A scenic day, but clearly not picturesque, as the above was only one of the two photos I took, and this is of a town far in the distance. Leaving Zafra we had a climb up to the Alto de San Cristobal in the dawn light, which gave us great views over the plains which will be our lot for the next couple of days. The sunrise was magnificent!
The landscape was slightly undulating and the path often on red clay. It would be a nasty stage in wet weather, but at present the sun is our issue, as while it’s a pleasant 13⁰ or so when we commence walking, it quickly climbs into the low 30⁰s by early afternoon. Lots of vineyards and olive groves today, but the vines don’t look very robust, and the olive crop is somewhat sporadic with some areas where the olive trees appear to be dying. My hunch is that water is the issue, as few olive groves appear to have irrigation.
Villafranca is a bustling town, known for its impromptu music concerts put on by residents, and wine. We hope to sample at least one of these tonight. The first building on the route entering town was a cafe/bar, which was very welcome after almost 20 km of coffee penance. The other scarcity in town is accommodation. Two albergues in or near the town have closed permanently, another cheap alternative is temporarily closed. I had used Whatsapp to contact these places, so was aware of the issue and resorted to booking.com to source the next most affordable option. One other peregrino is also in the small pension, but it’s a mystery where the other 10 or so have gone. It is 27 km to the next town on the via de la plata, or a large detour off the route to an alternative town. That’s a lot of extra walking on a hot day. Yikes!
Tomorrow we face the 27 km, but with an early start, we should make it there by noon.
2saunter 