Monday 2nd April 2018

24,6 km (150 km)

We left the albergue in dark before breakfast with the promise of a cafe 6 km further down the road. The light in the town was beautiful as we made our way out of it and onto a dirt path eventually bringing us to the village of Calzadilla de los Barros after 6km. We entered the village and soon arrived at the main square, Plaza España, complete with lovely town hall but no open cafe. Hunger sets in very quickly when a promised stop does not materialise but Daniel quickly rectified the situation with a quick Google map and off we went through the sleepy village in search of coffee, without much expectation it has to be said. We found the cafe, all the chairs piled high outside and after trying several doors gave up and started to walk away when someone appeared to let us in.There we found the usual assortment of old men drinking some sort of spirit with their morning coffee obviously taking much pleasure from watching us circling the establishment in search of sustenance. We had a great breakfast and were on our way again before too long.

The plains of yesterday continued today together with our first glimpses of vineyards, which started to spring up on both sides as we continued. The weather was perfect, cool breeze and bright blue skies and we soon arrived at La Puebla de Sancho Perez. By this point my feet were on fire so we had another long stop (with ice creams) before continuing on for the last 4 km to Zafra.

We arrived in Zafra and headed to the Albergue only to discover that it was shut for Semana Santa and we were informed by either a helpful local or the proprietor of the suggested alternative that we should try another Albergue back up the road we’d just come down. Now at the end of any day’s walking on a Camino this is like asking me to walk the entire way back so we stopped for a drink to consider our options and to stop me collapsing in a heap. I quickly whipped out my phone and opened the booking.com app before Dan could say ‘dos vino tintos’…and lo and behold there was a special deal on at the Paradores which we could see from where we were sitting. So that’s where we are; in the lovely Paradores (although I have a sneaking suspicion Dan would rather have retraced our steps to the other albergue…). Now we are just waiting for the restaurants to open at 20:30 before we head out for more food…and people wonder why I don’t lose weight on these walks…

The Paradores

The Paradores courtyard