Hello! We're back! Days 22, 23 and 24

Our thanks to all of you who have been trying to get in touch.  We're both well and there is no crisis!  We have been climbing up into the mountains going from Andalucia into Extremadura and have now reached about 2000 feet.  The network connections have been so poor as to make accessing the internet virtually impossible.  Today 10th of May we have reached Fuente de Cantos.  We are staying at an Albergue which is by far the best we have seen so far.  There are even sheets on the beds!  And better still, they have a cable connection to the internet and we have been able to link up to that!  In order to try to keep some order to this blog we will first report on the two days we missed and then finalise with our walk today.

Day 22 -Almaden de la Plata - El Real de la Jara

We left Almaden de la Plata this morning at 0800 and reached El Real de la Jara thre and a half hours later.  Today we decided to do a short day as the next town is another 15 miles away or so, and it would make for a very long day.

As we did yesterday, we walked mainly through the Parque Natural Sierra Norte, through fantastic woodland, farms and meadows.  In part we walked along the long-distance route GR-48 (I still haven’t found out where this goes!). 

Along this route we found a Roman Milestone which has been erected in memory of Jose Luis Salvador, who founded the friends of the Camino Via de la Plata in Seville.  It is engraved with the words “your steady steps have left footprints that will guide many others who will follow”.  We feel privileged to be among those.

The village of El Real de la Jara is small, with a castle that is currently being renovated but with not much else to commend it save for peace and quiet, which in itself is a valuable asset.

Although I am writing this blog today Saturday, I have been unable to engage with any networks to access the internet so the blog will go out a day late.  This affected my weekly interview with Brooklands FM and we will try again tomorrow.

Day 23 - El Real de la Jara - Monesterio

In El Real de la Jara we stayed in a pilgrim’s hostel which was very much like a typical refuge used by mountaineers.  There we found Sverre, who is Norwegian, used to live on a barge on the River Thames for 10 years, and now lives near Inverness in Scotland!  He had booked into the Albergue for 3 days to try and overcome problems with blisters.  We wish him well in trying to reach that level of inner peace that he seeks.

As we were having coffee this morning we realised that one of our fellow  pilgrims, Mercedes, had left her staff behind so we decided to take it along with us as we knew it had sentimental value for her.  Shortly afterwards we met her walking back looking for it.  She warned us that there was a small river down the road that was overflowing and we might get our feet wet.  She was right!  On the other side of the river we met two German pilgrims who had camped there all night.  When I mentioned that they had picked a lovely quite spot they told me they had not slept very well because of the noise made by countless frogs!

At 12.30 local time we linked up with Brooklands FM Radio and did our weekly live interview.  Tomorrow we have another one with BBC Surrey.

Our path today continued to climb up the mountain paths taking us from approximately 1200 feet to 2000 feet by the time we reached Monesterio, our destination for the day.  

We have now left Andalucia and have entered Extremadura.  It rained heavily once and we had some slight showers during the day but also some sunshine, so it was not unpleasant.  Along the way we met some Dutch friends who are walking the camino and this evening we had drinks with our Swedish fellow travellers, Johan and Karin (hope I spelt that right).  Nothing beats a cool glass of dry sherry after a long day’s walk!

I forgot to mention that along the way we met a local farmer who was gathering wild asparagus.  He had collected a really good bunch!

This evening also we went to the local church of San Isidro, where we had a nice chat with the local priest Miguel.  He is a keen walker himself and is opening an albergue in the town later this year.  He has asked us to come for a week and act as Hospitaleros (sort of warden for the albergue).  We may take him up on that maybe next year!  In the church they had prepared a statue of San Isidro, patron of farmers, which would be pulled to a nearby “Romeria” on 15^th May, the feast day of San Isidro.

Although this blog has been written today I have been unable to publish it due to lack of network connections.  Will try again tomorrow.

Day 24  Monesterio - Fuente de Cantos

As we left Monesterio we once\again saw our German friends who were camping by a stream.  This time the frogs had behaved and they had slept well!  About an hour after we started walking the heavens opened up and we had unrelenting rain for two and a half hours.  In the middle of this downpour we got a planned call from BBC Surrey with whom we did a live interview.  This became a bit difficult and somewhat farcical because some of the time I was hiding under Ana Maria's poncho to keep the rain from the mobile phone.  When they asked to speak to her, we just had to give up and get wet!

The rain caused a lot of problems underfoot which became extremely muddy and slippery in places.  In addition streams which had earlier been passable became quite difficult to pass.  We were trying desperately not to get our feet wet.  Unfortunately at one crossing I lost my footing and in order to stop myself falling I steadied myself with my left foot leaving it a good six inches under water.  We then had to continue like that for another couple of miles until the sun came out, at which point I was able to attempt to dry my feet.  After a change of socks life became almost enjoyable again!

The first few miles of our walk we came across a lot of dry stone walls, which is a particular feature of this part of the camino. After a few miles this gave way to large open fields of wheat and other cereals.  All in all the scenery was once again breathtaking.  After around five hours we had our first glimpse of our destination for the day, Fuente de Cantos.  An hour later we were marching into the town to the tune of "I'm singing in the rain" with slightly different lyrics "I'm sinking in the mud, I'm sinking in the mud, what a glorious feeling, I'm happy again, I'm sinking in the mud..................!"

Once again our thanks to all of you who worried when we did not report for two days.  We are delighted to know that there are so many people following our blog.  More tomorrow, subject to internet access!