A rebel without a clue.

At 1500 I am in room 19 @ Hostal La Maya after a very, very wet day. Luckily I stopped for a lovely sopa in Navacerrada served with the warm afternoon glow by the proprietor, cook and chica from Venezuela. She made me smile, they made me smile and the bean soup made me walk into the pulsating rain as the path took me up behind the town - I wasn't expecting that! Meson Jarvis, he was my English teacher back before university and the chica made walking in a sulking weightbound morning, with only suggestions of mountains, and me gathering rain enough to sink a ship, worthwhile. I'd looked into a posh establishment  once prior to it and felt cold stares - colder than the rain I'd gathered in several hours. Actually I sat down but the frowning cold shoulder of the people who  welcomed' me into Nava Real made me decide to trudge on in the downpour - they really couldn't care that I was soaking - they were more concerned I was dripping wet on the carpet. They almost failed...

Monday morning cradling a café largo after tostados con tomate from the sullen faced proprietor of Hostel La Pedriza, who speaks no English. It's a day tripper town and I guess on a Monday morning he's worn out from being polite to his clients over the weekend? But it's OK. It's raining outside: not heavy, so I put on my waterproofs prior to the grand depart for Cercedilla on day three - already day three. By day four Madrid will be over the Sierras and beyond me. I've either another 7 or 10 days from today as those are the windows of opportunity through the rail strikes next week across England.

When I depart I drink coffee and when I arrive I drink wine, but in between I sweat gloriously! Turned in after a second Chorizo in Cider and bread. Found the bed a little too short for my length and the curtains even shorter - they don't exactly keep out the street lights, but it was silent until a couple of cars disappeared along the road, towards Madrid no doubt, just now. Breakfast isn't available in the Hostel until 8:30am, but I am awake around 7am... If I can drift back into sleep then I will? A helpful host in the Hostel said that today would be more interesting than yesterday's last leg - it was interesting after Colmenar Video before going under a road viaduct... There was a serrated edge of some peaks which would've been more interesting to cross, but the route went around them after crossing a medieval bridge - the Camino walked along the base of these bare mountains, because perhaps there was no accessible path, slowly increasing in altitude. This area remi...