Here we go again. Hope you're still walking with me because the middle part of that vehicle for FSA in Ethiopia is nearly a reality! Salamanca is around the corner and then Zamora. Unbelievable how fast time goes! I've finished over half of this Camino already!
Enjoy reading my story:
12/6: Cáparra
Last night before dinner a meeting convened to discuss the route of today. The guidebook suggests a 40km stretch, which is too long for this feast of Pentecost, so we are looking for an alternative. While discussing this, Signora Elena overhears us, she goes in, comes back with a piece of paper and finds herself a place at the table where we sit. She starts drawing from the bottom of the paper, and explaining, which she does many times a year, I guess, because many pilgrims have probably the same problem as we have. It turns out that the paper isn't long enough, so she continues drawing on the table....! Quite something.
This morning we set out with the paper of Elena, leaving the table where it is! Right at the end of the village we make already a mistake which is corrected after half an hour with the help of a farmer who ties his donkey to a tree and explains.... We go back, find the right track and off we go again. We leave the fertile valley in which Carcaboso lies, and climb up to walk for the rest of the day over the old Calzada Romana of which hardly anything is left over except the old milestones here and there. Long grass often obscures the path. Huge stones to the right and left. From where do they come, how did they end up here? Unbelieveble! When the path opens up to a sandy track we stop and see a huge heart made of red stones, right in the middle of the road, with the text: happy birthday, Hiro. It is our Japanese friend's birthday! He is visibly moved by this act of attention. Tonight we will properly celebrate. We continue walking for another couple of hours till Cáparra along the same path in between stone walls. Capárra is an old Roman settlement which still has this fantastically preserved granite arch, built by a general in honour of his parents! Also the ruins of the village are to be admired. There we phone a hostal, the owner of which picks us up by car. We do our normal things like washing and resting. In the evening we meet to celebrate Hiro's birthday with a real cake with candles and a bottle of liquer. A beautiful and sunny Pentecost feast it was! The Spirit all over.....
13/6: Bagnos de Montemayor
The spirits were all over last night as well..... Still we manage tto get up reasonably in time to take up our walking. The owner of the hostal shows us an alternative route which connects us after about 4 km with the Camino. Same kind of track as yesterday: the old cazada romana meandering along the hills, avoiding the heights. It is wide, lined with age-old stone fences. None of the orginal pavement is left, only a sandy path which becomes increasingly muddy because water comes down from the mountains. We manage avoiding wet feet only by using the stones which earlier pilgrims have put ready for us.... Huge bolders and corkoak catch the eye, and so walk after a number of hours enjoying the surroundings into Villanueva for a rest, We find a small shop to buy a couple of things and sit down for a decent cup of coffee and a rest. The celebrartioj of last night is felt..... Up again and the last 10 km to Bagnos de Montmayor, a famous spa in this area. The romans discovered healing water , used it themselves and made others use it till now. It is a small town full of hotels and hostals for people coming from everywhere to get rid of respiratory troubles.....because of the water! I'm not sure, dear Co-walker, but water is good anyway....! Bagnos de Montemayor, high at a pass in the mountains, is also the border between the regions Extramadura, which we leave, and Castilla y Leon, which we enter. At the same time we leave the province of Caceres and enter the province of Salamanca....... We go fast I realize, the town of Salamanca only a couple of days away. Our Catalan friends Nuria and Cesc are already there with info where to to find a bed fitting our purses...... We roll out our mats in a municipal hostal which is at the same time a kind of museum of the Calzada Romana: spacy and restful.
14/6: Valverde de Valdelacasa
After a rest late afternoon yesterday we meet again in town to take properly leave of our Catalan friends Cesc and Nuria. These young people are tremendous. Very alive, very cumminicative, very caring. We grew close in not more than a week.... We eat and drink, time running away from us. It is late when the last goodbye sounds before going to sleep. They will stay on in bed a bit as we try and leave early to make a 33km stretch....!
We leave the town via the original and unspoilt Cazada Romana, reach the pas and cross into Castilla y Leon. Ee follow the same Calzada here but the roman pavement isn't anymore there. A sandy path/road is our way. Beautiful flowers, birds I never heard before! The valley in front of us is again different from the one of yesterday. The holdings are much smaller. Cows with an unusual colour. Grazing areas smaller and fenced in using granite slaps and barbed wire. It is really not difficult walking, dear Co-walker, but Hiro, our Japanese companion, does have his day. Too much celebrations! His rucksack is heavy and he starts walking with his body weighing to the right.... At Calzada de Bejar we take a rest and Hiro decides hat he is not continuing with us: he's too tired. We rest foor a long time, have a coffee and he seens fit again to go for an another our till the next village. Ralph, one of our German friends exchanges his rucksack with Hiro, and off we go again. It helps because without resting anymore we reach Valverde de Valdelacasa where we look for a roof to sleep under. Signora Sisi has the key to a house where we find beds and water... There is no shop in the village, but it has a bar at the community house where signora Rebecca opens the kitchen for us..... In save hands again for the night!
So, dear Co-walker, That's my story of the last three days,
13/6: Bagnos de Montemayor
The spirits were all over last night as well..... Still we manage tto get up reasonably in time to take up our walking. The owner of the hostal shows us an alternative route which connects us after about 4 km with the Camino. Same kind of track as yesterday: the old cazada romana meandering along the hills, avoiding the heights. It is wide, lined with age-old stone fences. None of the orginal pavement is left, only a sandy path which becomes increasingly muddy because water comes down from the mountains. We manage avoiding wet feet only by using the stones which earlier pilgrims have put ready for us.... Huge bolders and corkoak catch the eye, and so walk after a number of hours enjoying the surroundings into Villanueva for a rest, We find a small shop to buy a couple of things and sit down for a decent cup of coffee and a rest. The celebrartioj of last night is felt..... Up again and the last 10 km to Bagnos de Montmayor, a famous spa in this area. The romans discovered healing water , used it themselves and made others use it till now. It is a small town full of hotels and hostals for people coming from everywhere to get rid of respiratory troubles.....because of the water! I'm not sure, dear Co-walker, but water is good anyway....! Bagnos de Montemayor, high at a pass in the mountains, is also the border between the regions Extramadura, which we leave, and Castilla y Leon, which we enter. At the same time we leave the province of Caceres and enter the province of Salamanca....... We go fast I realize, the town of Salamanca only a couple of days away. Our Catalan friends Nuria and Cesc are already there with info where to to find a bed fitting our purses...... We roll out our mats in a municipal hostal which is at the same time a kind of museum of the Calzada Romana: spacy and restful.
14/6: Valverde de Valdelacasa
After a rest late afternoon yesterday we meet again in town to take properly leave of our Catalan friends Cesc and Nuria. These young people are tremendous. Very alive, very cumminicative, very caring. We grew close in not more than a week.... We eat and drink, time running away from us. It is late when the last goodbye sounds before going to sleep. They will stay on in bed a bit as we try and leave early to make a 33km stretch....!
We leave the town via the original and unspoilt Cazada Romana, reach the pas and cross into Castilla y Leon. Ee follow the same Calzada here but the roman pavement isn't anymore there. A sandy path/road is our way. Beautiful flowers, birds I never heard before! The valley in front of us is again different from the one of yesterday. The holdings are much smaller. Cows with an unusual colour. Grazing areas smaller and fenced in using granite slaps and barbed wire. It is really not difficult walking, dear Co-walker, but Hiro, our Japanese companion, does have his day. Too much celebrations! His rucksack is heavy and he starts walking with his body weighing to the right.... At Calzada de Bejar we take a rest and Hiro decides hat he is not continuing with us: he's too tired. We rest foor a long time, have a coffee and he seens fit again to go for an another our till the next village. Ralph, one of our German friends exchanges his rucksack with Hiro, and off we go again. It helps because without resting anymore we reach Valverde de Valdelacasa where we look for a roof to sleep under. Signora Sisi has the key to a house where we find beds and water... There is no shop in the village, but it has a bar at the community house where signora Rebecca opens the kitchen for us..... In save hands again for the night!
So, dear Co-walker, That's my story of the last three days,
Thanks for walking with me.
I hope and wish you're in good shape and happy,
says Jan, the pilgrim
says Jan, the pilgrim
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