2009
Via de la Plata – Stage1
Monday
21st September
Spent the day
re-discovering Seville
Tuesday
22nd September
Decided to take a bus down
to Puerto de Santa Maria to see if it might be an interesting place to stay.......wrong,
crappy little tourist hang-out which is really just a suburb of Cadiz. Spent 2
hours walking the streets looking for a room but only found 2 likely places,
one was full and the other wanted EUR30 for a filthy hovel. Gave up and caught
the train back to Seville, decided that as my legs were now feeling quite good
that I may as well spend the next week doing the first part of the Via de la
Plata. Got back to the Triana Backpackers at 9pm to find it was full, moved on
to the Ole backpackers which was hot and cramped but much closer to the
cathedral which is where the Via starts
Wednesday
23rd September Seville-Guilleno (23kms)
After spending the whole
morning running around trying to get a credencial (pilgrim's passport to get
you into the cheap hostels) I finally got under way at 1pm- when only mad dogs
and Englishmen venture out. Street thermometers were showing 32 deg C as I made
my way out of the city, the roads turned into a long straight track which
disappeared into the horizon, the countryside was flat, brown and scorched and
my watch thermometer was showing 35.8 Deg C.Finally staggered into Guilleno at
6pm after the hottest walk of my life and sank about 4 litres of water. The
hostal is beside a hard-court 6-a-side soccer pitch with floodlights, games
went on until 11pm when the lights were finally turned out. It was still
stinking hot outside by this time and in the hostel it was like an oven so I
put up the tent and slept outside.The hostel has about 6 assorted middle-aged
men from France & Germany staying there, only 1 guy, Jean-Patrick, can
speak English or German so it's pretty dull.
Thursday
24th September Guilleno-Castillo Blanco de Los Arroyos (20kms)
Started out at 8am while it
was still dark to avoid the heat, everybody else had already gone, nice cool
walk with some pleasant scenery and arrived just after midday. French and
Germans already there and having afternoon kips, nice, big and cool hostel.
Went and had a rather poor Menu del Dia lunch, dried-out fish and stringy chips
then had a kip myself. The other pilgrims are a pretty dull lot, they seem to
be just dedicated walkers with no interest in socialising. They don't even
drink!!!! They just sit around in their own groups, go to bed at 9pm and get up
at 6am, the place is deserted when I get up. Went out later and had a very
tasty eggs, sausage and chips-very exotic.
Friday
25th September Castillo Blanco-Almaden de la Plata (30kms)
Up at the crack of dawn to
a deserted hostel and set off, 3 ½ hrs of walking on the hard shoulder of a
luckily not too busy road, then into a national park. Very hot and dry walking,
had lunch under a tree and stretched out for a bit, saw a deer grazing beside
the road. Set off again at 2pm, more park walking followed by a big killer
hill-climb-lovely view-before descending into Almaden having run out of water ½
an hour ago. Everything closed for siesta of course, found the albergue and the
French and Germans already in residence. Had a rest then found a supermarket
and bought some cheese and tomatoes for dinner. Still very hot, but nice clean
airy albergue.
Saturday
26th September Almaden-El Real de La Jara (16kms)
Short day today so refused
to get up till it was light, had a blue cheese, tomato & turkey roll for
breakfast washed down with a beer I had left in the fridge(well I couldn't
leave it behind could I?) On the road at 9.10pm for a short farmyard stroll,
waded thru herds of cows, pigs, sheep and goats......lots of goats. The goats
follow me, they like me, they have chosen me as their leader, but there is
nothing I can reveal to them. Disappointed, they return to bleating and
foraging and whatever else goats do. Bit of cloud about so it was quite cool,
another killer hill-climb just before El Real and arrived at 12.30pm. Only one Frenchman at albergue so
the rest must have pushed on to Monesterio, but wait, 2 hot little French
chicky-babes have just arrived, I try and speak French thru a mouthful of blue
cheese,tomato & turkey roll but fail to impress. Pub-crawl that evening,
watch soccer matches and bullfights on Bar TV's. Lulled to sleep that night by
the sounds of chicky-babes in upper bunks moaning in their sleep while
Frenchman snores in bunk beside me.
Sunday
27th September El Real-Monesterio (22kms)
Up and away by 8am,
Frenchman just behind me and chicky-babes still moaning in bunks. Bit of cloud
cover so nice cool walking until last 5kms when sun comes out and a long, hot
upward slog on a gravel road into Monesterio. Albergue is no longer functioning
so found a spotlessly clean little room with toilet and shower at the Hostal
Estremadura for EUR12. Had some lunch then a snooze, went for a walk around in
the evening and watched a bit of the F1 Singapore Grand Prix on a bar TV.
Monday
28th Sep Monesterio-Fuente de Cantos (22kms)
On the road at 8.50am and
caught up to a German guy, Horst, who had just caught up with a German woman,
Birgit, then we all caught up with another German guy, Mattias and had a bit of
a chat and a few Kodak moments then I left them resting and pushed on. All of a
sudden the Camino is getting crowded! Lovely countryside, rolling ploughed
fields and new-mown hay, beautiful sunny day with a slight breeze. Got into
Fuente de Cantos just after 1pm and discovered that the albergue had been
closed so walked to other end of town to get a room at the Casa Vincenta, nice
bar but smelly dirty room, still can't complain at EUR9 a night. Spent the
evening watching TV in a bar
Tuesday
29th September Fuente-Zafra (26kms)
Well, there´s 159kms done
and I feel strong and fit with no aches and pains but I´ve got to get back to
Sevilla to catch the plane to UK Seville
No comments:
Post a Comment