"Of all the things you wear, your smile is the only thing that never goes out of style. Don't lose that." This lovely phrase is one of Carcaboso's planter-wisdom. Throughout the village are planters with spells like this on either side, but there are also some less sweet ones, such as "The world will not be destroyed by those who do evil, but by those who perceive evil and do nothing about it." Nice proverbs to think about during our trip....
As expected, the Auberge was indeed quiet pretty early last night. We were still enjoying our evening meal, when the neighbour next to us was already loudly snoring enjoying his sleep. Apart from these noises, we had a long, quiet night and this morning we are outside a little after eight o'clock, for this in many ways special stage: we are walking half of the king's stage of the Via de la Plata, which is said to be one of the most beautiful stages; we end our stage at the Arco Tetrápilo de Cáparra, the unofficial symbol of the Via de la Plata; today is the first stage of my 43rd year of life ánd today, after several months, we are seeing family again! Our road crosses that of my parents who are also travelling throug
The day had already started well with the most festive breakfast you can imagine in a windowless room, decorated with grandmother's furniture and closely watched by a statue of Mary above the bed, and so will only get more festive. We have already walked a while down the main street, when the boss of our Auberge comes running from another hotel, to wish us 'Bon Camino'. He shakes my hand and starts whistling 'Happy birthday to you' in the middle of the street, gives me a wink and pats me amicably on the shoulder. Haha, I didn't see that one coming, but apparently he has studied the passports well! Nice.
We pretty soon walk out of the small village, into the fields. The route turns left, though the arrows point straight ahead. Here in Spain, following the arrows has always proved worth the extra altitude meters, so we follow them through a beautiful meadow. Big cows stand under old oaks and look up curiously as we pass them. At a gate from one meadow to another, it's pretty crowded. On our side of the gate there are a few horses, on the other side some imposing cows. Gate like these are always a bit of a struggle because they are all closed in a different way, but under the watchful eye of horse and cow, things still go quite smoothly. Fortunately, they make no attempt to switch pastures. We rejoin the route a little later, walk a short distance along a road and then turn right back into the green. From here we walk for kilometers on green paths and along endless stacked stone walls. The green meadows are home to cork oak, holm oak and lower holly oak, with fields of flowers among the shrubs and trees. It's a stunning stretch and by far the greenest we have seen this trek. More often, we walk across streams and past small pools and lakes. In one of the little lakes, we see large boulders on the side on the muddy shore. But as we walk towards the water, one starts moving. The boulders turn out to be turtles, sunbathing on the edge! Wow! When still at hime we had read that there are turtles in this area and were hoping to see them somewhere. Well, today is the day, and there are about 10 of them.
We also see some swimming in the small lake, occasionally raising their little snouts above the surface of the water. What beautiful animals they are. Not much further, a snake crawls across the path, soon back into the grass. It's clear that we are far from civilisation on this stretch. We hear nothing but the rustling of the wind through the trees and the sound of birds. In the final kilometers, the landscape widens a little, we see the mountains in the distance again and farmers are mowing grass on the large meadows. The path is nowhere steep and it's not long before we arrive at the unofficial symbol of the Via de la Plata: the Arco Tetrápilo de Cáparra. This Roman arc is depicted on almost all marble posts along the route. And here we are picked off the route. After five months, we are really looking forward to seeing each other again. And as soon as the arc comes into sight, we are actually more looking to see if we see my parents anywhere, rather than paying attention to the arc. At a bench in the shade of olive trees, they are waving at us. We walk under the Arc, up the hill. What a warm welcome on this special day, in this special place. A day to remember! We drive (that's been a while ago as well!) to the campsite in Monfragüe and will have a few wonderful days in which, even though we are already in frequent contact thanks to today's technology, we have SO much to tell each other.
And we have the chance to see a piece of Spain we could never have seen on foot: the Monfragüe National Park and the Sierra de Gredos. A wonderful and enjoyable holiday from this trip! And a special day....
