Celebrating the halfway mark with a large coffee and Red Velvet cake for second breakfast A shorter day emerging from the dehesa forests and on to the agricultural lands of the meseta, heading to the beautiful city of Salamanca. Not an oak tree in sight Unfortunately Salamanca is a peregrino boot camp: there's no admittance … Continue reading Via de la plata day 23: Morille to Salamanca, 20.5 km →

Milario del dia The forecast was ugly, so we headed out as promptly as possible in an endeavour to beat the rain, putting our faith in the hourly forecast. A front passed through around dawn followed by generous winds ab'aft the beam, so with my rain poncho on, I had a great spinnaker run for … Continue reading Via de la plata day 22: Fuenterroble de Salvatierra to Morille, 29.5 km →

Descending into the valley by dawn's early light I left an albergue in full wet weather gear for only the second time ever, bit the forecast wasn't 100% accurate, so after 30 minutes I stripped off the poncho. A quick descent on the Roman road into the valley meant the moist clouds were above us, … Continue reading Via de la plata day 21: Puerto de Bejar to Fuenterroble de Salvatierra, 29.9km →

Not too many highlights today. The first 12 km were on the "via verde", which while it wasn't the official route, it was more pleasant than road walking to get back on the official route. The via Verde is an old railway line that's been given a second life as a cycle (and pedestrian) path. … Continue reading Via de la Plata day 20: Hostal Asturias to Puerto de Bejar, 24.5 km →

The arch of Cáparra It's an indication of the challenges of this part of the camino that today's end point is not a town, but a hostal & restaurant complex beside the highway. The alternative was to walk an additional 10 km to the next town. No thanks! Despite the ending and the last 5 … Continue reading Via de la Plata day 19: Carcaboso to Hostal Asturias, 28.3 km →

Gallisteo as the sun rises A short 'rest day' to try and finesse the run into Salamanca. The next five days are the hardest of the entire camino in terms of determining where to plan night stops. Of our group of four who have been in sync since Seville, I think I'm the only one … Continue reading Via de la Plata day 18: Gallisteo to Carcaboso, 11 km →

Early morning in the cork  dehesa A brisk uphill slog to start the day, then a pleasant stroll through pine forest initially, which soon gave way to beautiful and more traditional, dehesa forests. I took the brief detour into Grimaldo in the hope that breakfast may be on offer, but despite Google maps information to … Continue reading Via de la Plata day 17: Cañaveral to Gallisteo, 28 km →

My guide describes today's stage as "very hard". Had the weather not been favourable, it may have warranted an "extremely hard" rating. After overnight thunderstorms we enjoyed cloud cover except in the early morning, where the moon helped light our way. We departed the albergue at 0700 - about three hours after the Italian couple … Continue reading Via de la Plata day 16: Casar de Caceres to Cañaveral, 32.9 km →

Another short day, but not a great one personally, as I developed my second ever blister at the 5km mark. Go figure.... day 15 and 290 km completed! To make matters worse, our collection of 'toe socks' have morphed into a sticky, glutinous blob. The trusty sandals will need to be deployed instead! Los calcetins … Continue reading Via de la plata day 15: Caceres to Casar de Caceres, 12 km →

Cáceres was listed by UNESCO way back in 1986. The narrow twisting streets of the old town have escaped major modernization for a very long time. Unfortunately, many peregrinos only pass through without stopping, as the closure of albergues before and after the town make itinerary planning difficult. As I'd originally planned to spend an … Continue reading Via de la plata day 14: Valdesalor to Cáceres, 12 km. →