The first section took us to the village of Calzadilla de los Barros. We soon lost sight of Fuente de Cantos with the undulation of the pathway, and only gained sight of Calzadilla when we were already upon it. One innovation in the terrain was that the fields of cereal soon gave way vineyards as we entered the wine making area of Ribera del Guadiana. Calzadilla boasts a striking 15th century church which was, following the custom, locked. We had an early lunchtime sandwich and coffee before hitting the road again. A small group of lads, proud of their recently acquired bikes, no doubt delivered by the Wise Kings only yesterday, were very pleased to greet us with gusto in their limited schoolboy English. Thus we set out on the longest section, over 14km, to Puebla de Sancho Pérez. This pathway took us to a junction withthe Cañada Real along which nomadic herdsmen would drive their livestock to fresh pastures.
The village of Puebla had a rather sleepy feel after the obvious partying of the feast of Epiphany so we decided to kick on through to walk the final 3km to the important and larger town of Zafra.
Zafra was much more alive and so we found a bar where we could have a reviving shandy before taking up residence in our one star hotel, great value at 25 euros a night for a room. After a brief respite and shower, Terry and I headed out to Mass at the modern church of St Michael. I concelebrated with one of the local clergy.
After Mass we found one of the chattiest owners of a Bar-Restaurant I have ever found. I feel I know his whole family background as well as his philosophy of locally sourced foods and wines too quite a depth. The bacalao Dorado, homemade croquets and black pig cheek all deserve a mention. The Alcázar of Zafra looks wonderful on the evening with floodlighting.
And so ends the second day of the second section of the Camino Vía de la Plata. Here are a few of our animal friends from along the way today.
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