Jerez de la Frontera - El Cuervo de Sevilla

The rather more than twenty-eight kilometres between Jerez de la Frontera and El Cuervo de Sevilla cross the Jerez countryside from south to north, following the corridor of the old Roman road. The profile is practically flat — the accumulated ascent and descent barely reach a hundred metres each — but the day is long and runs almost entirely in the open, with no shade and no reliable fountains, so an early start is advisable.

Leaving Jerez, the path puts the historic centre and the bodegas that ring it behind and moves straight out into the fields. The first kilometres run between vines planted on albariza, the white chalky soil that defines the Marco de Jerez, alternating with stud farms and whitewashed cortijos. At around the seventh kilometre the way reaches Guadalcacín, the largest of the settlement villages in the municipality of Jerez.

Beyond Guadalcacín the vineyard gradually gives way to cereal and sunflower. The route advances along broad, well-defined farm tracks, running straight for kilometres at a time, through a landscape of gentle rises and very wide horizons. Around the midpoint of the stage it passes Nueva Jarilla, another settlement village of the nineteen-fifties and the last place with services before the destination.

The final stretch drops almost imperceptibly towards the edge of the Guadalquivir marshes. The ground becomes flatter and damper, irrigation channels appear, and the clay surface can turn muddy after rain. It is the most monotonous part of the day and also the loneliest.

El Cuervo de Sevilla closes the stage and marks the crossing from the province of Cádiz into that of Seville. It is a young town, separated from Lebrija at the end of the twentieth century, grown up along the old national road and modern and functional in layout. It has no great heritage, but it offers every service the pilgrim needs and is the natural place to spend the night before continuing towards Lebrija and Las Cabezas.