Stage 7 - Villafranca de los Barros to Almendralejo (18.2km ): 03/09/2014 05:47

I think we were being offered a bunch of grapes in the early morning or perhaps it was just a friendly "Buenos días"

We shouldn't really be relaxing here in Almendralejo as it isn't on the Camino and doesn't even get a mention in some Camino guides. We decided we were not up to a 27km day and took a 3km detour to Hotel Espana, a fine town centre hotel which charges marginally less for one night than we would pay for two in an albergue.

We left our albergue in Villafranca at 5:45am and made very good progress. We put that down to clear markings, a cool breeze, a lack of hills, and some cloud cover which kept the sun off our backs until near 10 o'clock. When we stopped for our 9 o'clock break we had already completed 11 kilometres, our best to date. That break was shorter than usual as we did not need to apply suncream

today.

We witnessed a little bit of drama in the early darkness while walking on a dirt track. We both turned around when we heard a car approaching at a speed not appropriate to the road. As we did the car failed to make the bend we had just walked round and drove on between the olive trees, before coming to a halt. After a few moments the driver did a full circle around some of the trees, to come back onto the road and continue on his way. I am not sure if he lost control of the car or took fright when he saw our two head torches facing him as he came around the bend.

The Camino took us through vineyards for kilometre after kilometre. Tractors,

Vineyards for kilometre after kilometre

trailers and harvesting machines were on the go from the time we started. By the time we reached Almendralejo, trailers laden with grapes were being taken to the winery - a bit like going into Cahir on a harvest day.

We are running out of people to talk to on this Camino. We did not expect to meet too many pilgrims on this route, particularly at this time of year - more will leave it until later this month before starting. We shared the first albergue with two cyclists but they did not appear to speak English. A good number of cyclists have passed us since with the usual "Buen Camino", and that is the last we see of them.

We were surprised when three Norwegian women caught up with us as we ate breakfast about 5km into the first day. We were to meet them frequently until two days ago when they had completed their stages for this year and had to return home. Also on the first day we met a Norwegian couple, a young man from Barcelona and Kevin from Melbourne. At the rate he was going the Spaniard will be in Santiago two or three weeks ahead of us. We don't know what happened to the Norwegian couple but we met Kevin, who is close to our age, a few more times before saying goodbye as he was planning to go on ahead. We learned later, via email, that he had been delayed and that we had passed him. We haven't heard from him since.

Last night a Spanish pilgrim shared our albergue but language difficulties prevented communications. While still in Villafranca this morning we were greeted by two male pilgrims passing us on the other side of the road. We never learned where they were from and are unlikely to see them again.