La Calzada Romana

(Saturday October 1)

Among this chain of small pueblos blancos tucked away in the mountains, there are many senderos or hiking trails. Other than making the trek up to the Cruz del Tajo, it is usually necessary to take a short bus ride from Ubrique to one of the surrounding towns to find a good trail. There is however one trail, the Calzada Romana, leading uphill and out of Ubrique to the next pueblo blanco called Benaocaz. Clint, Shannon and I decided to take on the trail on this sunny Saturday afternoon and it ended up being quite the little adventure!

The Calzada Romana is a well preserved road that was built and used by the Romans over 20 centuries ago to get from town to town. We learned along the way that it was originally made of limestone tile and clay. 2000 years later, however, only jagged pieces of stone remain, which made the uphill trek (and surprisingly downhill as well) more difficult than anticipated! We had to be careful not to trip and fall or twist an ankle along the uneven path. (Clumsy little ol’ me only walked away with one scraped knee!) While we spent much of our time looking at our feet so as not to fall, when we took a break to look up the view was outstanding. Can’t complain about 6km of beautiful views, the tranquility of nature and some fresh mountain air! I’ll start from the beginning and take you on a little tour.

After sleeping in, moseying around a bit and searching everywhere for a cold bottle of water (hard to find during siesta hours), we finally hit the trail around 4pm. We knew that the trail began somewhere behind the convent in town so we walked aimlessly around the building until we found a small street marked “Camino de Benaocaz.” Bingo!

The small stone road was winding uphill from the city, passing several slabs of private property along the way. Interesting fact: on the outskirts of town, they use mattress springs or other recycled metal/wood materials to build fences and gates here. Very economical and environmentally friendly! We thought we were already on the calzada romana, but we had in fact 800m to walk up and out of Ubrique to reach the start of the path. Though the sun was beating down hard and we were pretty tired just from getting to the start of our hike, we trekked on!

distance to Benaocaz: 3km. duration: 1 hour. difficulty: low. I’m intrigued to find some of the higher difficulty trails!

Onward and Upward!

Along the trail we came across the remnants of a Roman gutter system, a great view of Ubrique in the distance behind us, some Roman ruins and eventually we accidentally strayed from the path and found ourselves in a field of cows.

Good thing we strayed because we stumbled upon this little guy! Not sure how he got himself in that situation but his head was stuck in the wire fence! When I tried to help him out, I noticed that his hind leg was also stuck on the barbed wire behind him. I’m not sure how long he had been there but it must have been quite some time as the wire fence left an imprint in his fur and there was a hefty pile of mierda underneath him. Pobrecita! I was so sad; I was afraid of inuring his leg more in a rescue attempt, but I refused to leave him. Fortunately, a man that lives nearby noticed that we had strayed from the path and approached us to point a way out. In my broken Spanish (lacking correct vocabulary for “your goat got his leg stuck in a barbed wire fence”) I told him about the injured animal to the best of my ability and led him there to make sure the animal got out safely. The man said no pasa nada as if perhaps this was a regular occurrence. Though the poor thing was limping after that, at least I know he will be alright! I’m not sure how long he had been there or how long he would have remained unnoticed, so I like to think I helped save a little goat’s life today.

After that endeavor, we carefully used a tree to hop the barbed wire fence (didn’t want to end up like the goat!) and made the final ascent to Benaocaz. The town was surprisingly very small, probably less than 800 inhabitants, but beautiful nonetheless.

Our first priority was to find an open café and grab a couple of vasitos of agua. Clint and Shannon opted for a well-deserved cerveza and a tinto de limón as well. It was an awkward time for dinner (most places don’t open until after 8pm) so we grabbed some dulces from a little bakery to replenish ourselves for the hike home. We ate our delicious treats and rehydrated ourselves while taking in the great view before deciding to head home before nightfall.

The sun began to dip below the mountaintops and the moon was out already, yikes! We would have to hustle home so as not to get caught on that rocky path in the dark of night. We stumbled across several man-made fences that had been closed, probably to warn us that it was much too late to be taking the path. However, we didn’t really have the choice of getting stuck in Benaocaz so we continued on.

The decent and the cool breeze made the walk home seem to go by much quicker. Some interesting tunes from Shannon’s iphone helped pass the time as well (Spice Up Your Life, anyone?) Our first glimpse of Ubrique was like the shining light at the end of the tunnel after a long journey. The town looked really pretty against the setting sun and it seemed enormous compared to the tiny pueblo we had just come from. Though Ubrique seems so small sometimes, I guess we are very lucky to be living in this particular pueblo blanco where at least there are lots of people around, places to go and things to do.

When we finally reached our home town, we made sure to hit up the market before it closed for any last minute items since it will be closed tomorrow (Sunday). Apparently everyone else in the town had the same idea because it was packed. Needless to say, after the day’s long journey I fixed myself up a well-deserved meal and a glass of vino

The hike ended up being fairly easy, but it was still a workout. If my legs and best-rear-view-2007 aren’t in tip top shape after this trip, I will be very upset. Though it seemed never ending at the time it took just over 2 hours round trip (we spent a good hour and a half or so in Benaocaz as well). I was pretty tired after and decided to call it an early night. I’m a little mad at myself for turning down an invitation from Pepe for drinks at the hotel, but I think some good rest was is necessary in order to prepare myself for this next week of chaos (orientation in Jerez Tuesday, begin work for real on Wednesday, Cadiz for my NIE this weeend...) Despite the fact that the wind sounded like it was actually a live entity trying to get into my window and eat me, I passed out and slept beautifully. Hopefully there will be plenty of other nights for cervesitas en el pueblo. It’s October 1^st so I officially have 9 more months to enjoy here! :)

Abrazos y besos <3