Wednesday, May 3, 2023
Walking from Salamanca to El Cuba de Tierra del Vino
31.6 kilometers

After a rest day in Salamanca I was a little concerned that we might feel good and over extend ourselves today. And that is almost exactly what happened, although differently than we anticipated. The goal today was a small of Calzada de Valdunciel, a short distance of 16 kilometers from Salamanca. The next town of El Cubo de Tierra del Vino is another 20 kilometers, making the total for the day over 36 kilometers if we did not stop in Calzada de Valdunciel. A constant challenge on the Via de La Plata is the lack of intermediate stopping places. Often, there are no villages or towns between point A and point B, so we are obliged to walk the distance, whatever it is.

We started the day in Salamanca, a city with a charm and feeling we hated to bid farewell to. The Camino path took us right through Plaza Mayor and I got a photo of Javier saying goodbye to Plaza Mayor.

After a good bit of walking through the town along busy city streets, we were along a highway and out of the city. The route took us almost directly north along a highway, fortunately not busy highway.

We were soon away from the city, on a natural path near but off the highway for quite a distance. We are happy to be off the highway itself; that is our least favorite type of walking.

After a bit, we were in expansive farm fields again, peaceful and green as far as we can see.

And the farm fields continued. And continued. Green and lush. As far as we can see with trees in the far distant view.

The crop changed to wheat, and the wheat fields were expansive.

We came to a turn in the Camino path and saw a very old worn Camino sign of a style we had not seen until now, still clearly pointing the way.

After a little over three hours of walking, we were entering Calzada de Valdunciel. Javier is staying here tonight to be cautious about over-stressing the tendon in his left ankle. Tom and I looked at the small and crowded albergue and decided to move on. Moving on meant 20+ kilometers to El Cubo de Tierra del Vino. However, there is a prison about 7 kilometers from El Cubo, and we thought we might be able to get a taxi from there to El Cubo. That would still mean a day of close to 30 kilometers, but we were feeling good after the rest day, so we walked on.

Calzada de Caldunciel is a tiny town, and we were almost immediately back out in the wheat fields. Peaceful and expansive, and a long, long road ahead.

After a while, we were on a dirt road close to the N630 highway, a major north-south highway. This is the highway to the prison. You can see the highway to the right of the photo.

The Camino path is well-marked here with these parallel stone short pillars directing us on the Camino path. Here the Camino path goes under the highway to cross around a marshy, often flooded area. And today that area is flooded, so we had to walk around, longer but safer.

As tired as we were becoming, the wildflowers lifted our spirits some, always a pleasant and constant sight on the Camino in southern Spain.

There is a limited-access freeway parallel to the N630 highway to the prison. We crossed over the freeway and walked along the shoulder of the N630 for a kilometer or more trying to hitchhike. There were no takers. Not a single car even slowed down. I’m reminded of the hitchhiking scene in the 1934 Frank Capra film “It Happened One Night” in which Claudette Cobert’s character gets a car to stop on the first try after Clark Gable’s character failed many times. Unfortunately, we did not have an attractive female with us.

We got to the prison entrance, walked to the building, had a difficult conversation with the guards, and then a Spanish man who spoke some English helped us. We learned that the taxis all came from Salamanca, but that there was a bus going north towards Zamora at 5:00 PM. Being 4:30, we walked back out to the bus stop to wait. We still tried to flag down any car that drove by to no avail. Here is the sign we saw from the bus stop – 7 kilometers to El Cubo de Tierra del Vino.

The bus stopped just before 5 PM, we put our backpacks in the luggage hold and climbed aboard. In less than 10 minutes we were in El Cubo de Tierra del Vino. Here is a photo of a bus like that we had been on leaving El Cubo the next morning.

Tom had booked us in a private room that turned out to be a separate house from the albergue. And there was a communal dinner, so we did not need to cook. After more than 30 kilometers of walking, we were very tired. And the next day would also be a long day at over 30 kilometers to Zamora. Having a private room in a private house allowed for a very good night’s sleep. Today was a difficult day, a long day, and another beautiful walk in southern Spain.

Next: El Cubo de Tierra del Vino to Zamora