Via de la Plata day 30: Montamarta to Granja de Moreuela, 22.9 km

A very pleasant walk through rilling farmland, with unobtrusive snippets beside the autovia, and some beautiful vistas across to the mountains of Portugal. The turbines were turning, albeit reluctantly, which meant for much of the day it was partly cloudy and not too hot for walking.

We passed the ruins of the town and castle of Castrotorafe, a thriving fortified town between the 11th and 15th centuries, and then it went into terminal decline, becoming the pile of rocks that it is today. Unfortunately my guide didn’t elaborate on its decline, so it was a good topic to speculate about while the kilometers clicked by.

The town of Granja de Moreuela is just another rural town, although the word ‘granja’ means farm in Spanish, so presumably Moreuela was a member of the landed gentry. The town’s most notable feature is the roadside drainage channel, which has more in common with a tank trap than a drain!

Tomorrow we turn sharp left sway from the via de la Plata and onto the Camino Sanabres, which heads west towards Galicia.