 |
| An early start |
We were up at 5:00am and moving very
quietly so as not to awake the others. By 5:40am we were on our way and made
good progress along a good quality path until we passed the halfway mark,
despite the first two kilometres being mostly uphill. As I am wearing open
sandals at one point I had to carefully choose where I put my feet as a very
large flock of sheep had passed along the path before us. We didn't actually
see the sheep, but there is no doubt that it was a large flock.
After the halfway point the Camino
narrowed, became uneven and had lots of ups and downs, which were at times
treacherous as fine grit lay on what was often a rocky path. That and the heat slowed
us down and we didn't speed up much over the final 6km which was on the hard
shoulder of a highway. We were heading for the municipal albergue, Embalse de
Alcántara. It is 600 metres off the Camino so when saw a new hostal, Alcántara
Pesco Evasion, almost beside the highway we decided we had enough walking for
one day and checked in. The extra cost was only €3.50 per person, and for that
we got our own room, our own bathroom, a refreshing swim in a fine pool - and
real towels! Also, we saved ourselves a 500 metre uphill walk to get back on the
Camino in the morning.
 |
| A collection of Roman milarios |
 |
| Not sure if this was ever a dwelling house - it's in the middle of nowhere and possibly connected with sheep farming |
 |
| A very small section of the massive Alcántara dam which controls the flow of the River Tagus |
 |
| Building a new railway bridge over the Tagus |
 |
| Our albergue, complete with swimming pool |
Comments
Post a Comment