Another action shot

Skirting La Umbria

We didn't take a detour into La Umbria in search of a bar for segundo desayuno, as we'd not been going long enough to warrant it. Plus, prior research on Google suggested that the only bar is currently closed.

 
Lots of pigs, goats and cows were seen, with the occasional horse, but the noteworthy animal encounter happened 1.7km before the end of the route.

I've mentioned before that almost every bit of land in Spain has a dog guarding it, and it's normal for those dogs to bark at the gate/fence as you pass. However, until today, it's been pretty reliable that if a dog is loose, it will ignore you, and if it's aggressive, then it's behind a fence. The problem dog today was a massive example of its species, and as we started passing its territory, it ran at speed towards the boundary wall, topped by two strands of barbed wire. It then snarled and barked its way, tracking our progress in the normal manner, to the side wall of its property ... and bounded over it like it wasn't there. At that point, I requested one of Mick's poles (not having mine with me) as it was clear that if it could clear that wall, it could also clear the one between us and it.

In due course, that's exactly what it did, and it wasn't just a bit of yapping as it pursued us down the track - it was full bared teeth snarling, occasionally lunging towards us. It followed us for far too long. Looking at our heart rate graphs after the outing, you can clearly see where, whilst walking at a moderate pace on a gentle downhill (running away from a dog that was seriously thinking of ripping us limb from limb seemed like a bad idea), both of us had one of the highest heart rate recorded on the outing. Should have got my phone out to record a bit of the incident really, but I had other things on my mind at the time!

Have a photo of a dung beetle on a ball of dung instead.

Back in the village a detour was made to the same bar as we visited yesterday, for a quick coffee before returning to Bertie. We were thwarted; seems they don't open on a Tuesday. The shop just around the corner was open, so we made do with take-away cake instead:

Mick thinking "I want that one".

We'd not long been back at Bertie when it started to rain. A soaking mizzle to start with, before becoming more rainy rain. Then the sun came out, and the temperature rose noticeably.

There was just one more outing today: a mission for more local ham, but it wasn't successful. There are two outlets nearby (not really shops as such), and both had hams hanging up, but nothing prepackaged and we were only after 100g, so we didn't ring the bell in either (deserted) place to summon someone to serve us.

It started raining again just as we got back. We've done well for dodging it today!

Today's route. 10.5km with 375m ascent.