We woke at 0600 and dressed before preparing our breakfast in the kitchen from the remaining provisions in the fridge. We then climbed the multitude of stairs to the dining room to eat. Coffee, toast and juice, a combination which seems now to be the standard cuisine. I have jamon with olive oil, Jenny marmalade and butter. Back down to the kitchen to wash our dishes and soon after made our departure.
Back to the verge of road that led us 4km to the village of Valdesalor. Not much traffic and low speed limits make this a comparatively safe practice. Sigmund chooses the road out of preference and I suspect from my observations he's not the only one.
The trail became a track and was rutted and uneven with a lot of rock, anything from a small golf ball size to that of half a volleyball. The trail meandered alongside the road without the convenience of a constant gradient that the road has to offer. We followed the trail up and down hills. However today was not excessive with about a 100 metre gain in altitude overall. So not a particularly tiring day.
Our arrival in Caceres was made all the more pleasant by walking with a young German lady, Anna, for some distance. I'm sure she halved her pace to walk with us. Anna is a physiotherapist studying medicine. To walk the camino she left her boyfriend behind to work on his PhD in voice sound with heavy metal bands. Anna told us of her 8 months in Australia touring around, commencing from her favourite spot, Melbourne and up the east coast, across to Alice Springs, Uluru, Darwin and across to Perth. Not a bad effort. We exchanged contacts as she offered to look at my leg saying the symptoms fascinated her. I declined politely.
The town entry was through industrial area, becoming busy once we reached the residential area. We continued for a few kilometres and had drinks and lunch in an open area cafe. It was nice to sit and rest and enjoy a cold lemon drink. A plate of beans was both delicious and nutritious and compensated for last night's mediocre effort. We walked on another two kilometres through the streets, seeing a castle on a hill above the city and two other substantial stone buildings beside and dominating the skyscape. We will explore the area tomorrow.
On to our accommodation and found there was no one there to let us in. We stood at the entrance and pondered. Eventually we hailed a young passerby to call the apartment's owner. Which he did, very obligingly with a broad smile on his face. What a champion! (Silly foreigners, he must have been thinking!) I should mention, we still have no phone cover and rely on hotel wifi once we check in. Do you see the problem here?
The apartment is compact but has all we could possibly want. The location is in Old Town and as such is central to shopping, bars and restaurants, but remains quiet and private. The bathroom is compact and has a mini portable washing machine. Maybe something more suited for a caravan. Queen bed, combined lounge, dining, kitchen and cosy. Who could ask for more!
A most unusual thing happened tonight. It rained! First time! We ventured out but a combination of wet and cold had us quickly retreating to our cosy abode, after first purchasing food from the supermarket that would suffice for dinner and breakfast.
Although it drove us back inside in a hurry, we rejoiced in the sensation of the rain. Hopefully at some stage we will get to use our bulky wet weather gear that we have lugged the entire camino. (We used it almost daily on our previous camino.)
Overall, the weather was cooler today, and cold this evening. Very pleasant walking conditions.
Keep your good times coming our way. Amazing. Trina and Peter 💚
Well done guys you seem to be in a rhythm and walking strong