Another wonderful day, rather more hilly than yesterday, gently climbing, following rural roads across the fields.
We had two river crossings, one successful, the other, less so.
On the first, we had to ford the river on stepping stones, very delicately with my shaky sense of balance, and when Bede offered to take my pack, I accepted, for if I were to fall into the water it were better my pack not come with me.
Up across a field of buttercups, along a gravel toad, and down to another fording of the river, giant stepping stones this time with a giant stride between them, and only Rob could manage it. In the process, Rach slipped and bruised herself rather badly, but has recovered and is troopering on. The rest of us waded across the stream, and up the hill and into Medina de las Torres for coffee and lunch.
Along the road for a further few kilometres and then off to the left on a country road for the final stretch. A few kilometres before Zafra I sat against the tree and listened to all that was happening around me. I have already waxed about the visual delights of the countryside, but there are many intriguing sounds as well, and the more you listen the more hear: the singing and trilling and chirping and curious repetive calling of of birds and the clicking of insects, and of course the ever distant barking of dogs. We don’t have enough words in our language for the sounds of birds and insects.
After a long loop off the road we arrived in Zafra, the end of the Camino de Sur, the Camino de Huelva.
This is a camino, as others used to be. Walked by only about fifty each year, pilgrims are still a novelty, and welcomed by the locals. In four of the towns, accommodation was free, and donations were refused. There were a few nasty stretches along the highway, but some compensating wild walks. In fact, in places I was glad not to be walking alone. It’s better to have company when you’re lost, or threatened by a dog, or approached by curious cows, or balancing precariously on a stone in the middle of a river.
And I was fortunate indeed, to have such fine company who carried my pack on treacherous crossings, and hauled me up off my arse when it was time to get going again. Rach and Bede have headed back to Madrid and New Zealand; Rob and I are having a rest before walking another day or two along the Via de la Plata.
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