Zamora

As it seems I write in every post, the walk from Point A to Point B was very difficult. And, yesterday's walk, from Salamanca to Vino de Cubo de la Tierra was no exception. It was about 8 miles of pleasant walking through the countryside and passing through a few villages and about 14 more miles of walking on a dirt track that was parallel to the highway. It was just long. The weather, however, has changed and it is much cooler, which, for me, is really great. I could not have made it yesterday without the cooler temperatures. It spat a few drops of rain off and on for about an hour but it was very light rain and the wind bothered me more than the rain. The temperature continued to drop and as I was alone at the albergue, I moved the portable heaters into the room with me and the bathroom as it was downright cold. Today it was probably in the 50s which is about 30 degrees cooler than last week. This morning I got up early and set out at about 7:15. It was rather nippy but very comfortable for walking. Today's walk went through farmland and was on a comfortable soft dirt path for nearly all of the 20 miles. There was even a village after the first couple of hours to break up the trip so I stopped in for a coffee and some toast. It had started to rain as I went in but after 15 minutes, I emerged to find the sun shining. So, the cooler temperatures and the comfortable path made these 20 miles rather ...dare I say...easy. And, to top it off, I arrived in Zamora, a town that I like a lot. There is a little street off the main square that is packed with tapas bars, as I recall, so I plan to stop into a few and make a meal of it. I was delighted to find Cecilio here as I hadn´t seen him for a couple of days. I seemed to have lost Gemma and Alfonso yesterday and Gemma goes back to Barça tomorrow morning so I won´t have a chance to say goodbye...although we have exchanged email addresses so I expect to hear from her. Alfonso has a few more days to walk so I hope he will catch up. Oh, and I was sure that I was gaining on Anna and Katerina, the German mother/daughter team but word is that they took a train from here in Zamora, this afternoon to skip a few stages so it seems that I have just missed them. Curses! Maybe I'll see them in Santiago. I've now completed three weeks of walking and have two left and I am hoping that all will go well and I will manage to arrive in Santiago without incident. If the weather remains cool, and the trail soft, I think I will be okay. Tomorrow I will try to do a long day 22-24 miles to try to make up for some lost time and then I should be able to follow the suggested stages. The new camera seems to work...I've also posted some pictures with the previous post and if you scroll down, I've added the sheep video. I've just reread this and have to say that today, wasnt really "easy" just not as hard as the tough days. I keep waiting for it to get easier but it doesn't seem to get any easier. I'm hoping this is the turning point.