After a pleasantly late breakfast, we were picked up and reunited with the horses in their pasture. From there, we went down the slope and then up the other side to wildish flatlands. There was brume everywhere, some of it blooming in yellow, others already green. Snowy mountains peaks loomed in the distance. We had a couple of nice long canters, then came to what looked like a slightly algae-covered lake. Maria Elena walked her horse right into it, and the rest of us followed.

We went all the way across, the horses splashing knee-deep, the mountains ahead of us.We also had a nice photo session on the other side.

Then we walked across similar land, including a part burned out by a planned fire, and saw a white tent in the distance. It was lunch and aperitivo rolled into one. And not just any lunch. This was made by a young chef who had worked in a restaurant and Madrid and then come back home to open his own place here. It was an incredible  five-course meal – creamy cold soupish something with tomato and fruit, chicken salad on a toast with tomato, sardine on bread, pork cheeks that were incredibly soft and a dessert of some kind. 

We took a group photo

And then many naps followed. 

I took a walk on a dirt road that circled around our lunch place, with an amazing 360-degree view. The last leg was through a village, up the valley, around some dirt roads and then one more canter and voila, we were there. The horses were happy to be showered and fed, the dogs were just happy to be fed, with lunch leftovers Louise had brought for them. 

We said goodbye to the horses as they made their last dash to the field, then were driven back to the hotel to nap, pack and try to figure out how we could possibly eat dinner. We managed. 

Can it really be Friday?

We were saddled and away from our guesthouse shortly after 9:30 and made our way across the wide valley of the Corneja River. Lots of storks feeding in the fields. Maria Elena said this was the only land in Gredos that was suitable for farming. 

We had a couple of really long trots on the straight, sandy roads, the horses more relaxed and containable than they had been earlier in the week. During a short canter, I was right behind Maria Elena, which was nice since hers was the only horse mine wasn’t interested in passing.

Aperitivo was in a pleasant clearing on the side of a dirt road. The table was the prettiest yet.

Things started to get really interesting after that. We climbed up into the foothills of the mountains. Some of the towns we went through were the usual deserted not-that-attractive type but others were either relatively populated or, in one case, built around a very old mill.












 After some wending through narrow paths with bushes on each side and mud under the horses’ feet, we crossed a river and came to another mill – with the lunch table laid out in an open space. And then there was the catering truck…..

After a lunch of salad, thick creamy gazpacho and Spanish omelet, and the usual two wines, we climbed back on and headed straight up, almost. The horses twisted back and forth among the boulders on one of the narrowest trails I have ever seen, with bushes included stickers on either side. At some points there were sharp drop offs on the right as well. They were really working hard.

Then we emerged and were really in the mountains. No trees, though lots of shrubbery, and beautiful views across the valleys to the slopes on the other side. It was very green I the sunshine, even though still somewhat rocky. It looked and sounded a lot like Switzerland, right down to the chiming of the cowbells and the – I am not making this up – song of the cuckoo bird.



At one point, as we climbed, we could look back through the pass and see the flat land we had come to that morning.

Then we got to the very top. Below us was a long fertile-looking valley and behind it was a line of foothills – one foothill, really – whose lip paralleled the valley. And behind THAT were the snowy peaks of the highest mountains.

We picked our way down the other side, very slowly. The horses were stabled in a pasture at the foot of the slope and we were transported to a simple local hotel by car. Simple meal, too.

We were in the saddle and underway by 9:35, only five minutes behind schedule. We headed down (up?) the valley. The land flattened out and got rockier, quite amazing, really. It reminded me of Iceland or Norway or something, so many boulders on the ground, cropping up out of the earth. The going was consequently a little uneven so we only walked in the morning. 

We must have gone through at least five more or less deserted towns, each with well-kept boarded-up houses, a stork nest replete with parent and baby storks, a church (sometimes under the nest, sometimes not) and complete silence as the hoofs echoed through the well-paved streets.

Aperitivo was in one such town, slightly more populated than the others. The girls had laid out a lovely table in a church parking lot, I think it was, and Joe and I posed for a photo to send to Philippe and Anne Tirel, whom we had gotten to know on the Andalusia ride.

The sandy road was more even in the next stage and we had some nice canters at good speed. In another town, as we went past a 15^th-century fortress, we turned right onto a bridge of equal age and Maria Elena said this was the farthest point we would be from home. We were now heading east after traversing Avila in westerly and northerly directions. We were also in another province, Salanca.

Lunch was unbelievable. The girls had set up a beautifully laid table in a cleared area in a kind of forest but arid, and some of us helped set up a tent over it. Under which we had what was supposed to be a picnic but turned out to be an elegant meal prepared by a restaurant in one of the more-populated tows we had passed. Tuna, tomato and potato salad for appetizer; ratatouille, fries and rabbit for main course. I am not making this up. The rabbit was prepared with garlic and spices and was delicious.

After lunch, Louise and some of the others walked down to the river and swam in the clear, chilly water, though it was so shallow she said it was more like walking on your hands.

Then it was back on the horses for a 90-minute ride to Hoyorendondo. We entered what seemed like a very large park, also arid, and walked for about 10 minutes until we got to the stone guesthouse. The horse shower-and-feed ritual was in the back garden, where we immediately sat down at some café tables and had gin and tonics.

 Dinner was salmon, duck or pork, served by the owner-family, who no doubt were the chefs as well. Louise said she thought it was the nicest hotel so far and I agree.