Walked: 41.8Km
Walking from Tamarite de Litera to Monzón I was amused to see that the route had changed. Five years ago the path went through agricultural fields, today it goes alongside the canal, just as I had walked when I deviated from the official path five years ago.
At the time a man with blue eyes told me I could climb a gate overhanging the canal into a tunnel, mostly for the thrill. Of course I wanted to repeat this adventure. Again, I was carrying my laptop in my backpack. It was still nerve-wrecking.
But it's also different to repeat an experience than to live it anew. When I came out on the other side I was left thirsting for novelty. On the satellite version of the map I could see interesting rock formations that ran roughly in the direction of Monzón. I decided to explore the area while walking in the direction of my destination.
The terrain proved to be interesting. On the face of the rock I saw what appeared to be a man made line. I reasoned that it must be an aljibe at the end of that line. I went through to bush to find a cistern carved at the base of the rock. I was correct! This made me unreasonably happy.
The sun was blazing overhead and I was still three hours away from Monzón. I wasn't carrying water and getting to Monzón under those conditions would mean abandoning my exploration and arriving mildly dehydrated to my destination. I checked out the map and saw there was a little town called San Esteban de Litera 30 minutes away, but perpendicular to my destination. I went for it.
The town had a great charm to my eyes. It was tightly nestled among huge boulders and sandy hills. I found a water fountain and rested a little bit. By now it was a little past noon and it was really hot, so I went to the restaurant at the public pool to have lunch and then dipped into the pool.
Inscription in latin I found on a building in San Esteban, ChatGPT translates: "Whoever prays in this place, listen, O Lord, from Your dwelling place and be merciful."
I had until 8pm to arrive to Monzón, because they were holding keys so that I could access the residence where I was to stay. I left San Esteban at 3:30 with an ETA of 6:45pm to my destination, but I ignored the route that gmaps suggested, I was intrigued by the natural wall that formed a geographical barrier so I followed the paths that appeared in the satellite view but weren't available in gmaps.
I've never seen anything like it. I went up the natural wall and had a great view of the area, then I came down on the other side and followed a path next to a river downstream. The river passed through Monzón, so I knew that if I followed it, I would get to my destination.
However, at a certain point the path disappeared into agricultural fields, and the river's water became so scarce it was replaced by thick vegetation. I tried to find a path to the nearest dirt road by checking out the satellite map, however I quickly found that the satellite map was obsolete. What were wheat fields were now overgrown corn fields. After much battling finding a way at the edges of these fields I decided to back out and find rock, which would be easier to navigate.
This was much more productive and I advanced much faster than I was down in the fields. Eventually I saw small construction, like a single room house. Even though gmaps showed no road or house, I reasoned that they must have transported the materials to build it through a road, so I head in the direction of this construction.
Once I got there I saw it was a tiny house with a pool. I was about to sneak by when I saw a man with a snorkel mask come out of the water. "Good afternoon" I said. He removed his mask. "I'm sorry for trespassing your property, I just need to get to the road". I thought I would scare him, but his voice was calm when he replied "I have a sign that says no trespassing, you know?". "I didn't see it because I'm coming from the other side, I was following the river but the path ended so I had to come up here. I'm really sorry". He made a face which I understood as I'm not happy about this but what else can I do, "Okay, just go through and you will find the road up ahead". I put my hands together as in prayer and said "gracias gracias gracias, por favor discúlpeme" and I scurried away.
I arrived to pick up the keys to the residence at Monzón at 7:30pm. This residence is similar to a college dorm, a decadent luxury by camino standards. You get your own private room and bathroom, a full shared kitchen, access to free laundry and high speed internet for 10 euros per night.
From my experience five years ago, I knew the person in charge could authorize an extra night, so I requested this when I wrote the email. It was granted, which was great because I really needed an extra day of rest.
This is the food I bought for my stay in Monzón. It proved to be just enough:
