I spent the night in a lovely little village called Oliva de Plasencia. This was on the advice of Gerald Kelly, in his guide “La Via de Plata” and it was excellent advice.  A lady called Anna showed me around the albergue.  It is an old house in the village, but with all mod cons, modern kitchen and bathrooms and everything else very comfortable.  Anna then opened the small supermarket, so that I could shop for dinner and breakfast.

I left early the next morning, and this is where things got tricky.  Gerald Kelly advises that there are several rivers to cross between Oliva and Aldeanueva.  I was walking with two Spanish friends, Antonio and José.  We visited the impressive remains of the Roman city of Cáparra and then tackled the rivers.

They are substantial and one, we waded across chest deep.  However, it was a warm day and we soon dried off.  We three, of course, thought that this was great craic but these river crossing should not be attempted without local advice and never alone.

We followed the Camino arrows and reached the tarmac road.  After 3 kilometres on the road, we reached the motorway bridge and saw signs for Restaurant La Parilla.  La Parilla turned our to be a gem.  It is an old world Spanish restaurant, at one time in the country, but now consumed by an industrial estate and a tangle of flyovers.  From the look,  I thought that it had gone out of business about thirty years ago, but the owner and headwaiter, came to the door and swept us in with his apron.  He was not a young man and not a thin one.  He recited the menu, as he arranged the table, with a slight pause at the dish he would like us to order.  We all passed and had a wonderful meal.

I enquired how far it was to Aldeanueva, on the Camino. At the mention camino, he rolled his lugubrious eyes heavenward.  It was obvious from his figure that he was not inclined to take exta long walks simply to admire the beauties of nature.  He held up four fingers, and uttered the words,  Via National, we were in Aldeanueva in no time.  I had intended to continue to the mountain village of Hervás, but the albergue there was closed so we spent the night in the Montesol roadhouse in Aldeanueva.