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Camino Via de la Plata 2022
  • Norman Graham
apr. – jun. 2022

Camino Via de la Plata 2022

Walking from Sevilla to Santiago de Compostela Les mer
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  • Reisens start
    30. april 2022
    Norman GrahamCamino Via de la Plata 2022Norman Graham

    Sevilla - Guillena 23 km

    30. april 2022, Spania ⋅ ☀️ 32 °C

    After one aborted attempt to walk the Via de la Plata in 2018 and five years of planning, today I finally set off to begin that journey again, this blog is simply a record of that journey.

    The day did not start very well. I woke up having slept only a couple of hours, and headed off to the airport saying goodbye to Barbara, this trip would be the longest we have been apart in 35 years. I had arrived at the airport too early, and the Ryanair baggage drop was not yet open and so I had to wait nearly an hour before depositing my backpack. On a positive note I got through security in no time at all, and made my way to the departure gate, excited and a bit nervous too. The flight was only notable for the rude guy in the aisle opposite me who kept taking his mask off and the fact that the landing in Sevilla was the hardest landing I have ever experienced in over 40 years of flying, it was emergency stop level braking.

    Given the popularity of Sevilla as a holiday destination, the airport is surprisingly small, and despite many, many hours online trying to work out the Spanish entry requirements re: covid, no one even asked to see my digital covid vaccine passport. Another example of stressing over nothing.

    Once out of the airport, instead of spending a couple of days in the city, I got into a taxi to take me to Santiponce, about 10-12 km outside Sevilla and I put on my (too heavy) backpack and started walking. I had walked the road from Sevilla to Santiponce before and apart from the fact that the walk is unremarkable, I wanted to reach Guillena and lacked the time to start from the city. From the comfort of my sofa at home this seemed like a good idea but turned out to be a colossal mistake (more on that later).

    It's only about 13 km from the gates of Italica in Santiponce to Guillena but I found it more difficult than I had expected, the heat was a shock to the system, and the path seemed to have more hills than I remembered from my ill-fated walk in 2018. When I got to the river it was impassable (by mid June it will have all but dried up) but the local Friends of the Camino had laid an iron girder across it, and that saved me having to double back on a longer detour.

    Not long after crossing the river I noticed a fitness tracker lying on the path, upon checking it I noted the number of steps and the distance and I guessed that it belonged to another peregrino, so I pocketed it in the hope they were probably heading to an albergue in Guillena.

    By the time I arrived in Guillena I was feeling quite wobbly, my legs were ok but the rest of me wasn't. I checked into the Albergue Luz del Camino, it was the first one listed in Gerard Kelly's guidebook. I wasn't too impressed. The showers were not great, the water was not particularly hot and the hook for the shower attachment was broken and so I had to hold the shower head (this would be a feature of many albergues still to come). Just as I was about to go into the shower I began to shiver uncontrollably and had to sit on the chair in the shower room for 15 mins before it passed. Afterwards I went for a lie down on my bunk.

    There was a restaurant just along the street and a number of pilgrims seemed to be eating there, so I went there for dinner. The owner of the restaurant did not speak any English at all, this would also be a feature of almost every village and town I would go through or stay in. Many of the Spanish people I met (mostly in albergues, shops, cafes and bars) seemed to speak some French and/or Italian but no English. So my first top tip for any would-be peregrino, is to learn the basics of Spanish, even if your grammar and pronunciation are terrible, the goal is communication and locals seem to appreciate it when you make the effort. I was very grateful for Google Translate and my friend Ken who had spent a lot of time and effort teaching me the basics of Spanish. I managed to reserve beds, order meals, and pay for rooms without accidentally asking anyone to marry me or sell me their horse.

    The food was excellent, and as the place filled up with more peregrinos I asked if anyone had lost a fitness tracker, and an older French lady very excitedly said yes, and sure enough it was hers. she was delighted to get it back.

    The room in the albergue was small with 3 sets of bunk beds, the heat in the room, with no fan or air con, was stifling, and to make things worse, it was right on the main road, I ought to have slept soundly as I was so tired but I was kept awake by the traffic roaring past the window ALL night.

    I was glad to leave in the morning, which I did quite early, while it was still dark, using my head-torch and Google Maps to guide me out of town, onto the camino towards Castilblanco de los Arroyos.    Les mer

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  • Norman GrahamCamino Via de la Plata 2022Norman Graham

    Guillena - Castilblanco 18km

    1. mai 2022, Spania ⋅ ☀️ 32 °C

    I was up reasonably early, it was still quite dark but as I followed Google Maps, I began to remember the way out of the town. Ken had given me some euros to buy a coffee at the Repsol station just about 1 km outside the town and I was pleased to see they they had expanded the café since I was last here. I was less pleased to see that it didn't open until 0900...coffee would have to wait.

    Although I was very tired I enjoyed the walk, and as the sun eventually rose I didn't really begin to feel the heat of it until about 1030 due the the ample shade along the path. I noticed that there were more official way markers than I remembered from last time, I guess the local authorities and Friends of the Camino have put their time to good use during the covid lockdowns. However, official way markers or not, my walk was about to become less enjoyable.

    It may have been because I was very tired but I somehow missed a way marker and went in the wrong direction, for about 3.5km, before I realised something was up. I checked Google Maps to confirm my suspicion and then walked back the 3.5km to the point I went wrong, looked more carefully and saw the way marker I had missed.

    By this time I should have been in the albergue in Castilblanco and the temperature had increased considerably, it was about 30° - 32°, but I still had about 8 km to go. After a while I began to feel quite sick and dizzy and I had to keep stopping for a rest. I was hugely relieved when I saw the sign for the town as I knew the albergue was not far beyond it. To be honest, I was so tired and feeling so sick that if it had been another 10 metres away, I don't think I would have made it.

    Lying on my bunk, my heart was racing, my head was spinning, I felt sick and slightly disoriented, my anxiety levels were high and I began to catastrophize about the walk in general and the next day's walk in particular (28 km on the road with no shade and no rest points along the way). I felt like I would have to quit the camino, I even began to look up flights home, but in a moment of self-awareness I realised that there was something else going on. So, while we still have an NHS, I used their online diagnostic tool to check things out before I made a bad decision. Once I put in all my symptoms it came back with a diagnosis of heat exhaustion, and gave treatment options, which I then followed. I realised I should have taken at least a day or two to acclimatise to the Spanish weather before starting the camino, lesson learned. After a few hours I began to feel much better and my thoughts became more rational. I was still concerned about the walk the next day, for, at that point, I still did not feel well enough to go the full distance, especially on the open road. I prayed for wisdom.

    Just at that very moment the lady in the bed next to mine suddenly turned to me and said that she and her husband were getting a taxi in the morning to the entrance to the National Park (16km away) and were going to walk that route to Almaden de la Plata, (her husband had plantar fasciitis). In a nanosecond a whole new scenario ran through my mind and so I immediately asked if I could join them as I was not feeling great and she said yes. I think that it was a decision that saved my camino experience, and more so, it began a friendship with two of the loveliest people I have ever met, Robert and Ana María. Robert was from Gibraltar and Ana María from Argentina and they were walking the camino to raise funds for GHITA (Gibraltar Hearing Issues and Tinnitus Association) You can donate here:
    https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/longwal…

    With plans for tomorrow settled, I went out to see if I could find dinner somewhere, but it was Sunday and everywhere was closed (typical in Spain between 1400 and 1730). I did however find a shop and managed to buy some bread and ham and some fruit for the next day.

    I ended up having a good night's sleep, undisturbed even by the multitude of snorers in the room.    Les mer

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  • Norman GrahamCamino Via de la Plata 2022Norman Graham

    Castilblanco - Almadén de la Plata 29km

    2. mai 2022, Spania ⋅ ☀️ 30 °C

    Having had a good night's sleep I was up and ready well before the taxi came at 0730, most of the peregrinos had left by 0630, trying to get as far as possible before it got really hot. The temperatures here are more than 10 degrees above average for this time of year and we expect it to get a lot hotter over the next couple of weeks. The taxi arrived and before long we were sorting our backpacks at the gates of the park, having passed all the other peregrinos on the road.

    The walk through the park was tremendous, I felt a lot better, there was plenty of shade and a cool breeze and Robert and Ana María were delightful company. We walked at a leisurely pace and chatted and got to know a bit about one another, the views were stunning, and there was plenty of wildlife and fauna to capture our attention as we walked along. The path was smooth and relatively flat with only a few inclines. It was one of the most pleasant walks of my camino.

    It was as we got near the end I remembered why many people opt to walk the 28km on the road rather than detour through the park. Right at the end of the park, just before you come to Almadén de la Plata, there is a famously steep hill. I had forgotten about it. I always struggled when going uphill, finding it hard to breathe at times and with a pressure on my chest, I was not looking forward to this and indeed I was finding it very difficult to keep up with Ana María (73) and Robert (77). At roughly the halfway point there is a memorial stone to a peregrino who died on the hill a few years ago, all I could think as I struggled to keep going was that there would soon be a second memorial there with my name on it!

    I think Robert and Ana María could see I was struggling so we stopped for a rest, took our backpack off and had some water, and as we got going again they took a few moments to talk me through and show me how to walk up a steep incline. I followed their guidance and before I knew it we were at the top. I had made it. Every time I reached the top of a steep incline thereafter, I took a moment to quietly thank God for Robert and Ana María.

    The walk downhill was somewhat longer and just as steep but they talked me through how to walk downhill (zig zag) to reduce the pressure and strain on my knees and hips. So, we walked into Almadén together, they had booked a room at a private albergue the Hostal Casa Concha, and that sounded good to me, certainly better than a bunk bed in a dormitory. So, I went with them and managed to get a single room with by own toilet and shower, it was more expensive than the municipal albergue but totally worth it. I was able to relax and recuperate after a difficult start to my camino, and had a very filling and satisfying dinner with Robert and Ana María in the Hostal restaurant.

    I also discovered that I had a couple of very large blisters, probably due to the heat, my boots were well worn in but it was 20 degrees hotter than Scotland, they had burst and so I dressed them as best I could and went to bed. I had the best night's sleep on the camino so far, and I was actually looking forward the the walk the next day, even with blisters.    Les mer

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  • Norman GrahamCamino Via de la Plata 2022Norman Graham

    Almadén - El Real de la Jara 14km

    3. mai 2022, Spania ⋅ ⛅ 29 °C

    I had a great sleep and was only awakened once by a loud burst of thunder and heavy rain but it did not last long. After a quick breakfast of coffee, toast and jam with Robert and Ana María, we set off, on the way out of town we met Aurelio, a Spanish peregrino and he joined us for the day.

    As I had been exploring the Via de la Plata app on my phone I discovered that it had a copy of the author's GPS trace of the camino and that it identifies your position in relation to that. In short, it meant as long as I followed his GPS trace, I shouldn't get lost again (reader I never did). It added a lot of confidence in the weeks ahead especially when I was walking on my own, in fact a couple of times I was able to save other peregrinos from going the wrong way.

    The walk to El Real was as pleasant as I had hoped it would be, I remembered some of it from my 2-week walk in 2018, though some of it was new to me, either Ken and I had gone the wrong way (VERY possible) or the camino had shifted and to be fair that was also possible. Like the day before, the paths were mostly wide and level with a few inclines. The view was great and the conversation was also, that said by the last 5km, I was really beginning to feel those blisters and my right hip was very sore.

    El Real appears very suddenly, one minute you are walking along a wooded path and the next you are in the street, and so we all parted company in the middle of the town and went off to our various albergues. Robert and Ana María were in a private albergue as was I at the far end of town, Keiko, a Japanese lady from New York whom I had met in Castilblanco was also staying there, and over the next few weeks we would become friends and companions on the road.

    Aurelio stayed in the municipal, where he met and had a great conversation with a French couple whom I would eventually meet and who would be part of my camino for a number of weeks. On our walk I had shown Aurelio how to use Google Translate, especially the conversation feature, he knew a few words of English but otherwise spoke only Spanish. Google Translate opened up a whole new world for him and he was overjoyed at being able to converse, albeit slowly with people from other countries.

    We all met up with one another for an excellent dinner, then we all left to get on with whatever tasks we had to do for tomorrow. I did a little bit of shopping (fruit and earplugs), looked at the guidebook for tomorrow, though I remembered the road well, it was the walk to Monesterio that really finished my camino in 2018. So, I was feeling quite negative about it, but I remembered that it says in the Sermon on the Mount not to worry about tomorrow, for today has enough troubles of its own. I thought I should give that a go.

    As is so often the case in these small villages and towns there's nothing much to do in the evenings so I wrote in my journal, packed my mochila for the next day and went to bed.    Les mer

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  • Norman GrahamCamino Via de la Plata 2022Norman Graham

    El Real de la Jara - Monesterio 20km

    4. mai 2022, Spania ⋅ ⛅ 29 °C

    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.    Les mer

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  • Norman GrahamCamino Via de la Plata 2022Norman Graham

    Monesterio - Calzadilla 28km

    5. mai 2022, Spania ⋅ ⛅ 24 °C

    Aurelio, Keiko, and I set off together in the darkness, the path was clearly marked and although my feet were sore, we made good time in the cool of the early morning, it was like the start of a good joke; a Scotsman, a Spaniard and a Japanese woman went for a walk...

    Keiko is 70 and has lived in New York for many years but spends a lot of time doing walks all over the world, she was not a fast walker but Aurelio and I were happy to keep her company, she was funny and asked us lots of questions. As the sun began to climb Keiko insisted that we press on and leave her, she was happy to walk at her own pace and so we said our goodbyes and Aurelio and I sped up to our own natural pace. It was just as well we did for the camino path seemed to go on forever, we could see it winding its way across the countryside for many km. After a couple of hours the heat really began to build up and there was no shade. Aurelio was true to his word that he would help me on the walk, making sure that we stopped regularly for a short rest and some water and snacks, and every so often as I walked behind him he would say "Norman OK?" to which I always said "Si, bueno" even though at times I didn't feel very bueno. Some of the hills we had to climb were not very steep but they were very long and just seemed to go on and on. However, after about 4.5 hours we found ourselves in Fuente de Cantos, where we stopped for an ice cold cerveza and coffee and a cake.

    Aurelio doesn't like stopping for too long so we pressed on. The last 7 km was really hard going, there was no shade and the heat was brutal and seemed to bounce off the path back at us. My mochilla felt heavier with every step, but Aurelio wouldn't let us take it easy he kept us pressing on, because the best way to get out of the heat and rest was to reach our destination. It is one of the key aspects of the camino, that there is often nothing between point A and point B and no matter how difficult it is you have to just keep going putting one foot in front of the other until you get there. We could see our destination in the distance, but it didn't seem to be getting any closer as the path wound its way across the landscape, until suddenly we were there. We had left Monesterio just before 7am and arrived in Calzadilla de los Barros at 1pm.

    The place we were staying, the Hostal Los Rodreguez, was on the far side of the town but the camino went right past the door so it was going to be a quick start the next day. It was more of a motel than an albergue and cost 15€ (average price for an albergue in Extremadura) but absolutely not worth it. Aurelio and I shared a room, it had the smallest bathroom ever, but the shower was ok, and there was a hole in the door that looked like it had been kicked in. The food was ok but not great, and the staff were quite unfriendly, it was noticeable because up until that point everyone we had met had been very friendly and helpful.

    I was very relieved when Keiko arrived a few hours later, I was worried about her walking on her own but she is independent, tough and there's no stopping her. I have been constantly challenged by the resilience and stamina of the people I have met, many of whom are a lot older than me. I suspect there is a connection with their obvious physical and mental well being and the fact that they are all either training to walk a camino or walking one. It is worth reflecting on.    Les mer

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  • Norman GrahamCamino Via de la Plata 2022Norman Graham

    Calzadilla de los Barros- Zafra 18km

    6. mai 2022, Spania ⋅ ☀️ 34 °C

    The good thing about not getting a room in Fuente de Cantos was that we were about 7 km closer to Zafra, our next stopping point. Aurelio and I left very early, it was pitch dark but we knew that the first 3 km was all on the main road so we were not too worried about missing a sign. Ironically we would miss one in daylight. We saw the sign taking us off the road and followed it for a while...until we came to a dead end, when we retraced our steps about 2 km we found that there was a yellow arrow painted on a rock but it was obscured by long grass. We trampled down the grass so no one else would make the same mistake, and we set off again. Our mistake has cost us nearly an hour, having added 4km onto our day.

    Despite our unintended detour, we had a good walk, the path was mostly flat with a few long but gentle slopes and so we made good time. However, I was glad to see Puebla de Sancho Perez just a short distance ahead and we stopped there for a quick coffee in the main plaza before continuing on towards Zafra just about 4.5 km away.

    I had planned to stay at the Albergue Convento San Francisco in Zafra but Aurelio was going on another 4 km to Los Santos de Maimona, so we would be saying goodbye in Zafra. Aurelio had been a true companion and friend on the camino and I felt that I was going to miss his company. I will certainly never forget him and the help he gave me along the way. It is said that on the camino you will find help and friendship, often unlooked for, and I found that to be true.

    The albergue was in a former convent and was a lovely building on the far side of Zafra (less to walk tomorrow), and the hospitalera was really nice and helpful, but the albergue itself was lacking in some key areas. I was in a large room with two sets of bunk beds and a shower room, there was also a unit of lockers. However, the door to the shower didn't close, the lockers didn't lock, and the heavy wooden shutters on the long window didn't close properly either - I had to wedge them shut with my mochila. Furthermore, there were two gents and two ladies toilets and a disabled toilet but both the gents toilets and one of the ladies toilets were out of order, so not great. If I had not already paid my 15€ I would have packed up and gone on to Los Santos with Aurelio (apparently Keiko went there also).

    I went out to the shops before siesta, there was a SPAR just around the corner, and I got all the supplies I needed for the next day. Just across the street from the SPAR was a restaurant that the hospitalera had recommended so I went over, ordered a cerveza and was looking at the menu del dia when Robert and Ana María arrived and they joined me for a late lunch. The food was good and the conversation and company were excellent.

    I thought about wandering round Zafra, it's a lovely place, but I had seen it before and I was tired and needed to attend to my blisters which were healing nicely. when I got back to the albergue I discovered that I had a roommate, a Korean man (who looked a lot older than me but turned out to be 5 years younger. He only spoke Korean but used Google Translate as best he could. I was very surprised to find later that he had gone out for dinner but had left his tablet/touchscreen laptop and mobile phone on his bedside table. Crime is not a major issue on the Via de la Plata but peregrinos are advised to use common sense and be security aware, especially with any valuables.

    When he went to sleep he lay on top of his bunk fully clothed, with his hands clasped on his chest like a corpse in a funeral home. He also made the loudest noise I have ever heard come from a human being, snoring does not do it justice, it was epic. He would "snore" for a few minutes then stop for a few minutes then start again. It went on and on. As I lay there trying to sleep I found myself getting annoyed (I am normally not easily annoyed). I actually shouted at him to turn over, no response. I turned on the lights and shouted louder, no response. I went over to him and banged on the side of his bed and loudly told him to turn over, no response. I went back to bed expecting to be awake all night, annoyed at the prospect of doing a 20 km walk the next day with little or no sleep.

    As I lay in bed thinking about it, I suddenly realised that the greatest danger to me was not to walk 20 km with little or no sleep, rather, my greatest danger was to hold anger in my heart towards another human being made in the image of God and loved by him. That anger would change me and damage me more. Anger, leads to un-forgiveness, which leads to bitterness, which leads to the dark side. So, I prayed for a change of heart, and after a few moments I was calm and my blood pressure was normal again and I accepted the fact that I was probably going to be awake all night...and that's all I remember, because the Korean man stopped making his epic noise and I fell asleep within minutes.    Les mer

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  • Norman GrahamCamino Via de la Plata 2022Norman Graham
    2

    Zafra - Villafranca de los Barros 20km

    7. mai 2022, Spania ⋅ ☀️ 31 °C

    After a surprisingly good sleep I got up and had breakfast (yoghurt and banana) and set off about 0630, it was still dark though dawn was getting earlier, but I remembered the way out of Zafra and it was very clearly marked. So, I wasn't worried about getting lost, and thus far the VDLP app GPS had been accurate, that said I was always thankful when I saw a yellow arrow or official way marker.

    I reached the top of the hill above Los Santos just as the sun was rising over the horizon. The walk to Villafranca was uneventful, part of the path was a bit flooded and muddy but other than that it was a nice walk, I met Keiko navigating the flooded bits, she had left Los Santos early, and also the Korean man whom I discovered had not one but two packs, one on his back and one in front. He also wore a white cotton thing that covered most of his face and neck, all you could see was his eyes, it looked strange. He walked quickly with his large mobile phone held out in front of him, he also was using a GPS to keep on the right path.

    I had hoped to stop for a coffee at a village midway but it turned out to be a detour off the camino so I just kept going. I arrived in Villafranca around 11am to find that the albergue didn't open until 1pm, however the friendly hospitalero let me pick a bed and leave my mochila. I went out to a cafe in the plaza mayor and had coffee and a snack and then went to a supermarket for fresh supplies before they closed for siesta. I ended up buying some rolls and cooked meat and I had that for dinner later in the day.

    The albergue is very nice, clean and modern and everything works, good showers too. Once I registered at the albergue I sorted my washing out, they had a washing machine and for a few euros the hospitalero would do your washing. Keiko and I put ours in a basket as we were together on the top floor. When I went to get it back he had lost the bottom half of my cut off trousers, it took him about 30 mins to find them, but it was good to get stuff washed in a machine. Normally you have to wash your clothes in a designated sink in cold water with a bar of soap...not great for technical fabrics. Not even Rohan gear can survive that for too long.

    Villafranca is a nice town, but there's not much for a visitor to do and by 1400 everything is closed, except for a couple fo cafes. The church in the square was busy, it looked like there were a number of kids having their first communion/confirmation today, their families all dressed up in their Sunday best.

    Back at the albergue I packed my bag for the next day, the walk tomorrow is a bit of a concern, it is 28 km with very long very straight sections following the old Roman road, but there is zero shade and the temperature is expected to be around 34° by mid-morning. Keiko was a bit worried about the heat and wanted to leave at 0500 and I couldn't let her go that early in the dark on her own so I agreed to go with her. So, I packed my bag and went to bed early.    Les mer

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  • Norman GrahamCamino Via de la Plata 2022Norman Graham

    Villafranca- Torremejía 28km

    8. mai 2022, Spania ⋅ ☀️ 36 °C

    We set off as planned and made very good time, once we were out of the town we had to use our head torches.

    Unfortunately, my hat fell off my backpack, of course I didn't discover it until I actually needed to wear it once the sun was up. It was a real problem because the heat was absolutely brutal and there was zero shade for the entire walk. I ended up putting my shemagh over my head and using my head torch to keep it in place, it looked quite ridiculous but it worked. I prayed that someone would find my hat because I would not have an opportunity to buy another one until we got to Mérida.

    Once it was properly daylight Keiko insisted that I walk ahead at my own pace, so we said goodbye, I knew that there were plenty of peregrinos behind us, and I was expecting her to arrive at the albergue in Torremejía, if she didn't turn up by a certain time, I would go look for her.

    The walk was very tedious, long straight paths in a flat featureless landscape, you could walk for a couple of hours and feel like you hadn't gone anywhere and the heat was absolutely fierce, there was nowhere to escape it on that path and the only place to sit was in a ditch or on one of the official way marker stones. I was sitting on one of them when a Spanish cyclist came hurtling by, stopped and came back to where I was to ask me if I was ok, which was nice. In my experience most Spanish people I met really respected the fact that you were walking a camino and they wanted you to be safe and enjoy the experience.

    I was very tired and glad to finally get to the outskirts of the town, the albergue I wanted to stay in was on the far side of course, and when I arrived it was closed so I called the number on the door but there was no answer. I went across the street to the café/bar and had coffee and a snack, and they said that they thought it was going to be closed all day. Knowing that there were a lot of peregrinos behind me I hurried up to the other albergue whilst there were still beds available. I got booked in and I'm glad I did, it was very nice and the hospitalero was friendly (Liverpool supporter), and the showers were great. By mid afternoon the albergue was full. It turned out he also owned the cafe bar and had a deal for the albergue and a meal. Once I had picked my bed and sorted all my stuff I went back to the café/bar for more coffee.

    Just then Robert and Ana María arrived and asked me if I had lost something...they had been walking along in the darkness when the light of Robert's torch picked out my hat lying on the path and Ana María said "that's Norman's hat!" If they had been walking a foot either side on what was a wide path, they would never have seen it. Some people might say that was a coincidence but for me it was a camino miracle. In my experience most miracles are to be found in the small, ordinary things of life, we don't often see them because we are looking in the wrong place for the wrong thing, looking for something less ordinary. Once again, as would so often be the case on the camino, I went to bed thankful.    Les mer

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  • Norman GrahamCamino Via de la Plata 2022Norman Graham
    1

    Torremejía - Mérida 16km

    9. mai 2022, Spania ⋅ ⛅ 25 °C

    Even though it was a short walk today (15km) I got up early simply because I was awake and I've never been good at just lying in bed, I like to get up and get on with things. I had paid for breakfast so I went down to the café and had my usual breakfast: café con leche caliente grande, tostada con mantichilla y marmalada (that's not marmalade - I'm allergic to oranges, marmalada is the Spanish word for jam). Before long other peregrinos arrived, and because it was a short walk today I took my time, had more coffee and stayed and chatted with some folks. Then, as if by some silent, secret signal, a whole bunch of us got up at the same time and set off together.

    From Torremejía the camino follows the road for about 7 km before heading off into the countryside, again the path was fairly level and well marked, it was hot but a bit cloudy so we didn't have to cope with baking sunlight. The six of us were from Scotland, Germany, Switzerland, and New Zealand and the conversation flowed as we walked. It was unusual for me, because for the most part I had either walked on my own or with people who preferred to walk rather than talk.

    It felt like we had only just got into our stride when we arrived at the great Roman bridge in Mérida, 1800 years old and still in use today, although it was closed to motor traffic a few years ago.

    The albergue was exactly as I remembered it, but I had to wait an hour before it opened which was fine, I just pulled up a chair on the terrace, took off my boots and sat in the sun - the hard life of a peregrino. The albergue is pretty standard, a dormitory with 10 sets of bunk beds in a row, a shower/toilet for the chicos and one for the chicas, and a small kitchen with no utensils or pots and a sink for washing clothes with no plug, fortunately, I had remembered to bring my own plug and a few clothes pegs.

    I followed my usual routine, got showered, washed my clothes went to a supermarket. I walked around the town for a while and took a few photographs but I was here for 2 days in 2018 so I didn't feel the need to explore too much. By the time I was hungry a lot of the restaurants had closed and the ones that were open didn't have a menu del dia. However, thanks to Google I found a Domino's Pizza just 2km walk away, I was the only sit-in customer and the pizza was great.

    I had an early night, listening to some music and reading, then it was lights out ready for the next day.    Les mer

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  • Norman GrahamCamino Via de la Plata 2022Norman Graham

    Mérida - Alcuéscar 34km

    10. mai 2022, Spania ⋅ ☀️ 37 °C

    It was difficult to get to sleep last night, it was unbearably hot, at 1am it was still 29° but felt hotter in the dormitory, very sweaty, I think future archeologists will look at my bedsheet as a peregrino version of the Turin shroud. Thank God for Sudocream!

    I was up and away before 0630 it was still dark but I knew the way out past the Roman viaduct, by the time I was out of the city it was light enough to see the yellow arrows. I was walking on my own which was a bit lonely but it gave me time to think about my life choices.

    It was 6 km to the embalse but it was quick as it was all on a cycle/pedestrian path to the side of the road. I paused at the embalse for a few pictures and some refreshments, no cafes open though. After the embalse I continued on another very quiet road for a further 4 km before going off road onto a sandy path marked by bike tyre tracks. A couple of km from Aljucén I stopped for a coffee, as I was finishing I saw a young German guy called Lucas and so we walked the rest of the way to Aljucén together. His English was excellent, and we had a very enjoyable chat until we parted ways at Aljucén (17 km from Mérida) where I had planned to stay at the albergue.

    I found the albergue but it was closed, I translated the message on the door telling me to get the key from the bar, so I went then but it was all closed up with no sign of any activity. I went over the church were a lady was sweeping the path and asked when the bar would be open - tomorrow she said. Apparently the owner was away at a family celebration.

    This was a bit of a problem because I now had nowhere to stay and the only bar in town was closed, I really had no option but to go on to Alcuéscar but that was a further 20 km away and I had already walked 17 km and the temperature was now about 30° I was feeling a lot better about walking longer distances, and I felt that I was getting my 'camino legs', but 37+ km was pushing beyond my limits. Lacking other options I spoke to the lady in the shop who very kindly phoned for a taxi to take me to the albergue in Alcuéscar. It was not ideal and I hated skipping a stage but I really felt it was the most sensible option, the memory of heat exhaustion the previous week was still very fresh. The taxi arrived within 20 minutes and before long I found myself standing at the gate of the monastery in Alcuéscar.

    The monastery was very beautiful, and filled with Roman Catholic statues and imagery, on a catholicity scale of 1-10 it was an 11. It was a working monastery and so the albergue, which was donitivo, was on the top floor, in what turned out to be two large rooms separated by a movable wall, by late afternoon they had to open both rooms. The number of pilgrims was greater than is normal for this particular camino, there were almost 40 of us in the albergue that night. I think there were two main reasons for this. Firstly, due to covid lockdowns people had not been able to walk the camino for two years and this was the first opportunity for many of them who had postponed their trips Secondly, also due to covid lockdowns, this year had been declared a Holy Year, and so more religiously devout Roman Catholics were walking - this is probably there were also more Spanish pilgrims than usual. So, the albergues were filling up.

    The monastery was a lovely building but the albergue facilities were not. Almost 40 pilgrims had to vie for just 4 plug sockets to charge phones and tablets, and the shower / toilet block was terrible. I went for a shower, and discovered that when you shut the cubicle door you were in near darkness because the lights didn't work. As I turned the shower on the tap handle came off in my hand. So there I was in this tiny cubicle, butt naked with cold water spraying on me trying to work out how to put the tap back on in the dark...not the best shower I've ever had.

    The worst thing about the albergue was the lack of airflow, there were a few very small windows, so from a covid infection point of view it was a bit of a nightmare, and to make matters even worse, the room was like a furnace, you could hardly breathe, the air was so hot, I think it was over 30° until the early hours of the morning. Lucas took his sleeping bag and went downstairs to the cooler part of the building and slept on the cold floor tiles, smart boy.

    I had an experience in the monastery that I can't explain, I had asked a very shocked hospitalero if there was a quiet place I could go to pray and so he took me into a small side chapel and said I could stay as long as I wanted. I sat down on one of the pews and got out my journal, ready to think deep thoughts and journal them for the benefit of mankind, but I never wrote a word. Very suddenly and without any warning, I had what might be described as a mystical experience. I lack the language to describe it, all I can say is that I was there a long time and I left changed by the experience. As St Augustine said, if you can explain it, it's not from God.    Les mer

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  • Norman GrahamCamino Via de la Plata 2022Norman Graham

    Alcuéscar - Aldea del Cano 16km

    11. mai 2022, Spania ⋅ ☀️ 28 °C

    I had packed my mochila the night before so when I woke up, I dressed quickly, and left about 0620 whilst it was still dark. At the monastery gate I met Jürgen, a German peregrino and so we walked together as far as Aldea del Cano where I planned to stay. I had stayed there in 2018, I remember it was just Ken and I and about 5000 lizards.

    The walk was very pleasant, Jürgen seemed to be a very nice guy and he kept a good pace and we only stopped a couple of times for a brief rest and refreshments. Aldea del Cano is slightly off the camino so we said our goodbyes on the path. He was going on to Valdesalor, I wished him well, there were not many beds available in Valdesalor and I know a lot of the peregrinos had been reserving beds in advance. However, there was a municipal albergue and they don't reserve beds, it's a first-come first-served basis so he would probably be ok. I never met him again, so I will never know.

    I was the first peregrino to arrive at the albergue, so I went and got the key from the Las Vegas bar next door.

    The albergue was exactly as I remembered it, which is to say basic, I think Gerard Kelly's description of it in the guidebook as 'beautiful' was probably intended to be humorous. Since I was first to arrive I picked the room with one set of bunk beds, as my father always said, if you're not first, you're last. I did note however that there were two backpacks in the main room, but I was definitely the first there.

    Two ladies, Odile from France and Colombe from Canada arrived, they were friends who met on a previous camino, and they were having their backpacks delivered daily to each albergue and walking only with a small daypack. They were going as far a Cáceres and then abandoning their camino as they were finding the heat too much to cope with. I got on well with them and was sorry to say goodbye to them the next day.

    Shortly after that an American who had been at Alcuéscar arrived. He had been a Police officer, then a lawyer and was now a security consultant for a well-known music magazine. In the wake of yet another mass shooting in the USA he was of the view that the way to deal with bad guys with guns was to give more good guys more guns. We tried and failed to get him to understand how alien that viewpoint was to Europeans. He was very sweary and furious that the washing machine cycle was taking so long, if he'd had a gun, that machine would be dead. I only saw him once again at the bus station in Cáceres.

    I felt that I was really beginning to get into a camino rhythm and was slowly beginning to enjoy the experience, but I was also conscious that the heat was building and that there was a long way to go. I spent some time planning my route ahead, noting that there were a few problems for the peregrinos over the next few days. One of the main problems is that the albergue at the Embalse de Alcántara is closed leaving a 35 km gap between Casar de Cáceres and Cañaveral with nothing in between, no shops, no cafes, nothing but road. I was thinking of getting a bus.

    Two Italian guys arrived, they were full of energy and quite hilarious. They scoffed at the idea of getting a bus and said we weren't true peregrinos - they were the camino guys that would walk 40-50 km a day quite happily.
    I am not one of those guys.    Les mer

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  • Norman GrahamCamino Via de la Plata 2022Norman Graham

    Aldea del Cano - Cáceres 25.5km

    12. mai 2022, Spania ⋅ ☀️ 32 °C

    The two Italian guys were up at 0530 and were not quiet, (they were going to Casar de Cáceres (37 km), but it was a good thing because it meant that we were all up and on the road early before it got hot. Having said that, at 0530 it was 18°. Still, I had a room to myself and I had slept really well.

    I set off at 0550 whilst it was still dark, and even without the GPS I had no problem following the camino as it was one of those paths where there was only one way to go. I had done 8km before it began to get hot. I stopped in Valdesalor for a coffee, a road worker had assumed correctly that was my goal and directed me towards the café, on the camino people are generally friendly and helpful. As I was leaving the café Colombe, Odile and the American all arrived for their breakfast.

    The walk to Cáceres was good, but I had one bizarre encounter, halfway between Valdesalor and Cáceres, which is to say in the middle of nowhere, I met a man who was probably in his late 60's jogging, wearing nothing but a pair of bright red trainers and matching speedo pants. It was unexpected.

    15 minutes past the halfway point you can see Cáceres and it doesn't take too long to reach the city limits, however, you still have 3-4 km to walk through the city to get to the Plaza Mayor. The albergue I was hoping to get into was just 5 minutes walk from the Plaza. Although they were not yet open, they let me leave my mochilla. So I went to the Decathlon store and bought a neck buff and a better hat, one that had an all round brim and that I could attach to my mochilla.

    I still had to make a decision about how to get to Cañaveral, so I went to the Tourist Information office, in the Plaza Mayor, and was helped by a really nice and super efficient guy who spoke impeccable English. Within 30 seconds he had printed a bus timetable for me. It turned out there was no bus from Casar de Cáceres so I would have to go from Cáceres, there was a bus the next morning at 0930. I decided that I was not up for walking 40+ km in the extreme heat so I would go by bus.

    Dinner at one of the cafés in the Plaza Mayor was excellent, when I got back to the albergue I found I had a roommate, Sebastian from Chile who lived in Barcelona and was cycling around Spain. I packed my bag and spent some time listening to music and reading, so, a normal evening in the albergue.    Les mer

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  • Norman GrahamCamino Via de la Plata 2022Norman Graham

    Cáceres - Cañaveral 45km

    13. mai 2022, Spania ⋅ ☀️ 30 °C

    I was up early and headed off to the bus station, too early as usual, all the ticket offices and information were closed, however on the plus side the café in the station was open so I had a very good coffee, (never had a bad coffee in Spain yet) and breakfast. When the information office opened the lady who spoke some English could not have been more friendly or helpful, she gave me all the information I needed to ensure I got on the right bus at the right time. I wasn't happy about getting the bus, but I thought it was the only sensible alternative to walking the distance with no resources available and in that heat. I felt a bit better about that decision half an hour later when more than a dozen other peregrinos arrived having come to the same conclusion about today's walk.

    The bus was ridiculously cheap and made me wonder once again why public transport in the UK is so ridiculously expensive. We arrived in Cañaveral within 35 minutes, and I saw the strange Korean man at the bus stop but I don't think our bus was going where he wanted to go.

    The albergue was a short walk away and turned out to be very modern and nice, with great showers and toilets - trust me, on the camino these are the things that matter. As I was going in I saw an older lady struggling with a wheeled suitcase on the very uneven path and so I carried it in for her. Her name was Rita and she was from Belgium and at the time I didn't know it but we would travel together for the next week and become friends. I am really glad I got to know her, she was a blessing. It is strange how you warm to some people and not others on the camino. Everyone is generally civil to one another, but there are some people you are kind of glad you don't bump into again and others with whom you very quickly develop a bond.

    A case in point: I was pleased to meet Odile and Colombe in the bus station, they were heading to Salamanca and then home, so it was good to be able to wish them well. On the other hand, as I was sitting quietly minding my own business waiting for the bus, and older American, whose name I made a point of forgetting, without any encouragement from me insisted on engaging me in conversation. So far, so good, I like conversation as much as anyone. However, he kept asking me questions and then insisted on telling me why my answer/opinion was wrong. He was completely lacking in any self awareness to realise how rude he was being. He also complained about everything, the Spanish weather, the Spanish food, the Spanish people, the Spanish healthcare, he seemed to think that if it was Spanish there was something wrong with it. He couldn't speak a word of Spanish by the way, but, judging by their facial expressions, I'm pretty sure that the Spanish couple sitting across from us could speak English. His basic complaint, I think, was that Spain wasn't like the USA. I for one, was shocked at this revelation.

    I value manners and politeness but in 30 minutes he managed to stretch my belief in those things to the limit. Alas dear reader, this was not to be our final encounter.

    As one of the first to arrive at the albergue I of course got my washing on the line first (yes I was that guy) and then went to look for a shop to get provisions. About 1800 the two Italian guys I met in Aldea del Cano arrived, when they saw me they came over and apologised for mocking my plan to get the bus, they said I had absolutely done the right thing. They ran out of water about 7 km from Cañaveral and almost never made it, they had assumed (wrongly) that although the albergue at the Embalse was closed, there would be a shop or café where they could get provisions. They were totally exhausted, the temperature had been up to 38°, and these guys were used to walking 40km but were humble enough to admit they had miscalculated on this occasion.

    People die on the camino every year, mostly from pre-existing conditions and old age, accidents are rare, but heatstroke and dehydration are both factors in some of those deaths and so it's always better to be safe than sorry. I was glad that I had made the decision to go by bus, and glad that the Italians had made it ok.

    By the time the Italians arrived the albergue was full, I didn't get a great night's sleep as my bunk was in line with the dormitory door, which people kept leaving open and lights on as they went to the toilets - lesson learned re bunk position. I planned to go to Riolobos, the next day and given the number of peregrinos I phoned ahead to book a bed. The next problem issue would come the day after that so I chatted with Rita and worked out a plan. After that it was time to pack my bag for the next day, then bed.    Les mer

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  • Norman GrahamCamino Via de la Plata 2022Norman Graham

    Cañaveral - Riolobos 23 km

    14. mai 2022, Spania ⋅ ⛅ 27 °C

    I was up early after a bad night, the other peregrinos were very noisy through the night. The general rule is that its lights out at 10pm and everyone goes to sleep, but most of the folk in my room were chatting and watching stuff on their phones, I think they might have been a bit annoyed when I got up at 1030 and turned the lights out - sometimes there's no point in being subtle. I was up at 0520 and out the door by 0540 in pitch darkness.

    The walk was difficult at first because almost as soon as I left the town there was a steep hill but the ground cover was loose shale so it was hard going. At various points the path went in different directions with no yellow arrows or way markers to guide you. I would definitely have gotten lost (even in daylight) without Kelly's GPS route to follow. The path got even steeper further up but then levelled off and wound its way through wooded farmland that looked nice in the dawning light. I was on my own but that was ok I was really enjoying the walk. I did meet one guy (Dutch I think) on the path he was going very slowly, he never heard me coming and when I said buenos dias he just about jumped out of his shirt. I found out later he was walking slowly because of painful blisters.

    I stopped at the point where the path divided left to Riolobos or straight ahead for Galisteo, and had my banana and magdalene cake, it was a feast. Although it was only 23 km I was quite tired and glad to walk into Riolobos, the albergue, Camping las Catalinas was on the far side of the town but it didn't take long to get there. I was overjoyed to see my room, it was a unit with two bedrooms and a shared lounge and bathroom/shower. I had a double bed with a CEILING FAN that actually worked, I thought I had died and gone to heaven. Rita was in the other bedroom and it was good to meet her again and chat about our plans for the next few days.

    The food was excellent, and as I had stopped at a shop for supplies on the way in I didn't really need to go anywhere, so I had a restful day, and went to sleep feeling that it had been, in every way, a good day.    Les mer

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  • Norman GrahamCamino Via de la Plata 2022Norman Graham

    Riolobos - Carcobosso 22km

    15. mai 2022, Spania ⋅ ☁️ 23 °C

    I had a really comfortable, and cool night - thank you ceiling fan - it was dark when I left about 0530 but already 18° but the forecast was good, it was expected to be cloudy with sunny spells all morning with a light breeze, good walking weather.

    The walk to Galisteo was great, I had hoped I might get a coffee there but it was too early. The rest of the walk was not so great, it was 9 km on the tarmac with no verge. Fortunately it was a very quiet road and also Sunday and so very few cars passed me. It was however, tedious and eventually sore on the feet. My Salewa boots are terrific but they are designed for walking off-road, not on it, so I was glad to arrive in Carcobosso. It being a Sunday the town was dead, everything was shut except for a cafe with a private albergue attached, the albergue was fully booked but the cafe was open so I had a fab coffee and tostada. I went along to the other private albergue, which was also closed but the owner had a bar next door so he let me leave my mochila and I went back to the cafe.

    Once I got in the albergue I had a shower, washed my clothes etc. did all the usual stuff then went to look for a shop, but every shop was closed. To be honest Carcobosso looks like a place on its way to extinction, it's very run down looking, and I have no photographs of it, because there was nothing to photograph. Speaking of run down looking the albergue had a very 'Bates Motel' feel about it, but it had a good toilet and shower and the owner was friendly enough. A group of French ladies were in the kitchen making dinner and they invited me to join them, I thanked them but declined. I was going to the cafe for dinner and I'm glad I did, the food was very good, and I was able to buy some cake for tomorrow.

    When I got back to the albergue I discovered that the American man who hated everything about Spain that I met in the bus station on Cáceres was my roomate. Apparently he had also been in Riolobos the day before but had arrived late, having gotten lost - he didn't have a camino app, or a guidebook or map of any kind and always walked on his own because, he said, for some reason people didn't like him - who would've guessed. He kept getting lost, and he genuinely had no idea why, and my suggestion that he should get a guidebook or download a camino app seemed ludicrous to him. I had to endure a repetition of everything he thought was wrong with Spain, and of course why I was wrong about every single thing. The next morning I left before he was awake and never saw him again. I shed no tears.

    It was noticeable that there was a larger number of peregrinos than is usual for the VDLP, and it was becoming necessary to book a bed in advance where possible. In Carcobosso, three peregrinos had to sleep on a bench outside. The next day I met a girl who had been on the bus to Cañaveral but who had gotten off further up the road at Grimaldo, she had been unable to get a bed in Riolobos, and Galisteo and Caparra and ended up getting a bus to Plasencia well off the camino, and then getting a bus back to Galisteo the next day.

    Tomorrow I will be walking to the Roman arch at Cáparra, but there is no albergue open on the camino between Carcobosso and Aldeanueva, however, thanks to Rita I knew that the Hostal Asturias some 10 km further away would pick you up from the Roman arch. From the Hostal there's a direct route to the next town on the camino, Aldeanueva del Camino. So, that was my plan.    Les mer

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  • Norman GrahamCamino Via de la Plata 2022Norman Graham

    Carcobosso - Hostal Asturias 30 km

    16. mai 2022, Spania ⋅ ⛅ 30 °C

    I was up and away before 0600, the first couple of km were on the road, and the turnoff to the countryside was well marked. This morning was the coldest it's been so far since I arrived in Spain, but I expect it to be colder once I got into Galicia

    The path was very good, clearly marked and I felt quite energised and really enjoyed the walk. Kelly's guidebook said that you could basically ignore the yellow arrows as the camino no longer followed that route, though it would still get you there. I decided to follow his GPS, and although there were no arrows or way markers for the first 5-6 km it led me true. There were actually very few arrows on this section of the camino but for the most part it was pretty easy to follow, if the path only goes in one direction then that's the direction you have to go in - I'm sure there's a life lesson in that.

    I noted in my journal that it was the best day's walking so far. I reached Cáparra in good time, and phoned the Hostal to pick me up, then spent some time taking photos, and making a short video for friends back home. I also spent some time taking photos for the steady flow of cyclists coming through.

    As I waited for my lift I reflected on the nature of Empire and was reminded of Shelley's famous poem Ozymandias and the much quoted line "Look on my works ye mighty and despair!" It struck me that no matter how great are the works of the mighty, and there was surely no greater or mighty empire than that of Rome, all empires fall. Mighty as the Roman empire was, all of its mighty works have turned to dust, or lie as ruins for tourists to gawk at. So end all the works of man. The things that last cannot be measured in a share price, or carved in stone.

    My lift arrived and off we went, the Hostal was nice enough, and my room was small but clean and it had everything I needed. the Hostal was basically a stopping point for truckers and salesmen so it was near the motorway but not near anything else, fortunately it had a restaurant and the food was good.

    I had coffee with Rita, she was going to go in the taxi in the morning with her suitcase to Aldeanueva del Camino, I was going to walk it, but things didn't quite work out that way...so, with nothing else to do it was another early night of reading and listening to music.    Les mer

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  • Norman GrahamCamino Via de la Plata 2022Norman Graham
    1

    H Asturias - Baños de Montemayor 24 km

    17. mai 2022, Spania ⋅ ☀️ 25 °C

    The Dutch man whom I had passed on the way to Riolobos was also staying at the Hostal Asturias but he feeling very unwell, and so it was agreed that since Rita was going by taxi to Aldeanueva del Camino, I would go with her and the Dutch man (I forget his name) to the medical centre there. We dropped him off and wished him well, I met him six days later in Salamanca and he was fully recovered. From there Rita and I set off together to walk to Baños de Montemayor.

    The walk was almost entirely on the road and steadily uphill, and that's about all you could say about it. I arrived at the albergue just 10 minutes before it opened. It was very nice, clean with good toilets and showers, and my room was very comfortable. The albergue doubled up as a tourist museum of sorts, they had an area with two ancient Apple Mac PC's that still worked. By mid afternoon another Peregrino arrived in my room, a Spaniard called Manuel, he was friendly and polite. A German cyclist arrived at 1730, she asked me where I was from and when I said Scotland, and she immediately made comments about how the Scots speak English so badly. Her English was flawless. It reminded me of an encounter I had early in my camino when a French lady asked me what country I was from because the language I was speaking sounded a bit like English! Later in the evening the German cyclist came in wearing an actual dress - you don't see that often on the camino, and she invited me to mass, I thanked her and declined the invitation.

    Baños is a lovely town, it has been a spa town since Roman times, many tourists come to visit the spa and Rita and the French ladies were going to have a go. I preferred sightseeing. I had a nice dinner, arroz negro (black rice), it was only weeks later that I discovered the rice is blackened with squid ink and that it wasn't prawns but pieces of squid in it. I would never have chosen it had I known, but it was delicious and I would (and did) have it again.    Les mer

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  • Norman GrahamCamino Via de la Plata 2022Norman Graham
    1

    Baños - Calzada de Béjar 13km

    18. mai 2022, Spania ⋅ ⛅ 24 °C

    I had been warned last night that the walk out of Baños began with a long steep ascent but when I woke up I was quite calm about it. I had to wear my fleece this morning for the first time as it was quite chilly at 0530. I walked through the town until I reached the old Roman path up the hill, and I was quite surprised by the ease with which I made my ascent, it felt like I was up and over the summit in no time at all.

    I had decided to have a short day's walk, in part because I was not sure how I would cope with the hill and in part because it had been hard going the past few days. So I was going to stop at Calzada de Béjar. When I got there I wasn't sure if I had made the right choice, it was a very small village, in fact there were less than 100 residents and many of the buildings looked like they were about to collapse. I was ready for a coffee so I went along to the café, the sign on the door said open but it was closed, when I asked about it the answer I got was that it would open when the owner felt like opening.

    Just then another peregrina arrived looking for the cafe and so I told her it was closed, she was in a little bit of a panic as she had run out of water and had some distance to go, so I gave her my water.

    The reports of the albergue were good so I went along to find it also closed. The neighbours a few doors down were getting ready to go somewhere so I asked them when it would open and they basically phoned the owner to say I was there. The lady made a point of telling me it was a good house and that the lady who ran the albergue was a good person.

    The owner arrived and I got booked in to a lovely large room, double bed and ensuite. I got my washing done for a few euros which was great. The lady had to remove the sheets she had drying on the line and was somewhat surprised when I offered to help her fold them, but she accepted the offer.

    I went out later to go see if the café was open (it was, someone had phoned him to say there were half a dozen people waiting to get in), as I went out the door, I saw the owner sitting out front. She had an open Bible in her lap, and a large notebook and what looked like a study book. In my poor Spanish I told her that I was a Baptist pastor and she was astonished, she then told me that she had three sons, two of whom were Baptist pastors in Madrid and a third who was in seminary training to be a pastor. She was delighted to have another pastor as a guest in her home.

    The café was open and I asked for the menu del dia, but instead of getting a menu I got the food they had available that day, that's how it is sometimes in Spain, but the food was good and not expensive and the owner and his wife were both very friendly.

    There was no shop in the village so I had to make do with the fruit I had in my bag. The albergue owner left stuff out for my breakfast and with that there was nothing for me to do except read and listen to some music.    Les mer

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  • Norman GrahamCamino Via de la Plata 2022Norman Graham
    1

    Calzada - Fuenterroble de Salvatierra 21

    19. mai 2022, Spania ⋅ ☀️ 29 °C

    I had a good sleep but I was glad of the quilt as the house was quite cold, it was an old house with very thick stone walls. It was good to be able to get a shower in the morning for a change. It was only a 21km walk today but I made sure I had plenty of water.

    I set off in the dark as usual, the path was well marked and fairly flat for the first part of the walk and I got some great photographs. At one point, a family of wild boar ran out of the undergrowth and crossed the path right in front of me.

    After about 13 km I reached Valdelcasa where there was a café open, there were about a dozen other peregrinos including some Dutch people I had met a few times over the last week. After my breakfast of coffee and toast I set off. A lot of the last section was on the road and it seemed to go on and on uphill all the way for 3 or 4 km, then I met up with Rita and we carried on to Fuenterroble. I had decided to stay in the same private albergue as Rita and I think that was a good choice, it was very nice, I had a room to myself, with a nice double bed and the shower was one of the best so far.

    The hospitalera had recommended a café and so Rita and I went along and had an very good meal, the headed to the shop before it closed. In the evening all the peregrinos were invited to a special peregrino mass in the local church which was more than 500 years old and had a section of excavated Roman road in its grounds. The service was interesting, but all in Spanish so I could only understand bits and pieces. The priest led us in a song and he had an amazing voice that resonated all the way around the sanctuary, the acoustics were fabulous.    Les mer

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  • Norman GrahamCamino Via de la Plata 2022Norman Graham

    Fuenterroble - Morille 33km

    20. mai 2022, Spania ⋅ ☀️ 37 °C

    I had a shower in the morning, for the second day running, what a treat. However, I woke up with a sore throat probably as a result of coughing most of the night, my first thought was covid but it felt very familiar, like an allergic reaction. I found out later that the hospitalera had cats, which I am very allergic to, so in some ways that was a relief. The two French ladies, Rita and myself got a lift part of the way from the hospitalera, which I was glad of as I felt a bit ropey and the distance was more than any of us felt able to walk at this point in our camino, and the temperature had risen sharply. Rita was staying at an albergue in San Pedro de Rozados and I walked on another 5km to the albergue in Morille.

    The walk to Morille was uneventful, but pleasant, a few cyclists passed me with cries of buen camino! Morille is another very small village, with a church, an albergue and a café. I had to sign in and pay at the bar, the barman never checked my passport or did anything other than give me the form to fill in myself. It may have been because he did not know any English, but his demeanour was quite surly and unfriendly. I walked back to the albergue and sorted out my stuff, and get my washing done. I decided to forego another shower as the shower/toilet block was communal and there was no privacy screen in the showers, I'm no prude but I do think people deserve basic privacy, and it wasn't just me, I know that some of the young women were not happy about the shower arrangements.

    The albergue was not the worst I had been in but that's not saying much, it was basic and lacking in both facilities and charm. It was also packed, one French guy turned up quite late and was not happy that all the bottom bunks were already taken, he got into an argument about it with another Spanish peregrino. I didn't need to speak Spanish or French to know how that conversation was going. However, the Spanish guy looked like he could eat the French guy for breakfast so it ended pretty quickly. It was the one and only time I saw an altercation between peregrinos on the camino.

    I went to bed excited for tomorrow, when I would walk into the great city of Salamanca where, with Rita's help, I had booked a nice (I hoped) hotel for two nights just a couple of minutes walk from the Plaza Mayor. I then walked back to the bar to get some dinner, there was already a good number of peregrinos eating there, so I checked out what was on their plates and ordered. Basically, chips, bacon and egg but it was filling and tasty - the downside was the slowness of service. However, the food was good and I went back to the albergue satisfied. I read for a while and then it was time for bed.    Les mer

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  • Norman GrahamCamino Via de la Plata 2022Norman Graham

    Morille - Salamanca 21 km

    21. mai 2022, Spania ⋅ ☁️ 13 °C

    I slept surprisingly well considering the quality of the albergue. At 0510 someone's alarm went off and it was like flicking a switch in everyone's brain, we all just got up and got ready, some stayed to make their own breakfast, others just left. I was on the road by 0540.

    I made good time in the cool of the morning, the path was mostly flat, it was one of those days where you didn't have to worry about finding way markers as there was only one path, all you had to do was stay on it. By the time it was daylight the landscape had changed from woodland to rolling hills and fields that surrounded Salamanca. You could see the path winding its way across the countryside for several km, and every so often you would get a glimpse of the city and the towers of the two cathedrals, getting ever closer. Eventually, after a steepish hill with a cross at the top the city lay before us, but there was still over an hour's walking from that point to the city, and further still to the Plaza Mayor. I went there first as it was too early for me to check into the hotel, and I got some coffee and tostada and watched the world go by. The Plaza Mayor in Salamanca is thought by many people to be the finest Plaza in Spain and it's easy to see why.

    I found the hotel (Hotel Emperatriz I) checked in, it was very nice and great value, the guy at the desk was friendly and super helpful. The bed was really comfortable and the shower was amazing, and it was right in the heart of the city. After showering and changing, I got a taxi to the Decathlon store, about 4km away, bought the stuff I needed and then walked back. I bought a long sleeved top for the colder mornings and a pair of trainers because a lot of the camino ahead was on tarmac which my boots were not suited for.

    In the evening I went to McDonalds for dinner, it's one of my least favourite places for food but I really wanted something that was very different from the menu del dia which was virtually the same in every village and town.

    I decided to have an early night and enjoy the luxurious comfort of my hotel room.    Les mer

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  • Norman GrahamCamino Via de la Plata 2022Norman Graham
    1

    Salamanca 12 km

    22. mai 2022, Spania ⋅ ☀️ 28 °C

    I had planned to spend two nights in Salamanca as a mini-break, it is roughly halfway on the camino and is a good place to do that. So, today I planned to be nothing more than a tourist, and ended up walking 12 km around the city. I had an excellent cooked breakfast in the hotel then went back up to my room to repack my mochilla, I planned to post some things home in order to lighten my pack, so I had to think carefully about what I could do without. One of my tasks today would be to find the post office and find out what time it opened in the morning.

    Although it was Sunday, all the cafés, bars and restaurants were open and all the shops selling stuff tourists might like. I noted that most of it was the same kind of tourist tat that is sold in touristic shops all over Scotland, just without the tartan.

    One of the touristic things I did was to do the tour of Salamanca Cathedral, (special peregrino discount on the entry price). It was an interesting tour and the building is certainly beautiful and awe inspiring in the way that cathedrals are. However, I was left with the feeling that it was very much like the Roman arch at Cáparra, both are monuments to empires that are dead or dying, empires whose time has come and gone. The monuments and mighty works of Rome are reduced to rubble and point to the past glories of that empire, glories that, for the most part, have to be imagined. In the same way, cathedrals are the monuments and mighty works of Christendom, now reduced to the status of tourist attractions that point to past glories when the Church, in partnership with the State, shaped and ruled society, and one day they too will turn to rubble. The influence of the religious ideology that built them has already passed away, though it may be argued that there is something new emerging out of the rubble of Christendom.

    We spend so much of our lives chasing things that will turn to dust and be forgotten, it's not earthly treasures that last. I wandered around the city for a while, looking at the grand buildings and reflecting on the way that all things pass and how we measure greatness. Somehow the city's majestic buildings had lost their grandeur and so I went back to the hotel for a while, then went out for a coffee in the Plaza Mayor, I saw a group of classical music students busking, they were playing Gabriel's Oboe, from Morricone's score for The Mission, it seemed to fit the moment.

    I went back to the hotel and went to bed, completely unaware that the next day was the day when everything would change.    Les mer

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  • Norman GrahamCamino Via de la Plata 2022Norman Graham
    L to R - Rosario - Mirjam - Me - Anita

    Salamanca - Calzada de Valdunciel 17 km

    23. mai 2022, Spania ⋅ ⛅ 25 °C

    The day started in the most ordinary of ways as life-changing days often do.

    I got up later than usual because I couldn't start walking on the camino until I had been to the post office and the bank, neither of which opened until 0830. So I went down to the dining room and had another great cooked breakfast, then set off to the post office about 15 minutes walk away. Tasks done, I settled my bill at the hotel and checked out.

    The stage from Salamanca to Zamora is quite long and is normally broken into two or three sections, I didn't want to be walking over 30 km so I chose to walk it in three sections which meant the first section was only about 17 km. It would turn out to be a very good decision, I just didn't know it yet.

    The first 7 km is all road as you walk out of the city and follow alongside the motorway to Aldeaseca de la Almuña where you leave the road and walk on country paths. Even with the late start I arrived in Calzada de Valdunciel quite early, in fact the only person in the Albergue La Casa del Molinero was the cleaner. She phoned the owner and I was told to pick a bed and he would come along later. The town is small and is really just a stopping point for the camino so it doesn't have much more than a shop and a couple of albergues and cafe's. There's nothing to see, and nothing to do, so I had thought it was going to be another dull, boring stopover, how wrong I was.

    After a couple of hours the owner had still not arrived but it's Spain so I figured he would get here when he got here. Just then there was a banging at the main door, and it turned out to be an Sicilian cyclist called Rosario, and I opened up the gate so he could get his bike in, gave him the spiel re the owner, and he went and picked his bed. Just then there was another knock at the door it was a peregrina wondering if a tall Italian peregrino had stopped here. He hadn't and so after chatting for a few moments, she continued on the camino. A short while later there was another knock at the door - it was turning into the scene from The Hobbit where Bilbo has to keep answering the door at Bag End as more and more dwarves arrive. However, it wasn't a dwarf at the door, quite the opposite, it was a tall Australian lady called Anita, and a young woman from Hungary called Mirjam.

    I welcomed them in and gave them the same spiel I had given Rosario. Not long after this the owner arrived and all the financial essentials were dealt with, he told us that there was nowhere to get dinner that night so Rosario insisted that he would cook our dinner. We all went to the shop and bought some pasta etc. and a bottle of wine.

    While dinner was cooking Rosario went to open up the wine only to discover that there was no corkscrew in the albergue, and watching him trying to remove the cork with long thin sharp knives and tools from his bike was as hilarious as it was nerve wracking. I was sure we were going to have to call for an ambulance as he stabbed himself or cut off a finger or three. However, he got the cork out without any medical emergency ensuing, and the pasta was delicious, with plenty of leftovers to bag up for tomorrow. (It turned out to be a good idea to bring a selection of IKEA ziplock bags)

    Throughout the evening I got to know Anita and Mirjam a little. Anita had that frank, forward, no-nonsense friendliness common to Australians, she was semi-retired after a successful career as a medical scientist. In the mid 1980's she had hitch-hiked through Africa and volunteered in medical clinics as she went along, and was now a self-employed consultant. She was smart, funny, and very easy to get on with and within a short time it felt like we had known each other since forever.

    Mirjam was quieter, I wrote in my journal that night that she was quiet but lovely and that I felt it would be good to get to know her better. As RickyTarr said in Tinker Tailor, "there was gold in her Mr Smiley...", she was like a secret waiting to be discovered. She had a warmth and a quiet joy about her, and when she smiled, the sun and the moon and the stars were put to shame. Over the next few weeks I would discover that she was also smart, funny, resilient, brave, kind, caring, generous and one of the loveliest humans on the planet. Gold indeed.

    The next day Anita, Mirjam and I were all heading to El Cubo de Tierra del Vino, of course that was no guarantee that I would see them again, but I knew that I definitely wanted to. The camino brings many unexpected gifts, and meeting Anita and Mirjam was one of them.

    So, dear reader, you might be wondering how today changed everything, well, long story short, meeting Anita and Mirjam set off a chain of events that became the unfolding story of my camino and beyond.    Les mer

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  • Norman GrahamCamino Via de la Plata 2022Norman Graham

    Calzada de Valdunciel - El Cubo 23 km

    24. mai 2022, Spania ⋅ ☀️ 26 °C

    I was up and away whilst everyone else was sleeping, it was a cold morning and I wore my fleece for the first three hours of walking. The walk was ok but quite uninspiring as most of it was on a dirt track some 20 metres from the motorway on one side and endless fields of wheat on the other. It was very exposed and I was walking almost all the way against a strong headwind. I eventually took off my fleece and for the first time unpacked my Rohan waterproof jacket, which proved to be an extremely effective windbreaker.

    Although it was only 23 km it felt longer against that wind and I was very happy to see the town only a few hundred metres ahead. I went to the albergue but there was no one there and so went in search of coffee. Whilst I was there two women came in and we recognised each other, from having said hello to one another on the street in Cáceres. We chatted and I asked if they knew when the albergue opened, and so one of them immediately phoned the owner, she was Spanish and had stayed in the albergue the previous night and got on well with the owner, and got the info I needed. She asked where I was from and when I said Scotland she commented that she had not met anyone else from Scotland on the Camino. I also said I had not met any other Scots on the camino, at that exact moment a voice behind me said, well there's three of us right here! I turned round and there were three cyclists who had just come in for a coffee break. They were all from Edinburgh, and not cycling the camino but were doing some other cycle route, it was great to hear a familiar accent and we chatted for ages, before they got back on the road.

    I went back to the albergue to wait until it opened and found another cyclist waiting to get in, Guillermo from Spain, he lived and worked in the UK and recognised my Scottish accent immediately. He was very friendly and I liked him right away, which turned out to be a good thing as he would have a part to play in my camino adventure in the weeks ahead.

    The albergue was split over three buildings and I ended up having an entire house to myself. I was really pleased to see Anita and Mirjam, they were staying in the same albergue but in a different part. Chatting with Anita we both came to the conclusion that we would love to have a day in Zamora, apparently it is a beautiful city but our walking schedule would not allow it. So, with a bit of online research, and some local knowledge, and some language assistance from Guillermo, Anita and I decided that in the morning we would get a bus into Zamora and spend the day there being tourists. Mirjam was going to walk it, she is a late starter in the mornings and very fit, so the long distances don't seem to bother her.

    Most of the peregrinos met together at the albergue where the owner's wife had cooked us a fabulous dinner, the conversation was great, there was a lot of laughter and a sense of belonging. Around the table we were from Scotland, Hungary, Poland, France, Holland, Spain, Norway, Australia and Canada, but we were also all from the camino, and that was the bond that held us in the moment. Some of us were meeting for the first time, but were a band of brothers/sisters even for just that moment and it felt good to be part of that.    Les mer

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