Day 19: Finca de Ventaquemada to Aldeanueva del Camino

The day started away from the Camino, in the beautiful town of Plasencia. It was market day, and the smells and sights of farmhouse cheese and chorizo was certainly a pull to stay. But, after breakfast, it was back to the farmhouse at Ventaquemada to begin again. As soon as we arrived, we met two new fellow pilgrims. Jonah from California and Peter from Nijmegen had started the day at daybreak from Carcaboso, so were walking almost 40km today. 

The first part of the walk was through dehesa and farm land. After 6km we arrived at the tuned Roman city of Cáparra. Since crossing into Extremadura back on day 5, we have been following, or sometimes ignoring, or sitting on, the stone, it sometimes metal, blocks indicating the way. The top of each of these shows a yellow pathway going through an archway. This archway is the arch of Cáparra. So a photo was obligatory. The arch is the only thing which remains standing of the city, which was, in its day, a bustling market town. 

Once back on the Camino, we walked through more dehesa which had a number of streams. Sitting by one of them, we met up with our New Zealand friend Ian. Fortunately he was there to help us cross the streams, as without holding on to his walking pole I'd have gone backwards into the water. Despite having two dry weeks, there was a lot of water around and a great deal of waterlogged earth. The mountains to the right, and later on the sides, were breathtakingly beautiful, with little villages nestling in their folds.

As we approached our old friend, the N630 road, we decided to follow that way and save 1.5km of walking. The ascent of about 7km up to Aldeanueva by road was tough, especially with what turned out to be a large blister on the back of my left heel. We were joined on the road by Jane and Richard from Cumbria, whom we had first met just outside Cáceres. We finally arrived at the Luna apartment, a very comfortable place to stay. After Mass, we joined some of our fellow pilgrims for a simple 10 euro dinner. The owner of the bar-restaurant was very interested to talk about the state of the villages and their lack of life... But that's another story.