James the Intrepid Pilgrim

Saturday, April 29, 2023Walking from Calzada de Béjar to Fuentarroble de Salvatierra21.6 kilometers Note: there was no internet Saturday after the internet for the whole town went down, and today (Sunday) is a difficult network day, as well. I’ll try to get Saturday complete and complete our Sunday walk on Monday when we arrive in Salamanca and the approximate halfway point for our journey from Seville to Santiago de Compostela on the Via de la […]

Friday, April 28, 2023Walking from Aldeanueva del Camino to Calzada de Béjar21.95 kilometers After the long 31-kilometer day yesterday in the heat, we planned a shorter day today. While shorter, there were two very long and steep hills to climb, making the day not as much of a rest after the long day yesterday as we had hoped. We are closing on three full weeks on the Via de la Plata, and feeling stronger every […]

Thursday, April 27, 2023Walking from Carcaboso to Aldeanueva del Camino31 kilometers Today was the second longest day to date on the Via de la Plata route of the Camino de Santiago pilgrimage routes. And today was definitely the hottest. It was a long day walking almost the whole way on beautiful (there’s that word again) natural paths through cattle grazing land. As the day wore on, the heat intensified, and by the time we finished, […]

Wednesday, April 26, 2023Walking from Riolobos to Carcaboso21.5 kilometers We are well into our third week walking the Via de la Plata Camino pilgrimage route to Santiago de Compostela. We are feeling strong and getting stronger. My biggest concern has been the slow healing of the large blisters on the ball of my right foot. This is getting better every day. Yesterday was the first day that I did not feel pain with every step, […]

Tuesday, April 25, 2023Walking from Cañaveral to Riolobos20.3 kilometers We are now into our third week on the Via de la Plata route of the Camino de Santiago pilgrimage routes. We are feeling strong, and best of all, my right foot is improving every day a little. I am certain that if I were not walking all day sometimes on rocky roads beating my feet up that the healing time would be very short. Today […]

Monday, April 24, 2023Walking from Casar de Cáceres to Cañaveral33.7 kilometers Today was our longest walking day on the Via de la Plata route of the Camino de Santiago pilgrimage route to Santiago de Compostela at over 33 kilometers. This is the first day of our third week on the Via de la Plata; we have completed two full weeks of walking in southern Spain. What started out brisk and cool turned into a quite […]

Sunday, April 23, 2023Walking from Valdesalor to Casar de Cáceres26.6 kilometers Today marks the end of two full weeks of walking on the Via de la Plata route of the Camino de Santiago pilgrimage routes to Santiago de Compostela. We started walking from Seville in southern Spain two weeks ago, and today completed our second week. Today’s walk led us from Valdesalor through Cáceres to Casar de Cáceres. Cáceres is a very old and historically […]

Saturday, April 22, 2023Walking from Alcuéscar to Valdesalor26.4 kilometers We are closing in on having completed two full weeks on the Via de la Plata route of the Camino de Santiago collection of routes to Santiago de Compostela in northwest Spain. It rained overnight, at times quite hard, so we are expecting a cooler morning and puddles of various sizes along the way today. There were many puddles, but the drainage on these secondary, dirt/gravel […]

Friday, April 21, 2023Walking from Aljucén to Alcuéscar21.2 kilometers Another day starting cool and brisk as we left Aljucén. We walked out of town at about 7:30 AM and the bar/cafe was already doing a good business, including with some pilgrims inside having breakfast. We walked by this old stone church, similar to many we have seen in southern Spain. Very quickly we were down in a broad river valley leaving Aljucén. The sign is […]

Thursday, April 20, 2023Walking from Mérida to Aljucén16.4 kilometers We left the dismal, uninspired albergue in Mérida at 8:00 AM, a little later than we had hoped. Finally on the road, our target was a town called El Carrascalejo. Since it was only 14 kilometers and the next town of Aljucén was only another 3 kilometers, we decided to see how we felt when we got to El Carrascalejo and if we could go another […]

Wednesday, April 19, 2023Walking from Torremejia to Mérida18.4 kilometers Today is another cool day in southern Spain. Cool in the morning, good for walking, and warming as morning progresses to almost hot in the afternoon. The hotness of the afternoon is not good for walking, we leave early to walk in the cool morning and arrive early in the afternoon. But after going through the daily routine of checking in, getting lunch, having a shower […]

Tuesday, April 18, 2023Walking from Villafranca de los Barros to Torremejia27.5 kilometers Today was a long, long day, and a very good day. The road from Villafranca de los Barros to Torremejia was almost completely straight north, off the main roads, and in lush and strikingly beautiful farmland. There is not much to report along the way, as the route was very straight and the farmland repetitive, making time for introspection and reflection. We started […]