Cacabosa to Fuenterroble

Enjoying the hospitality of Javier in Carcabosa. This is a small town but after 2 days of very long walks we are grateful to be here.
Javier chatted to us a lot, and encouraged my limited Spanish. He has 3 sons, one a bombadier, and one 10 year old who he goes off with to some flamenco at 11pm.
http://www.ciudaddecaparra.com
Great place to stay if you are in Carcabosa.
A large Canadian bounces up to us on the way out of town. Brian has ankle problems - he walked 54km from Valdesalor on the day we walked 44km. He decides to stop for a rest in Carcabosa.
We head out past Bombay, past stork nests, a cow that has just given birth. Spot the little brown thing in the ditch next to the skinny black cow looking at us fixedly. That snow in the distance, we are heading for Venta Quemada then heading off the camino to Oliva de Plascencia. The last 5km are on the road, which is a bit of a slog. We get to the Albergue, ring Monica, my first phone call in Spanish. The Albergue is full, but she makes room for us and Christina, a Spanish woman, in the lounge room. We find the only bar in town, very tiny. The guy in the Farmacia is filling in for his wife, he has a very happy 9 month old baby in the next room. We have dinner with all the pilgrims then head back to the bar to watch Manchester United play their first leg against Shalke. Madelaine comes with us - she hitch hiked from Venta Quemada.
We get a lift in the morning with the second taxi - Monica´s husband. By the look and smell of the ute he is a farmer, I ask him what he does for work, and mentions trees and wood, we assume he is a tree cutter. He points to severely pruned holm oaks and piles of wood. We end up driving through the arch at Caparra, like most towns here it appears out of nowhere. We walk on to Aldeneuva, but Monica has warned us that the 10km to Banos de Montemayor are all on the road, so we get the 3.50pm bus that turns up at 3.30pm. We find a good place to stay after being turned away from 2 posh places. We find a bar to watch the third leg of the quatro el classicos, first leg of the champions league semi-final. I subdue my celebrations when Messi scores his second, they seem to be Real Madrid supporters here.

Caceres to Galisteo

On Saturday we set off early from Caceres, intending to walk 30 or so km to the Embalse. No buses to Casar de Caceres until 12pm because it is still festa. We set off at 7.30am, made good time to Casar. Familiar territory to me, had a chat with a farmer with some sheep about the weather on the way into town, the bit I understood was more rain as we go north. Found the only coffee shop open, humming with locals. We set off through the farms that produce all the great cheese from this area, through quite remote farmland. Stopped for lunch amongst some cows, then via more narrow rocky pathways until we came upon the resorvoir. Walked all the way around it, looking forward to stopping after 30km, only to find the albergue was closed due to bad water. There was a phone number for a taxi to Canaverale, but we don´t have a local sim card. We are feeling ok, so decide to keep walking. Over a big hill, rocky pathway, through more cows, I am suffering now. We take the wrong path after some construction of a parking lot in the middle of nowhere, do an extra km or 2, but climb through a fence, through some paddocks, up a gully and find the path again. All the way through town, find the Hostal Malaga 44km later. Huge crowd in the bar watching Real Madrid seconds beat someone 6-3. Kaka and Higuin have scored 3 and 2 each. No more rooms left, but the barman has otra casa, down the street, we have the place to ourselves. Back to the bar to watch Barca seconds beat Osasuna 2-0. Messi and Xavi on the bench.

Sunday: Our feet are pretty sore, so next day we walk to Grimaldo, then see how we are going. We walk over a big hill through beautiful pine forest, then through farmland. We chat to Madelaine from Bordeaux in France, then stop for a coffee and take our socks off after 8km in Grimaldo. We are feeling ok, Grimaldo is very small, so we decide to walk the 20km to Galisteo. Through great farmland, lots of cows, gates, beautiful farmland. We catch glimpses of towns, encounter a tortoise in the middle of the path, green wheatfields, a canal, an obscure gateway through a farm, up a big hill, and finally Galisteo. Galisteo is a walled town. You can see it from a distance, then it disappears the closer you get to it. We find our way in, ask at the Bar Emigrantes for a room, they are full, but the older man who only speaks Spanish phones someone, his wife explains to us in limited English that a woman, who is currently out in the countryside, will pick us up and take us to some accomodation. Quick beer, bull fighting on the TV, the woman arrives, 2 kids, us and 2 backpacks in a tiny car, we drive through the city walls and she shows us into a house, one up, three down, washing machine, bathroom all to ourselves. 20 euros and drop the key off to her mother´s place across the street in the morning. Luxury.
Monday: Ciaran´s feet are a bit of a mess, but we decide to walk only 10km to Carcabosa. We walk and talk with Betty Jean and Susan from Canada. The walk is all along the road, we think we missed the path somewhere, but we find the hostel, after some confused directions from old people in black in the street.

Merida to Caceres - unfinished business

Tuesday: We took the bus from Madrid to Merida, 4 hour trip. Arrived in the rain, glad we had booked a hotel, everything was full for semana santa. Jose Marie at Hotel Serano welcomed us, remembered my attempt at an email in Spanish. We had a great lunch in the Plaza de Espana, then walked across the 2000 year old Roman bridge where I finished the camino last year. We wandered around the town, past the Temple of Diana, the colusseum, the circus maximus, the aqueduct in the pouring rain. In the evening we had some tapas, and on the way back to the hotel, encountered the semana santa procession.