Caceres to Embalsa de Alcantara, 27th October

The view from the Albergue. Contemporary, tranquil accomodation. Stunning landscape. Best so far. Perfect end to a long hot walk. Andrew, mob. blog, 5 PM.

In addition to the above mobile entry:


Cacar de Caceres



Leaving Cacar de Caceres



Roman Miliario, distance marker between towns



One of many strange rock formations



Distant view of the Embalse


Another view from the alburgue.

The landscape has changed. There are more hills and there are large rocks strewn around the fields. The whole place feels a lot more remote. It's like I have the whole place to myself. Some of the rock formations are extraordinary.

I phoned Rachel from here to help sort out the boiler which has switched itself off. She's on her exercise bike at home in cold, grey England. The contrast is astonishing.

Just before Cacer de Caceres my Camelback water bottle started leaking in my backpack. It must have been leaking for some time before I noticed it as there wasn't much left to drink but my backpack and sleeping bag had soaked up most of it and it slowly trickled out, like I was peeing, for the next few hours. It was slightly embarrassing going through a busy town with wet shorts and a trail of water behind you and no way of explaining it. Absolutely nothing I could do about it! Met up with Ellamiel in town and she had a good laugh. Me too.

Stupidly I didn't buy enough water in town before a long hike in to the wilderness and ran out of water in the heat of the midday sun. My only choice was to walk at speed to the next alburgue which was several hours away at the Embalse de Alcantara. Somewhere in this rocky wilderness I hurt my ankle again.

However, their beer was the best. When I arrived, in my best Spanish, I said "I'm very thirsty. My water bottle is kaput. Can I have a beer please my water is in my sleeping bag is there a place to dry it?"
A strange request, perhaps, for a hospitalero alone in the middle of nowhere but he understood immediately and laughed. He then washed all of my dirty clothes and cooked supper when the others turned up. Hero!