Good tracks today through olives as well as some on road walking but generally good footing. Day started with appeals to ayuntomiento to source me a credencial. Veronica rang the tourist info in Castilblanco and miraculously a woman called Marta has promised to deliver one between1930-2000 this evening. I will believe it when I see it! A good day for birds today, started with 8 Egrets then 20 Azure Winged Magpies and finally 7 Griffin Vultures.After waiting for the non-existent Marta for 1 hour I rang the organisation responsible for issuing credencials in Sevilla, Los Amigos Del Camino. It was the first time their office had been open in 3 days or about 75Km lost if I had waited. They are undoubtedly volunteers so that is not a criticism and a very helpful man told me that if I had ignored the tourist offices advice that they have a sign on their door which explains which hostal to get a credencial from if they were closed! He assured me I could get a credencial in Castilblanco but from Elena, not Marta. I asked where the tourist office was and discovered that it was beside my hostal. It had no sign or opening times, as seems normal in Spain. The man who lived next door told me it was now closed for the winter, while another playing with his child told me it was 1000-1400. Spanish people are always very helpful but that sometimes includes telling you what they think you want to hear regardless of it's accuracy! Just after 0900 I noticed a window open in the building with no name. As I got closer I saw that the ground level looked closed and semi abandoned. However, the window that was open on the first level had stairs to it and I could see tourist pamphlets. Climbing the stairs in trepidation I found a well equiped tourist office run not by Marta, not by Elena but by Sonia! She sold me a credencial for 1€ (A cheaply photocopied piece of stiff paper) and I left as a properly accredited pilgrim. The whole thing was a typical Spanish experience. It involved meeting lots of people, being social with them, spending more time than necessary for such a simple task but everything works out in the end. You are smiling because your goal has been achieved at last. They are smiling in pity because you didn't come to them in the first place!
