El Real de la Jara - Monesterio 20km

I slept well despite my room being very cold. As I left the albergue I was hoping that I would meet Aurelio and I had barely gone a few steps when I saw him walking down the street towards me and so we set off together. The first 10 km from El Real to Monesterio is wide and fairly flat, but you have to be careful crossing the concrete channels that cross it at regular intervals as they can be quite slippy with moss and algae, but apart from that it's just a good steady walk. At 10 km there is an excellent modern and very large motorway service station, it has toilets and shops and a good cafe with fruit sellers in the car park. It is a great place to stop and rest and have some refreshments.

I was very glad to be with Aurelio because he had an electronic device that is the modern equivalent of a dog whistle. Dogs can be a problem on the camino, at least one guide book advises taking a walking stick with which to defend yourself or scare them off. As we were walking along two large and aggressive dogs, protecting the livestock, started barking and growling at us, one got out through a gap in the fence and came for us and I have no doubt that had it reached us we would have been in a very difficult situation, but Aurelio pointed the anti-dog device at it and the second he pushed the button the dog turned away back to the field. As soon as I get back home to Scotland I am buying one of those - dog walkers near where I live are not good at keeping dogs on a lead and they always say "he won't bite, he's just being friendly" as their dog comes bounding towards you growling with teeth bared ready to eat you alive in a friendly sort of way..

After a very brief stop (Aurelio says the longer you stop the harder it is to restart) we set off once again. The path from the service station is a mixture of narrow woodland paths and tarmac to wide gravel paths, and the last few km are mostly uphill in a series of rolling hills that get ever steeper. Once again I found myself struggling after a while, so Aurelio stopped me to say I was using my walking pole incorrectly and he took 10 mins to show me how to use it to help with the inclines and once he was satisfied I was using it correctly we set off and it really helped. As with the hill at Almadén, we were over the final hill in no time, and entered the outskirts of the town, passing the Museum of Jamón (yes that's a thing in Spain).

Aurelio wanted to go to the municipal albergue but the VDLP guidebook and Telegram channel both said that it was closed so I persuaded him to come with me to the Parish Albergue. He was glad he decided to come because the Parish Albergue is very good, it is donativo (donation) but better than many that charge 15€. The rooms are very clean, the bunk beds are well spaced out, the bathrooms are fab - great shower - it has a centrifuge to spin your clothes, a balcony to hang your washing out and where you can sit in the sun, as well as a fully stocked fridge and kitchen with basic foodstuffs that you can use for free or if you want to you can give a donation.

On the walk from the motorway service station in the middle of nowhere really, nailed to a tree, there was an advert for a podiatrist in Monesterio. It turned out they were only 100 metres from the albergue, so once I had done all I needed to in the albergue I went along to see if I could get an appointment. The podiatrist was in his mid 20's spoke a little English, and with my basic Spanish we were able to communicate. He sorted my blisters and told me not to walk for a few days...ehhh no that wasn't going to happen. So he very kindly made up a blister care package for me and explained what I needed to do each day, all for 20€ and following his instructions my blisters were totally healed within 4 days and I never had any more thereafter. The downside of going to the podiatrist was that I missed the afternoon meal and was too tired to go out for the evening menu, so I used some of the food at the albergue and made some sandwiches, Aurelio had bought some fruit and some magdalene cakes for us for breakfast.

With nothing more to do I looked at the guidebook for the next day and noted that the albergue in Fuente de Cantos (21km) was closed and having tried to book a bed in some private albergues I discovered that they were all full. Our only option was to walk a further 7km to Calzadilla de los Barros, it would be the furthest I had walked so far on the camino and the predicted temperature was in the high 30's so I was really not sure about it. Aurelio, said I was not to worry, he said he believed that I could do it and he would help me. So, we agreed to meet Keiko in the morning and set off very early whilst it was still dark, and with that, it was time for bed.Read more