Stage 4: September 27, 2017 - San Muñoz to Alba De Yeltes (25.8km)

With a longer walk ahead of us we left the albergue at 7:00am and made good progress. The first two or three kilometres were on tarmac and mostly uphill. We stopped for breakfast after eight kilometres, eating part of the fine ham and cheese boccadillos prepared by the barman the previous evening.

This was described as the loneliest stage of the Camino Torres and after we left the tarmac we didn't see another person, vehicle or house for about 15 kilometres. 
Erosion made descent difficult


We had lots of hills to climb and dry riverbeds to cross on the latter half of the stage. 

 The path down to a couple of the riverbeds had been washed away making the descent quite difficult. I shouldn't complain, however, as walking at another time of the year could require long detours to the nearest bridge. 

 We were quite pleased with our progress, despite the heat of the day, until we tried to cross the final riverbed which was very wide. The path delineated by the GPS did not exist so there was some toing and froing before we were back on track. With the GPS back in my pocket we then made another mistake by not turning on to what seemed a little used path. 

The GPS eventually beeps when we go wrong so we were able correct our error. Extra metres matter at that end of the day but our spirits rose when we found the albergue was the first house in the village. Again it was a former school building, now also used as a community centre. 

An elderly man, who had been watching locals playing petanca, had recognised two Peregrinos in the distance and was quick to greet us. He showed us into the outer room of the albergue, a former classroom, and went off to look for Honoria who had the key to the other room.

Honoria,  the hospitalera, duly arrived and brought us into the back room which contained a desk, six beds, with sheets and pillow covers, and all that we needed to make coffee. Looking after the albergue, founded by her late husband, is clearly a labour of love for Honoria.

Based on the names in the visitors' book, it was a month since the previous peregrinos stayed in the albergue and there was no sign of Marius having passed through. In fact we never came across any trace of Marius after that. 

We had a fine meal, very reasonably priced, from a friendly bar a short distance from the albergue.
The erosion was more pronounced and the descent steeper further down 

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