Zamora to Montamarta

Not a lot happening on today’s walk but it was pleasant - sun but a cool breeze, flat, and a good distance of 18km. Poppies, poppies, new green wheat, ploughed fields and a gravel path.

I was planning to stay at the albergue at Montamarta, recently refurbished. Just as I was walking towards it I received a text from Guido, a nice Italian pelegrino slightly ahead, warning me that it had not been cleaned and was filthy. He was looking for a casa rural and suggested I do the same. The obvious choice has a proprietor with a poor reputation for his behaviour with women (verified by the locals) so that was out - even at my advanced age it’s a situation I’d prefer not to contemplate!

But instead, opposite the best restaurant in town, a lovely Casa Rural with a friendly and helpful female owner. My own room, ensuite bathroom, lounge, washing machine, sunny garden, sheets and, oh joy! Towels! Hate the little plastic sponge thing I’m carrying. All for £20. And in the room next door I ran into Jo - an Aussie girl with whom I was previously walking but who had got ahead doing 40km days. What a nice surprise and she seemed pleased to see me too.

Photos - lovely Zamora, walls and church, a stork apartment house on a church tower with every spot filled (the babies have hatched but without a telephoto lens they just look like white blobs - imagination needed!) And flowers, flat fields, the path and my Casa Rural lounge room.Read more