27th September, Camino Sanabres to Asturianos

Note to self: bring gloves next time.

A 7.30am start (that’s the 7.30am in the morning) and it’s cold. Again.

We’d been advised that there would be very limited facilities on today’s route and that Mombuey, the first town on today’s route, was to be avoided.

I can’t recall where the advice came from, but it was a bit wrong.

Mombuey had tractors…well it had ONE tractor: 

It also had food shops, loads of them. It was a really bustling place although at 10am it was only just waking up. Stocking up with far too many goodies than we needed at the panaderia we followed the signs out of town:

Plenty of opportunities to fill up with water:

  A building like this in England would have snapped up by a builder long ago

More churches, this one in Valdemerilla:  It’s difficult to photograph interesting architecture that’s not adorned with power cables

And some lovely roadside (locked) Ermitas, this one in San Salvador de Palazuelos:

….and the mysterious guitar-carrying peregrino (peregrina?) 

Passing along the north side of the huge lake of Embalse de Cernadilla, passing through the small town of Entrepenas with it’s (locked) churches, we arrived in the outskirts of Asturianos.

The (locked!) Ermita del Carmen: 

Please give money! 

 This way to the Albergue

The Albergue in Asturianos, attached to the back of the local sports centre was clean and quite well appointed, but it was a bit soul-less. Importantly, the bar was able to provide beer and decent meals.

It had been a day of unremarkable flat, easy walking. The main points of interest were the buildings we encountered on the route. The only hard bit was walking through the heat of the day.

Mad dogs and Englishmen and all that. Oh, and mad Canadians too.

That night it rained – heavily.

26th September, Camino Sanabres to Rionegro del Puente

A quick photo call at the 12th century church of Santa Marta de Tera:

A 7.20am start under clear skies meant yet another cold start, they’re becoming something of a bad habit. The first few hours of unexciting walking were in the shade of trees which didn’t help.

The benefit of sunshine wasn’t felt until we crossed the River Tera, and then it got really hot:

More troglodyte dwellings:

In search of a late breakfast / early lunch in Calzadilla de Tera, we passed the ruined and abandoned church dedicated to Saints Justa and Ruffina (Santa Justa y Ruffina). The two sisters were martyred in the 3rd Century – you can read a bit about them here.

There’s a very atmospheric photograph here.

It’s a damned shame that so many of these wonderful churches have been allowed to fall into such states of disrepair. It can’t be that long before these buildings collapse all together.

It was another couple of Km before refreshments were found, in the village of Olleros de Tera:

Blink and you miss it:The village shop. There was nothing to identify this as a shop other than an advertising poster for ice cream in one of the windows. 

 

 I do like grapes….

…..lots!

 Matthew giving an apres-lunch performance.

To The Trout Inn

Another locked church: Santuario de Nuestra Señora de Agavanzal

I managed this shot through a peep-hole in the front door

 Route choice: left for bicycles

The dam across….this:

 Embalse de Nuestra Señora de Agavanzal

Which was full of enormous fish:

At Villar de Farfon a small Albergue offered very welcome refreshments to passing walkers. The place was run by a South African family who have dedicated themselves to missionary work. We were certainly grateful for their efforts. Within a minute of walking through the door we were offered cold drinks and biscuits – all they asked for was a donation. I hope we were generous.

 

A couple of hours later we rolled up at Rionegro del Puente. En-route to the village I snapped this, just for Alan:

We arrived in a cookingly hot Rionegro del Puente and made straight for the wonderful Albergue:

Things were to get even better. Across the road from the Albergue was a rather splendid restaurant:

This place was run single-handedly by one man….well I suppose it would. Although it could have been run single-handedly by one woman. Whatever.

Our chef / waiter / everything else, served excellent fare (including wine and seemingly unlimited amounts of the local rocket fuel) for norralot of dosh – 10 Euros.

We all slept well that night.

Well we would have done had it not been for the burping, farting and general racket coming from a bunch of cycling peregrinos who were sharing our dorm. Oh well.

And the storms that were forecast? They just didn’t happen.

25th September, Camino Sanabres to Santa Marta de Tera

…although still on the Via de la Plata

Another chilly start – and storms still forecast. We were up and about in good time to grab some breakfast, there was plenty of bread.

Matthew’s knee injury seemed to be settling down, he was clearly a happy bunny:

Once out the village of Tabara our route followed clearly marked tracks. Maps weren’t needed, our way was well signposted:

We didn’t stop here – but it certainly looked tempting. Some Albergues are ‘municipal’. Others are private, like this one.

Villanueva and lunchtime. It was quite (=very) hot and we were in need of a cuppa and something to eat. A tiny Villanueva pussycat hopped on to Vanessa’s guitar….actually it was Matthew’s, she was just carrying it. Said pussycat had clearly decided that hitching a ride was a bit of a lark and didn’t really want to disembark any time soon:

Being a bit of a softy, Vanessa got quite worried about her new friend. She was convinced, probably quite correctly, that it had been abandoned. A few minutes after this chance meeting, the cat was being fed and watered quite royally – milk and sardines.

The ungrateful feline then vanished without even saying thank you. There’s gratitude.

High-tech woodburner. A micro-controller does the clever bit: it monitors combustion and tweaks the various vents to ensure maximum efficiency. Of the three black pipes at the back, one is the flue and the other two convey pumped hot air to different parts of the building. Clever, eh?

Leaving the village we came across some interesting buildings. These were used for storage:

Others were lived in:

 Quite reminiscent of Kinver Edge.

Ruins of a mud-walled house

Hot, hot, hot…in Santa Croya de Tera

Santa Croya de Tera had a private Albergue. At 10Euros per night it was cheap enough, but there wasn’t a kitchen. We continued a little further, across the river, to the next village of Santa Marta de Tera where there was a modern municipal Albergue:

Heaven knows how much this place cost to put together: dormitory accommodation was good, the kitchen was good, showers superb, there was a coin-controlled washing machine. Unfortunately the place hadn’t been cleaned for quite a long time – the beds looked suspiciously grubby. We were expecting a hospitalero to roll up to collect our donations but none came.

The church in Santa Marta de Tera:

  Statue of Santiago peregrino at the back of Santa Marta de Tera church

After a good meal (and a few beers) in the local bar/restaurant I retired to my dorm in the albergue – but not before smothering my arms in Deet. I really didn’t fancy another night being eaten by bedbugs.