Back into the hills

Wonderful morning.  After a dull stretch to Casar de Cáceres, the via went back into the hills and I was able to enjoy a cool clear morning in an amazing landscape, with a few Roman miliarios (milestones) to let me know I was making progress. 

Had the first views of Cañaveral, tonight’s stopping place, from about 10.30 – a small white town snuggled into the side of a hill looking impossibly distant, and not apparently getting any closer.

I was pleasantly surprised to see quite a lot of plovers, as well as hearing my favourite sound of all, sheep-bells – as evocative for me as Yeats’ “lake water lapping, with low sound on the shore.”  There were also some amazing huge stones eroded by centuries of wind and rian, making parts of the trail slightly like a gigantic sculpture park.

sculpture in the wilderness

Eventually got to the huge reservoir of Alcántara, and crossed the rivers Almonte and Tajo, which feed it.  The reservoir was a bit low after the dry summer, so you could see the top of the Torreón de Floripes, part of the village that was drowned when the reservoir was created.  Although the track was now by the side of the N630 it was fine as there was very little traffic and it wasn’t too hot (about 16C at most all day).  Despite all the dire warnings – the clerk in the Hotel Iberia told me that there was “absolutamente nada” by way of water or food the whole way from Casar to Cañaveral, and a Frenchman staying in the hotel on his way backwards from Santiago to Cordoba said much the same – the fact that 5 miles of the way were within a short detour to one of the largest stretches of fresh water in Europe made it quite unlikely that anybody would die of thirst there.

Anyway, I got to Cañaveral shortly after 5, filled up my bottle at the fountain there (quite nasty tasting water - a first for me from a fountain) and installed myself in the Hostal Malaga, which was OK if you have nothing else available.  After dinner fell into conversation with a German pelegrina would used to be a student nearby, and who remarked on how much better it was that the countryside is now so open to walkers compared to when she lived here 20 years ago.