Thursday, April 27, 2023
Walking from Carcaboso to Aldeanueva del Camino
31 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, we were walking in 30 C (86 F) heat. And, it seemed that the humidity was slightly higher, adding to the discomfort of the day. Along with the difficulty came a really glorious day of walking through quiet, almost forested cattle grazing land. It truly was a beautiful day, and we were able to keep a pace of 5 kilometers per hour while walking, but we took several breaks for food, water, and rest.

I’m a little behind on posting. The text will be short. A beautiful day, a difficult day, a hot day, and it was so good walking through southern Spain, I feel good to be alive!

Tomorrow is a lighter day with only about 22 kilometers of walking and very slightly lower temperatures. Better yet, this was the third day with no foot pain – the healing is going very well.

We left Carcaboso and were immediately on natural secondary, dirt roads, away from the highway walking we have had so much of recently. Javier got a photo of me ahead in the early morning.

After a short break, I got a photo of Tom and Javier getting ready to go again.

In the distance, many wind generators were seen on the distant hills. I think these are being more and more replaced with solar farms.

Then we were on a narrow, natural path through expansive grazing land with many olive trees. This continued for a couple of hours, perhaps even more. It is a beautiful area, very beautiful. It is easy to completely lose track of time on these long walking stretches. Most of the time, we are by ourselves or walking together, not talking, within sight of each other, but by ourselves in our thoughts and minds.

Along the way, we came to a section of those very dramatic rocks and a Camino marker reminding us that we had not lost the way. Difficult to not take photos.

More dramatic rocks as Tom and Javier negotiate the path. We are still in this long, expansive natural area far away from a highway and noise. All we hear is the songs of the birds and the sound of our shoes on the path.

It is a hot day. Southern Spain is having an early-season heat wave. We are well north of the worst of it, but still feeling the heat. I switched from long pants to shorts (by unzipping the lower half of my trousers).

I took a photo of one of the stepping-stone bridges not needed today.

The natural path continued. Spain is beautiful. Today has been a hot, but so beautiful day of walking.

We came to what was the Roman town of Cáppara. Much of the old Roman town has been excavated and is on display. We stopped at the visitor center and walked around the ruins for a while. We are seeing a LOT of Roman ruins on this Camino route. This is not a surprise, since the Via de la Plata follows or is very close to the Roman road from the Roman military enclave at Astorga in the north, south to Seville, and on to the ports at Cadiz and Malaga. Javier took a photo of Tom and me at the large Roman arch.

Continuing on the Camino way, we are still in forest and grazing land.

Then we came to a creek that actually had water, so we used the stepping-stone bridge to cross without getting wet.

Now in grassland without trees, the path seems to continue forever. It is starting to get hot, and we still have more than an hour of walking to get to our destination.

We turned onto a secondary asphalt road. More road walking. Fortunately, there are no cars. We came to an area where the purple wildflowers on our right welcomed us in spite of the heat and our increasing fatigue.

We made it to a roadside hotel/restaurant, Hotel Asturias, much like a nice large truck stop in the U.S. We had planned to stay here for the night, and Javier was going to get a ride forward to Aldeanueva del Camino. After lunch and a break, we all went in the car to Aldeanueva del Camino. Here is Javier with the hospitalero opening the door of the private accommodation in Aldeanueva del Camino. The welcome end to a long hot day of walking 31 kilometers.

Since we had a large late lunch, we did the usual routine: shower, wash clothes, shop for food, prepare a lighter dinner, and get ready for a shorter day tomorrow with two very long and steep hills.

Next: Aldeanueva del Camino to Calzada de Béjar