The forecast was ugly, so we headed out as promptly as possible in an endeavour to beat the rain, putting our faith in the hourly forecast. A front passed through around dawn followed by generous winds ab’aft the beam, so with my rain poncho on, I had a great spinnaker run for the first couple of hours heading across the basin towards the hills.
The sunrise was brief but majestic as it appeared for all of one minute between the horizon and the frontal cloud. Conveniently a milario appeared for my photo del dia. The landscape is gradually changing, with areas of the dehesa now given over to crops and more intensive animal production. Salamanca is on the southern edge of the meseta, the large central plateau of Spain, so tomorrow we’ll probably see the last of the picaresque dehesa lands.
Our morning haste ( I was walking with Getard today) saw some benefits, as we made it to Morille just before the serious rain arrived. The peregrinos behind us got drenched while Gerard and I had showered and were enjoying a bottle of vino tinto with lunch at the local bar. Actually the bar is the only commercial establishment in Morille, so we’ll be back there for our evening sustenance as well!
While there were two villages along the way, neither had a bar open for coffee ( which in the case of the first town, defied even the posted opening hours on the blackboard outside). Walking to Morille today wad the alternative ‘bike’ route, slightly longer than my guidebook’s recommended destination, but the albergue in the town the book suggests has less than stellar reviews, and the path there can be challenging in the rain apparently. Die to the lack of stops (due to both closed cafes and the lack of enthusiasm in sitting on a wet rock in the light rain), we made record time, covering the 29.5 km at a pace of 10.22 per kilometre. This probably doesn’t count as a record due to the wind assistance. 😄
Update: we’ve been wandering around Morille. It’s clearly not your average farming village! Due to it’s proximity to Salamanca, it seems that folks are either commuting to the big city, or buying up houses as weekend retreats. Many houses have been restored to look like new, there is a new “holiday apartment” complex and an interesting art exhibit/ museum. Pics below.
2saunter 
Yes, you are correct. You need to walk it the other way within two hours of the conditions and wind pressure to set the record in, and then you can take the average.
Does the rain in Spain fall mainly on the plain?
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In the past couple of days the rain fell anywhere but the plain, which suited us just fine once we’d descended to the plain!
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