Day 31: Tábara to Camarzana de Tera

As always, I seem to look back to the previous evening at the beginning of these posts. Last night I had dinner in the bar-restaurant attached to the hotel where I was staying. I happened to sit on a table adjacent to another lone diner. He briefly introduced himself as a Norwegian pilgrim. This morning we happened to coincide in the bar at breakfast, and it turns out he is an evangelical pastor. It was interesting how we coincided in ways of thinking about life, the Church, etc. We agreed to walk separately, but to have dinner together in the evening. A very providential meeting.

So, heading out on today's section, I began in good step and decided to sing

Lauds as I went along the road. Once off the main road, it was back on to the compressed earth pathways which traverse the farmland of Spain. I heard again, for the first time since Extremadura, the sound of cowbells, not on cows, but on goats and sheep, guarded by quite vociferous dogs. The terrain was more undulating as I journeyed through this first part of today's section. At one point I can't across a couple of deer who didn't quite know how to react to me, but hung around long enough for me to photograph them. Once again there was three option presented by a bifurcation. Either to travel the traditional route, with no bar or food, or via Villanueva de las Peras where there was the promise of a bar and food. I give no bonus points to anyone guessing which way I went.

When I got to Villanueva de las Peras, I made for the one restaurant, where lots of people were gathered. The tables were beautifully set for a banquet. I was informed that one of the villagers was 100 years old and that the restaurant had been booked out for his birthday lunch. Nonetheless, they took pity on a pilgrim, and put me in the back room, used only in summer for diners, and served me a beautiful plate of embutidos and cheese and a salad, all served on the all too familiar Churchill pottery. It was the perfect lunch for a Sunday and for a day on the Camino. Villanueva de las Peras was half way on the day's journey. The owner advised me not to go back to the Camino, as it involved extra kilometres, but to take the road out of town. So I followed his advice.

On each day I use a variety of tools to help me find the way. And so I put my final destination today - Camarzana - into my Google maps search. Not only did it advise me not to seek out the official Camino path but to take a completely different route which would shave a could of kilometres off the total for the day 

So, on the road out of Villanueva, I eventually took a farmlike road through old woodlands, which took me not to Santa Croya and Santa Marta, but through a beautifully tranquil natural park of holm oak and other trees which led me to the little village of Melgar de Tera. This was really completely off course for the Camino, but I loved finding my own way through completely silent and unspoilt pathways.

The natural park park emerged at the top of the hill above Melgar. From there I had not only the view of the villages ahead to lead me to lodging for the night, but also a first view of the Sanabrian hills through which I would journey in the days ahead. Within a kilometre I was in the village and enjoying a coffee in the bar, full of old gent cronies playing cards on a Sunday afternoon. I still had five kilometres to walk and so set off along the road to Pumarejo, which mostly I bypassed to take the road towards Camarzana to find tonight's lodging. Crossing the River Tera, along which tomorrow's route will set out, I found my way to the village of Camarzana in no time and the Hotel Juan Manuel. Here I caught up with my new Norwegian friend with whom I dined, sharing a really experience of life over dinner and a copa.