Saturday, April 29, 2023
Walking from Calzada de Béjar to Fuentarroble de Salvatierra
21.6 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 Plata pilgrimage route.

Today was a bit challenging in its intellectual exercise to manage the length of our walks each day. Tomorrow’s walk is to be 31-33 kilometers depending on which of two major options is used. We are not interested in having to walk that far, so one possibility is to lengthen today’s walk to reduce the length tomorrow. After much discussion and internet research, the towns that are farther away have no place to stay, and minimal options if any for food. So, after we arrived at Fuentarroble de Salvatieera, we decided to stay there and decide what to do for the long stage tomorrow. All in all, a good decision. More on this at the end of today’s post.

We left Calzada de Béjar relatively early, glad to be leaving that tiny village. After a short stretch on a secondary paved road, were soon walking on natural paths, almost no road walking for the first part of today. When I say “natural path” I really mean a non-paved dirt or dirt/gravel/rock farm road away from highways or secondary paved roads. This is what we prefer since the paved highways and other roads come with traffic. Typically there is not much traffic, but the natural paths through farmland or other undeveloped land is far preferable to having to be concerned about safety when cars approach, sometimes too fast (or so it seems to us walking).

The yellow arrows make it clear which way to go, and we were on a paved road for just a short time. As we turned onto a natural path farm road, we could see mist over the fields in the cool morning.

And for a good part of the morning, we were on a natural track.

Then the path changed to a farm road between grazing fields, Tom ahead of me in the warming morning.

We stopped at a small village of Calcerde de Valdelacasa for coffee, water, orange juice, and toast with jam. Tom took my picture posing next to a statue of Saint James as a pilgrim in the town square.

After our break, we saw the sign telling us Valverde de Valdelacasa was no more and the yellow Camino arrows clearly directed us to continue on this secondary paved road.

As we ascended a long gradual climb uphill, I got a photo of what looked to be more Roman ruins in the distance. There are many, many instances of Roman structures, artifacts, and other evidence of their long time in the Iberian peninsula since the Via de la Plata Camino route does follow the main north-south Roman road from Astorga in the north through Seville in the south and on to the ports at Cadiz and Malaga.

We are walking up a very long gradual hill in beautiful scenery much of the time today. Is it challenging – yes, is it tiring – yes, are we uplifted by the scenery – absolutely.

And there was more uphill to come. Still tiring, and still uplifted by the beautiful scenery.

After close to five hours including breaks, we arrived in the very small town Fuenterroble de Salvatierra.

The albergue at Fuenterroble de Salvatierra is relatively famous in the Camino “world.” This albergue is associated with the church, and the priest who runs it is generous to all in need. They serve a communal dinner and a breakfast the next morning of coffee or tea and toast & jam. It is a “donativo” albergue, so on your way out, you donate whatever you think it was worth to you. The albergue is run by volunteers, people who are experienced pilgrims and want to “give back” to the Camino and pilgrims. It is not extravagant at all, but it is clean. I typically donate 15 Euros because they are welcoming and help pilgrims.

The front of the albergue in Fuenterroble de Salvatierra:

Men and women have separate quarters, unlike most albergues. This is the men’s sleeping area.

The top bunks are not being used. Wandering around, I got a photo of the area in which the communal dinner will be served:

After going through the daily routine. First, drop our backpacks, wash our faces, and off to a local bar/cafe for lunch, including my after-walk Coca-Cola and Tom/Javier with their cerveza. Lunch was quite good. Then back to to albergue for a shower and to wash clothes. Then we went to the local market to get food for our walk tomorrow. We have decided to take a taxi about 10 kilometers and then walk the remaining 22 or 23 kilometers to Morille ending our third full week on the Via de la Plata pilgrimage route to Santiago de Compostela. Then the next day, Monday, we will walk into Salamanca and have a rest day there after completing approximately half of the journey.

Here is the group at the communal dinner. Some people I know, many I do not. Tom knows more than me being more outgoing.

Next: Fuenterroble de Salvatierra to Morille