Luxury albergue by the embalse

A 22 km walk today.

Casar de Cáceres was an unexpectedly pleasant village - obviously great local pride as they had made a very welcoming green arcade into town - vine covered trellis walkway and shady trees. A good local bar and an excellent apartment I’d reserved to share with the two other Aussie girls walking. It had a little back courtyard garden and we invited our walking friends round for a shared dinner to say goodbye to Uli and Harold. They have been steadfast companions since Seville but Harold’s hip had become increasingly painful and he could not continue.

Today’s walk was beautiful for the most part, across gently rolling hills along a gravel path, past wildflowers, horses, sheep and sleek cows, a Roman road (well preserved) then beside the dam with a narrow rather rocky up and down path and finally about 4 kilometres of hard unforgiving bitumen. Across two long bridges high above the water - Ian, I looked straight ahead and did not look down!

My feet and legs felt the pounding of the last 4km on roadway and I had to stop to take out the extra 750mls of water from my pack. Knowing there were no water supplies anywhere along the route I’d put in extra. And I was grateful I had.

This albergue is excellent - and I’m grateful it is open because it seems to have been closed for the last few years. It is rather in the middle of nowhere (no villages or towns for another 10km) but a nice site overlooking the Embalse (dam). Terrific hot showers, good rooms and facilities. I’m looking forward to dinner!Read more