Stage 20 - Carcaboso to Oliva de Plasencia (18.1km): 17/09/2014 06:08

The Church in Oliva de Plasencia

Getting back on the Camino in Carcaboso turned out to be rather difficult, and remaining on it was even more difficult. As usual we set out in the dark and we were accompanied by Mary, whom we had met the previous evening. We hadn't seen a yellow arrow in the vicinity of the albergue so all we had to go on was the map on the back of the albergue brochure. It seemed to indicate that we carried on up the main street. Looking at it now this was just an assumption made by us. Anyway we went up the main street looking for an arrow pointing to the right as I wanted to head north. None of the right turns in the town had an arrow and we eventually turned back. We had walked a kilometre from the albergue and another back, and by this time people were up and about so we were able to ask directions.

We were sent back to the centre of town where we found the crucial yellow arrow, and another, and another, until we were heading north up a wide unpaved road. Eventually we came to a Y-fork but no yellow arrow. Google maps indicated that going left was wrong and so we went right. We walked north for a number of kilometres until we were forced to take a sharp left turn. Google maps now suggested that we would have to walk for up to two kilometres before we could find a road going in roughly the right direction. It also showed that if we were to walk about 200m across a field we would save that 2km. We couldn't find a way across the first field and any field with a gate also had cattle in it so we went on the detour which didn't quite bring us to the road I had been aiming for. This time we found a small field with no animals and a good gate at either side and we were back on a tarmac road, albeit a very narrow one. We flagged down the one car we saw and the driver told us to keep on the road until we found a green gate on the left and to go through it. The gate came sooner than we expected and we were back following the yellow arrows. By that stage we had walked 11km and were probably only five kilometres from Carcaboso.

I should have said that we were only out of the albergue about five minutes when it started to rain. I blame the torrential rain of the previous evening for our misfortune. Had it not been raining I would have carried out my usual scouting mission to make sure I knew the way out of town. I am not sure that would have prevented the second mistake - I think we must have missed a right turn in the darkness before we were confronted with the problem of the Y-fork.

The rain eventually paused and we were seated eating a sandwich when we stopped the passing car. For the next seven kilometres we walked single file on a narrow path past cork trees until we came out at place called Venta Quemada, from where we planned to make a six kilometre detour off the Camino to stay at the albergue in Oliva de Plasencia. The distance between our start and finish albergues was supposed to be 18.2km and as we had already walked 18.1 we decided to call a taxi. One enterprising driver had posted his number on the last gate we came through.

This evening we visited the local mini-market to stock up for tomorrow's journey. We noticed that the door of the church was open so in we went. We knelt for a while and when we arose a woman preparing the altar offered to stamp our credenciales. When we left church the parish priest was sitting on the steps opposite and we exchanged pleasantries as best we could and we each received an individual blessing.

335km completed, 597km to go