Baños to Valverde Valdecasa

I was up just before my alarm went off, and there was no point in staying any longer in the albergue than I had to. It had been incredibly hot through the night, the Spanish guy was near a window and he opened it wide but it made little difference. At one point in the night there was a torrential downpour of rain and that helped to cool things down a bit.

As is my habit, I had packed my bag the night before so that I wouldn't be fussing about in the morning disturbing anyone (I'm not a cyclist!). It was still dark and I wasn't sure how long the batteries on my head torch would last so I waited until it was almost 0600 before setting off, I could just about see and no more. The walk on the camino out of Baños begins with a 2.9km uphill climb rising 200m over that distance. However, the path is paved like a Roman road and only a little bit overgrown, so it was easy to walk on and before I got to the top the sun was rising. It is a fairly straight and monotonous walk to Calzada but I was glad to get there, and as I expected the only cafe in town was closed. I sat outside at one of the tables and took my shoes and socks off and let my feet cool down, whilst I drank some water and had a banana and a cake. It is definitely a village that is dying, some of the buildings look ready to collapse.

With no reason to stay, I moved on. It is a fairly pleasant walk from Calzada to Valverde Valdecasa, it is quite flat which can be a bit soul destroying as you sometimes don't feel like you are getting anywhere. It was a relief to finally get there, and the first thing I did was get a coffee and tostada at the bar, which was also where I had to register for the albergue which was just around the corner. It was not exactly as advertised, there was no kitchen or washing machine, but there was a good drying area.

A couple of hours later a Japanese man arrived, he didn't speak any English but I got that his name was Seiki and kept to himself, so I left him to it not wanting to disturb his privacy. As it happened I would meet him again the next day and we would be a help to one another. I called the private albergue in Fuenterroble that I had stayed in before, and booked a room, it cost twice as much as a municipal albergue, but I would have a room to myself, and a great shower.

Tomorrow would be a reasonably short day of just about 12 km, i think that might be the shortest stage i have done on the camino so far, and it is mostly on tarmac, though a lot of it is uphill. Still I wouldn't have to leave too early so I planned to have a proper breakfast in the cafe bar.Läs mer