Darker when we leave now because of the time change in Spain. I like this because for me it is such a special time of day. That feeling of aloneness, the explorer, seeing things before others, and personally when I’m feeling ‘off’, it works better for me when I’m in my own company and/or Corrie’s. Then there’s the rare possibility of seeing the sun roll round in this very cloudy part of the world.

We walk for a couple of kms on a short rise and then steeper. I need concentration for my breathing and I heard a couple close behind, so I went a little faster but they caught me. A Dutch couple must have read the sign on my back and seemed determined to have a chat. So I chatted with her about the challenges that we both had and the positives that can arise from them.  

Corrie, who had raced ahead dropped back seeing how I was engaged. We broke off into our genders where John told me about his life as a barge captain travelling along those great rivers – the Rhine, the Danube, the Moselle and a few smaller ones. Their two children went with them mostly during pre school years. We started climbing very steeply and I needed a break.

We stopped in a standing only bar, very crowded with walkers, but found seats somehow. Refreshed, and into a walker-free street, was an incentive to move quickly ahead of the crowd. We overtook a young Italian school teacher, who was taking her older school class on an adventure, but she left them to theirs so she could have her own.

Reaching the top of this pleasant forested huge hill, it was now so steep going down we had to jog in a sharp zig zag movement for quite a way before it became just steep. With her skiing background, Corrie had taught me how to save my knees, shins and muscles from injury. A long flat area followed as we stopped for a rest then continued on bitumen through a ‘stretched out town’ before another steep hill climb.

As I was struggling up, a Portuguese bike rider slowed right down to my pace to chat. To do this on a steep hill meant he had to perform an uphill version of my downhill zig zag. Because he was really struggling I fully stretched out with my ‘two pole drive’ which shortened his zig zag. He wanted to tell me about his two parents with Parkinsons.

Soon we’re home looking out to sea with a busy road nearby, hoping that it is cold enough to be able to shut the window if we need to keep the cars out.