Saturday 7th April 2018

25.4 km (221.6 km)

On Thursday 5th April I took the bus to Merida (and met another pilgrim, the elderly Frenchman Gerard who chose a few hours in Merida over a 16km walk there along the road. I spent Thursday and Friday basically with my feet up after taking advice from various pharmacists…one who had done the via De la plata directed us to the haberdashery so we could buy thread and sew the blisters so that’s what I did. Merida is a beautiful Roman city with many well-presser relics of its Roman history. I could have easily spent the two days rest sight seeing but was resolute in my intent to fix the feet…so the sight seeing will have to wait for another visit.

Dan walked to Merida on Thursday and then on Friday to Alcuesar, taking a taxi back to meet me in Merida for the evening. Today we took the taxi back to where he’d reached in the trail and continued on, my having lost 52km of the Via De la Plata but more importantly now able to continue with fresh feet. The walk was pleasant though similar to other days but at least there were some villages along the way; Casas de Don Antonio at 8km providing a welcome coffee break as well as some good photo opportunities of the cute little village. At around the 19km mark we crossed one of the strangest points of the camino: an airstrip where you can see planes landing and taking off apparently, there were none today but I was still pretty keen to get off the runway!

We continued along a well marked path until reaching Valdesalor, where I stopped and took a taxi(!!) to Cáceres and Dan continued on for the remaining 12km. I’m taking a taxi back to Valdesalor tomorrow in case you think my Camino has suddenly become a taxi ride from one stage to the next! We are now waiting for the restaurants to open at 8 (as usual; this has been annoying as we are hungry at 3 and don’t really want to wait till 8 but we can hardly change the Spanish ways even if we’d like to). Cáceres is another beautiful Roman city, founded in the first century BC. It has a lovely walled old city and is labyrinth of meandering narrow streets leading into a few picturesque and bustling squares. As usual I’ll say it’s worth another visit. Tomorrow Dan leaves and I’ll continue on my own, hoping a few more pilgrims pop up along the way.