Day 18: Campanario to Don Benito. 24km.
We didn't hear any cuckoos today but saw two poppies that were a deep crimson rather than red.
We were both awake early this morning at 5:30am. I made the tea and we had it in bed while Moira read her Kindle and I updated my blog. We got up at the usual time had breakfast and packed, we were on the Camino at 8am. The restaurant where we had lunch yesterday was at the junction of the major road through the town and the road leading to the railway station. We were soon past the last houses of the town and the road to the station and albergue which was signposted and the fork to the right was a gravel road, the Camino.
On the outskirts of town there were a few fields of grape vines, the first we had seen in the region. Through the day there were some olive groves and holm oaks in the meadows but they were getting fewer and fewer. The landscape was nearly all fields of grain, the winter planting very well advanced and again an emerald green colour.
The route today was an interesting one, made pleasant by visiting a couple of villages on the way. The first, Magacela, was perched on top of a pointed hill that we had seen from a distance yesterday across the flat plain. At first I thought the white features on the hill were rocks, then because it had been so cold maybe snow, but no they were houses and they stretched to near the top to where the ruins of a castle stood. It was a long more or less straight track from Campanario and we could see it far ahead of us. I didn't think we were going to have to climb it as I couldn't remember anything about a climb in the guide book or on the profiles of the route we had seen. But we did, and it was a very steep and gruelling couple of kilometres. As it had started to rain shortly after we started we were going to look for a bar in the village for coffee but when we reached the first of the houses at the foot of the hill there was a lovely little park with benches and the rain had temporarily gone off. It was fortunate that we did stop as there wasn't a shop or bar on the whole route through Magacela. It had been a former Arab settlement and the mosque had been converted into a Christian chapel. The castle on top was 16th century but was now just a pile of stone. Magacela had been designated as a place of Historical Interest but there didn't seem to be any attempt to attract tourists or provide facilities. Where the road reached its highest point, just below the castle there was a flat tiled area with benches, a most wonderful viewpoint. We had a 180* outlook over the ground we had covered this morning and probably yesterday as well. From the strategic position of the castle above they would have a 360* panorama and be able to see any enemy armies approaching from a long distance. After the tough climb we expected to drop sharply but it went down gradually and not as far as we had come up, so even the road coming round the perimeter of the hill had a rise in height.
After a few kilometres on gravel we met a couple of sheep in front of us. Somehow they had got through the fencing isolating their grazing fields. Each time we approached they ran further down the path, stopped and looked at their friends in the field but not knowing how to join them. We tried to keep into the side so they could get back down the path behind us but sheep being silly they keep running away from us. When the path met a tar road they ran up to the right, our route was to the left. That was her last we saw of them, hopefully they got back with their mates safely. It was down this tarred road into the next village of the day La Haba, just a small place and we stopped at the first bar we came to for a beer. The beer you get is in a tiny bottle but they supply you with some tapas, we had a plate of chips and croquettes with a sausage meat filling. I also had our credentials stamped there, the woman at the flat last night didn't have a 'sello'.
My back had been sore yesterday but not unbearable. Today it was sore before we stopped at the bar in La Haba, the rest, the beer and a couple of pain killers helped. It was then just 6km to the end and I thought I would be all right but it gradually became unbearable. I struggled on until we entered Don Benito and thought I would be fine but I came to a grinding halt with the pain. We were close to a park with benches and Moira suggested that I take a seat while she went to the town centre and booked us into the hostal. Once registered she then intended to come back and help me with my rucksack. She put me on a bench and told me not to move. Unfortunately it started to rain quite heavily so I had to move, not far just across the street to a doorway next to a cafe. They had their chairs stacked nearby and I took one to sit on while sheltered in the doorway. Everything would have been fine, the hostal was only about 10 minutes away and Moira should have been back in about half an hour. But, she got lost and couldn't find the way back to where I was. She asked people even went to the police station but nobody knew anything about the Camino route or where I could possibly be. In the meantime I was pacing up and down the pavement hopefully trying to catch sight of Moira coming up the road. It was nearly two hours after leaving me that she appeared with an ambulance. She had gone to the emergency services and they came out with her to help find me, they must have thought that I was injured or something. They wanted to put me in the ambulance but I had my rucksack on and was walking along the road to the hostal under my own steam. Obviously there words and a bit of shouting, mostly by me at Moira but I soon calmed down, Moira had been just as upset and anxious about the situation as me.
When we arrived at the Hostal Galicia in the town centre the first thing I did was get water on the cooker for coffee. I left Moira to make it while I had a shower. The water was lovely and hot, it got some warmth into my body it had been cold and wet standing waiting in the middle of nowhere. After I was dried I lay on the bed with my cup of coffee and relaxed, I was recovering slowly. There was a decent WiFi signal and we were able to listen to the radio before going down for dinner.
WARNING. Anybody reading this and planning to do this Camimo, when you reach Don Benito avoid the Hostal Galicia. They don't start dinners until 8:30pm and when we arrived at that time we got a surly reception. We were the only people in the restaurant but still it took them an age to get round to even set our table never mind show us a menu. The food was very poor, we had salad which was average but the main course a croquette that had an inedible filling of I don't know what. When we got to bed we managed to sleep until 1am then doors began to be slammed non-stop. Then it sounded like furniture was being moved downstairs. I went down to the restaurant and they were cleaning up with no concern to the noise they were making. I complained and just got blank stares. Their noise stopped but the slamming of doors continued nearly all night and the walls are so thin we could hear the people in the next room talking, and they seemed to be talking all night. We did not have a good night at all and were still very tired in the morning.
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