Day 37 Oliva de Plasencia - Aldeanueva del Camino

Last night we sat in the Abergue having a salad which Ana Maria and Katrin prepared and later watched the first half of the Bayern Munich v Inter Milan final, before retiring for the night.

Today I'm afraid was a day of pain and suffering for me as my plantar facia has come back with a vengeance!  We had about 17  miles to cover and from about the 10th mile I have been taking painkillers as there were no villages where we could rest.

The morning was fantastic,  We set off at 0610 in the cool of the morning and walked cross-country along beautiful and quiet paths.  For about half an hour we walked along a farm where they breed fighting bulls.  We were glad to see that the fences were reinforced steel!

Two hours later we came to the Arch of Caparra, a beautiful Roman Arch in the middle of a field.  Caparra used to be an important Roman staging post and there is a large archeological dig at present which has uncovered much of the town and the original Roman road.  It was wondrous to see.

After that it was a hard slog to Aldeanueva through rolling hills.  At one point the river was too deep for us to cross and we had to scramble on to the motorway where we walked for a couple of hundred metres.  After that Ana Maria, Katrin and I walked either on a secondary road or just alongside it.  We arrived at 13.45 with everyone in good spirits except for me!

Tomorrow we have 14 miles to cover with two steep climbs up to 3000 feet and then another gradual climb to about 3300 feet.  If my foot does not hold up there are two villages on our route where we can stop for a while.  Katrin, our German friend has now been travelling with us for a week and will continue with us until Thursday when she leaves for Madrid en route to Germany.  We will miss her company.