The very lightly edited version of my report:
Cádiz
We started walking from Cádiz at 15.30 after finding the Santiago church closed - but we got sellos at the Cathedral and grabbed an extremely hurried lunch.
It’s a very, very nice walk to San Fernando, possibly a bit longer than the handbook says, but beautiful. The beaches, salt marshes and ocean views were really outstanding, and the nice locals had put plenty of benches out for us. But we hardly paused at all in order to get to town before dark. Which we did.
Now we’re in bed at Hostal San Marco, 43 Euros for a twin room if you order from their home page.
San Fernando (13.8 km)
We’re now in Puerto de Santa Maria after two lovely walks.
San Fernando to Puerto Real included an 8-km path along the train line next to a natural reserve for birds, lovely views, not a single train while we walked. Halfway was a platform with benches and a sign with pictures of the birds, but very sunbleached. And from PR to PdSM the way went through the wildlife park next to the university campus - quite stunning. Plenty of benches and places to exercise, should you need some extra sweating.
Restaurante La Plaza in Puerto Real has great tapas, by the way.
Puerto Real de Santa Maria (24.4 km)
Jerez de la Frontera was supposed to be an easy walk, but I have two large blisters and a sore knee. Still, we’re here, at an overpriced and noisy hotel.
Today was less interesting, visually, apart from a chance for some exploration. After about 8 km we passed what looked like an abandoned monastery, but actually, according to some locals on bikes, used to be rented for weddings and large parties. The place was wide open, so we looked around a bit on the ground floor.
Restaurant A Mar served us a wonderful lunch. Not cheap, but strongly recommended.
And the Cathedral, which we saw a few years ago, was lovely.
I must add that today we needed maps, the printed text from the pilgrim guide, GPS AND my son’s sharp eyes for yellow arrows to find the way. Not easy, especially when we were approaching Jerez.
Jerez de la Frontera (14.5 km)
I have torn open a blister, which does not look good. So we walked (me in Crocs) a bit in Jerez, had lunch and took a taxi to El Cuervo. We saw the yellow arrows from the taxi, so apparently, the Camino runs next to the road - boring!
Single rooms at Hostal Andalucia are 18 Euros. And most bars and restaurants are closed on Sunday evening, but we had some acceptable tapas.
Tomorrow we will go (limp) just 9 km, to Lebrija, in the hope of letting my blister heal a bit.
El Cuervo (27 km (taxi))
In Lebrija - nice walk along field and greenhouses, a couple of interesting road crossings, but not too bad if you’re taking care.
Well enough sign posted, this seems to vary a lot on the Augusta. Would not attempt without GPS.
On a personal note, blister better, but no fun. Walking 18 km tomorrow, unless blister gets a lot worse, planning to alternate between Crocs and shoes, and then we’ll skip the 32 km between Cabezas de San Juan and whatever the next place is called.
I’m coming back. I’d like to walk the whole Via Augusta some winter, without blisters or sniffles, and think I could manage to plan it to be OK for my husband to join me.
Lebrija (9.2 km)
Actually, it was close to 20 km to Cabezas de San Juan. Still no info on why John the Baptist has more than one head.
The first 14 km were nice, fields and along an irrigation canal, but then we had about 2 km of wading in deep mud. It rained a little yesterday.
Then we had one of the most frightening walks I’ve ever had, past a barnyard with a dead sheep on the path, and some very aggressive dogs. We were walking back to back at this point, sharing my poles, and the small black boss dog got close enough to try to bite one of the poles.
I would never walk that stretch alone or without poles, and if there’s been any rain in the last week, find another way without shoe-eating mud.
Cabezas de San Juan (18.3 km (supposedly)
To keep from aggravating my blister, which is healing nicely, we took the train from Cabezas to Utrera. There are very few trains.
Utrera (32,6 km (train))
Alcalá de Guadaira is nice, and the path is a lot like the Meseta. Endless fields, tractor ruts, most dogs behind fences. Two dog incidents, but none as aggressive as the ones yesterday.
Really nice day’s walk, rolling hills with pretty trees in the background.
We dropped by the Santiago church in town, nice sello, boring building.
Phoned to ask about the albergue here, but it’s full of homeless people, so we’re glad to pay for a hotel room.
Alcalá de Guadaira (18.7 km)
Lovely walk today, riverbanks and greenery. We went off the camino to go directly to the train station in Sevilla, where our hostal was, instead of visiting the Cathedral - but there were arrows that way, too, we discovered.
According to my GPS there’s a Santiago church 500m from here, we might go there instead of to the Cathedral. (There was, we did. Nice people.)
Sevilla (18,8 km)