It promises to be warm today and the stage will be about 34 kilometers, so we are out early again today. We say hello to the house tortoise, which lives in the patio of the casa rural and which we tame with an apple yesterday. The owner is probably still sleeping, so we gently pull the door shut and set off.
The village consists of only a few streets, so we are soon out of the built-up area. We briefly follow an asphalt road and after 1.7 kilometers can already enter the greenery. We soon walk into a beautiful nature reserve: Parque Natural Cornalvo. This is a wetland at the foot of a mountain ridge with rich flora and fauna. Many species of birds come to this area to escape the drought. In particular, we see many storks and white herons, and many birds of prey: vultures, kites and eagles. But also the crested lark that does often accompany us, with its cute crest on its head and which often stays for a long time on the wire along the road. The area is also sparsely used for cattle breeding and we soon come across a shepherd with a flock of sheep and dogs. Because of our experiences earlier, we avoid them just to be sure and detour a bit through the bushes.
Another hiker who was apparently slightly behind us just walked on without any problems, so we might want to be less careful here in the future. But the diversions does lead us to stumble upon hidden remains of an arch bridge. According to the sign, it's from Roman times. A piece of the original Via de la Plata.
It's lovely and cool this early in the morning. Along with us, several pilgrims are also hiking early. We meet the same people more often today. A German on the way to Santiago, a Canadian Czech, cyclists and an American lady who is averse to modern navigation techniques, but who often asks us whether she's still following the right path and wants to know exactly how long it is to the next village. Always nice to catch up with fellow walkers. So many different people and origins, but our goal is the same.
The scenery is stunning. Lots of vast forests with oaks and grass or bushes below. As we ascend the mountains, it gets a bit drier, though more and more flowers appear. The right side of the path turns purple with lavender, the left side yellow with low prickly broom. In places, there is so much lavender that the French Provence could take a leaf out of its book. It has the name, but here the plants just grow in the wild. We walk as far as we can before pausing, to take advantage of the coolness for as long as possible. In the end, we have walked about 15 kilometers when we set up our chairs and have had almost all of today's ascent. The walking is going well, but there are still about 20 kilometers left. Yesterday we'd almost finished the stage, but when you set your mind to making a long stage, it feels different. After the break it quickly gets warmer and the landscape becomes more open. As often on the Via de la Plata, shade is hard to find. Fortunately, we can reasonably withstand the sun, but we feel it burn on our skin.
Before the town of Alcuéscar, we briefly leave the route to cross via a path through meadows past a small lake. This takes a kilometer off of the stage. A little further when we are back on the route, we walk among oaks and cows again. It's a long, straight path, but it's still gorgeous. The Spanish plateau has been raised another notch by the ridge we walked up this morning. Here it's about 400 metres high. In a couple of stages we will go a big step higher towards 1,000 meters, so this is just a preview. There are more lakes and streams around here. The grass is yellow on one stretch and the ground is bone-dry, while a little further on it's green again and the flowers bloom luxuriantly. It's a very varied stretch. After a quick break in the shade of a large oak tree, we pass through a small village called Casas de Don Antonio. Too bad there are no places to sleep here, because by now we have covered 27 kilometers and are running out of drinks (about 6 liters). Fortunately, as we leave the village we see a tap with drinking water. A rarity in Spain, and especially today super welcome! This allows us to tap enough for the last 7 kilometers. A gift, and it remains special that a village provides that for hikers. The last few kilometers we walk close to the motorway and the N-road, but we're not disturbed by it. Again, we walk through beautiful scenery and the last few kilometers in full sunshine we run a bit on autopilot. We are glad when we walk into Aldea del Cano and soon arrive at yet another authentic 'Casa Rural' the Via de Plata. We will sleep well tonight, but first take shower and make sure we have a good meal!
