Elevation gain 258 m

Elevation loss 256 m

Total distance walked 275.5 km

Gripe of the day – our accommodation last night was fine, but …there were thick plastic mattress protectors which were absolutely not fine. I don’t think I slept a wink until about 03:00 when I decided to remove the offending article. If that happens again I shall certainly remove it immediately.

We are only planning to walk a short half stage today. The full stage is over 33 km and although I’m up for it Nina is suffering with tummy problems and is feeling a bit weak.

We leave our accommodation via a back door as the bar doesn’t open in the mornings and exit town via a bullring no less – not quite up to Sevilla standards but a bullring nevertheless.

There’s a solar farm just outside the village.

We are immediately on a track and are soon walking past ancient oaks and a field of oats

Under normal circumstances Nina is a much stronger walker than me and is most often to be found leading the way, as you can tell from the many photographs of her back. But for a couple of days she has been suffering with a tummy bug and it has left her a bit weakened so we will take a short stage to the not quite halfway point and maybe take a taxi to the stage end. Perhaps we shouldn’t have squandered a day at the end of the Via Serrana but we have a date with a parador in Zafra and we need to be there in two days.

It’s quite cool this morning – my weather app says 11° but luckily there is no wind to cool it further. I sometimes struggle to keep my hands warm in these conditions as I suffer from Raynaud’s disease. One of various gifts my father bestowed upon me. I first realised it was an issue when I started work as a typist in my late teens and just couldn’t move my fingers when they got cold. Fortunately it seems less prevalent in advancing years, but yesterday when it turned a bit chilly my fingers turned a mottled white/purple and my fingertips lost feeling. Not a huge problem when your only job is to walk, but a bit uncomfortable nevertheless.

I pass an oak that is planted outside a border fence whereas all its friends are planted inside. It seems to be leaning out across the fence to try and reach its buddies.

Apparently today will be a day of many gates (someone mentioned sixteen) as we are walking through grazing pastures although I’ve not seen any evidence of grazers so far.

The first two gates are very easy to open and close which is not always the case. There is a beautiful villa built amongst this amazing landscape, how lucky to have this parque nautural as your front, back and every which-way garden. It is once again an absolute privilege to walk through the Sierra Norte today.

The signage is excellent as I would expect on a major camino. On the Serrana it was much better than I anticipated but not always consistent and I wouldn’t have wanted to walk without a track downloaded onto my phone.

I’m really enjoying the bird ID app and love it when we have some new names on the list. I normally turn it on for about a minute or two, but on one occasion I’d forgotten it was turned on and it continued recording whilst the phone was in my pocket for 30 or more minutes. There was a very long list of birds on that occasion including, very strangely, a mute swan, which may possibly have been due to the rustling of the phone against my shorts pocket – who knows – but I’m guessing there weren’t many swans around that day.

On one occasion I sent a recording to a birder friend of mine without listening to it first. By the time I did listen to it, I was absolutely appalled that what you could hear most of all above the birdsong was my extreme huffing and puffing as I was walking up a hill. I quickly messaged my friend apologising and she responded saying thank goodness, I thought you’d had an accident

I pondered yesterday on the lack of cash crops in this area. But maybe the profit is the abundant bird life here in these oak plantations.

I was lucky enough to do a woodworking course fairly recently in fact I was extremely lucky in being able to do three of their wonderful courses. It’s run by an organisation attached to the church in my neighbouring village of Avonmouth and is tutored by some very skilled and wonderfully helpful and patient people. I made many things I’m really pleased with. They have a laser cutting machine and I prepared some artwork to engrave upon some wooden coasters made from offcuts. I never quite had time to complete that task but hopefully I can return some time in the future to get them done. There are four designs – none of them mine – all memes I’ve seen on social media, but in my mind, all camino related and absolutely relevant to everyday life…

I just met the friendliest dog – a shaggy white mastin – behind a gate and although he looked friendly, you never do know, until you get close, whether they’re going to bite your hand off given a chance. But this guy was charm personified. He just wanted some connection – every time I put my hand up to his nose, he pirouetted, jumping with all four feet off the ground, and sprung around in circles like a newborn foal and then came back for another hand touch and did it all over again. Such a charming boy.

And talking of dogs my little border terrier is having a whale of a time whilst I’m away. On one of the above mentioned woodworking courses, I met a lovely lady who also has a little pooch and we have entered into a dog swap arrangement. I am receiving daily photos of Lily either reclining in the lap of luxury or on some jolly adventure – I’m not sure that she’ll want to come home. Thank you Nichola.

I’ve been so busy chatting to you guys that I somehow miss a turn. Luckily I come to a point where the track somehow doesn’t look right so I check my phone and can see I’m quite a way from where I should be. So I’m now walking back to find out where I went wrong.

My mistake happened moments after communing with the lovely dog. Goodness knows how I missed the turn – it was very well signposted – obviously my excitement about my new doggy best friend.

Well it really is a doggy day and my delay from the first encounter created an opportunity to meet the second one, who was similar looking and similarly friendly. She was accompanying a farmer and a small herd of goats and immediately rushed to my side for as much petting as I could give before the goats passed by in a very skittish fashion (I think she may have been my best friend’s mum!)

There are lots of horses in these here hills. We see several herds dotted about the landscape. They seem to be well cared for as there are many deposits of hay in various locations.

After 10.5 km we find ourselves on a beautiful narrow winding dirt track through the trees, passing one of the many waterholes in this area. It doesn’t last long before we are back on a white gravel track but whilst it lasted it was magic.

In the latter part of this mini stage we walk along an arrow straight track and I notice the first stone wall enclosures that I’ve seen since setting out all those days ago. That’s not to say there haven’t been any, but if there have, I haven’t seen them.

We arrive at El Real de la Jara after walking 15 km (including my 0.8 km detour) and stop at a bar for a cold drink. I ask whether it’s possible to organise a taxi to the end of the stage at Monesterio. The helpful bar man (who was babysitting his two month daughter) immediately organised a ride for us! We just had to wait for the driver to eat his lunch. In no time he arrived and transported us along the autovia to our destination (a very reasonable €35).

For all the 20 km of the taxi ride the landscape remained the same – oak trees dotted through fields. They cover a vast area

We are staying at Hostal Extremadora (at some point in today’s journey we have crossed from Andalusia into Extremadura) where there just happened to be one twin room still available. €20 for normal people, €15 for pilgrims + €2 to rent a towel (I’m so over using a microfibre towel – in my opinion a very well spent €2!).

I left Nina in the room to rest whilst I trotted across the road to buy some bread and was then drawn to a bar for a glass of wine and a plate of rustic aceitunas. Both were delicious so it only made sense to repeat the experience. After which I returned to shower and do my daily clothes wash. Now, I would have to recommend that the reverse of this sequence is advisable. Climbing on the bed to secure my washing line to the curtain pole after a couple of vinos was something of a balancing act – but I came out unscathed.

I have to report that the shower here at Hostal Extremadura is, by a very long chalk, quite the best shower experience of this camino. Lashings of hot water (I’m ashamed to say I didn’t hold back) and a shower head that is actually attached to the wall (I think there has only been one other shower where the head hadn’t broken from its fixing and had to be held by hand).

Monasterio is a large town with every amenity a pilgrim could hope for.

Todays birds…

Common Chaffinch

Common Nightingale

Corn Bunting

Eurasian Blackbird

Eurasian Blue Tit

Eurasian Collared-Dove

Eurasian Golden Oriole

Eurasian Hoopoe

Eurasian Nuthatch

European Serin

Great Tit

House Sparrow

Long-tailed Tit

Rock Sparrow (rare)

Sardinian Warbler

Spanish Sparrow

Wood Lark (rare)

Western Subalpine Warbler (rare)