AUSSIE SLOW TRAVELLERS

We started out along the Via Verde this morning, a rail track converted to pedestrian, bike and horse traffic. We enjoyed the many great features of a rail trail - easy under foot, cuttings, elevated views, old stations and gentle gradients. There were cherry trees too, unfortunately none with fruit overhanging the path. We were enjoying ourselves so much we missed our turn and had to backtrack a few hundred metres! Our first rest stop was in the village of Aldeanueva del Camino, which had some of the essentials for slow travellers - a bar and a supermarket - as well as a fine historic bridge.  After that we joined the Via de la Plata again, which was on the N630, a tarred road which has been accompanying us a lot of the way. This is the old highway, but most of the traffic goes on the motorway, so it is fairly quiet. We had views of mountains on both sides, but no lake, even though we saw on the map it was quite close. It wasn't until we had climbed quite a bit that we fin...

It was a beautiful and peaceful start to the walk today, through irrigated farming land. The cows turned to watch us as we walked past and the sun took its time coming up over the hill. There were no bulls bellowing and pawing the ground and any dogs we met, barked, then lost interest. We heard the dawn chorus, then the cuckoo and cow bells. Cyclists passed us with a 'buen camino' and we were able to open the gates for some of them.  After a while the landscape turned to dehesa. We enjoyed stone walls and flowery tracks and the cork and oak trees, but today they seemed to be positioned closer to the path, so we had quite a bit of shade. We ate our bananas beneath one of these trees, on a handy rock. As we continued on, we were passed by more cyclists. We noticed footprints in the sandy track and guessed there was a walker ahead of us. He surprised us by calling out 'buen camino' from where he was hidden in deep shade.  Eventually we arrived at the Roman Arch. Thi...

We were up before the sun again and headed up the Via de la Plata for some views of the town. We passed through pine trees then descended again to the dehesa.  By this time the sun was up and we admired the effect of light on leaves and on a herd of cows, who were just ahead of us. Some bellowing disturbed the peace and shortly after we came across a bull, pawing the ground. Luckily a detour was available via Grimaldo, which we thought might have an open bar. It didn't, but we rejoined the Via a short time later with all our limbs intact. We then followed the Via through flowery fields. There were a great many gates to open and shut, as there was a lot of cattle. We had a rest after about 15 km, and gave directions to a Spanish pilgrim that passed. After a while we descended to a small dam and crossing, the latter with no water to get our feet wet. We were a short while on the road before climbing up again for a great view to Galisteo, our lunch stop.  Passing the cows ca...

At first light (nautical twilight) we headed out on the Via, but we weren't the first - we soon met a pilgrim from Germany, who might possibly take as many photos as we do. It was very photogenic, with the sun just coming up. The dirt track wound through scrubby fields of cows, sheep and granite boulders. We saw Roman distance markers. At one stage a dog guarding the sheep bailed us up, but as we were three we managed to cross without incident. We started to get views of the second largest lake in Spain, the Embalse de Alcántara. After a couple of hours we sat down in a shelter, and were joined by pilgrims from Italy and Brazil - usually it's just us out walking, but everyone left early because of the heat of the day and the length of the stage. One of the pilgrims shared a watermelon - very refreshing, and I was amazed he'd carried it all that way.  The Via then took us along a road and over several bridges, before we climbed up a stony track to the next shelter, w...