Update until the computor ran out of battery!!

Day 58 Saturday 28 April

Most of the day in the truly magnificent old town of Caceres. As far as we could see only one touristy shop in the whole of the old town. Actually only one shop of any kind in the old town. It’s a place that does have some atmosphere and you can imagine it as a medieval place especially as there weren’t many people around, so it was possible to have a whole street (or lane) with nobody else in sight. You can just imagine the wide-boy Conquistadores flashing their money around when they got back from South America.

We continue to notice how traditional Spain is, from the rather old fashioned looking clothes that young children are dressed in to the way old ladies wear black and old men black trousers, a grey buttoned up cardigan and often a beret. Late afternoon we went to an area of lakes and countryside that was a bit like a country park and there were family groups of several generations turning up well into the evening, many walking 3 - 4 kilometres from the nearest town. Spain is also traditional for shopping with a few big names but the vast majority of shops still small, family run places. It’s good not to see the big multi-national chains everywhere.


Day 59 Sunday 29 April

This is a holiday weekend and we need bread, so on our way out west to the country we drove into a small town/large village for a panaderia. Everything looked shut and we were given directions through town to one. All the streets look similar and we finally turned a corner and came face to face with a camel. Yes, the circus was in town. The camel gave us the same unconcerned but curious stare we get regularly in small places and we had to turn around and make another attempt. Finally taken to one by the woman I asked for directions. She explained that she was going there herself and that it was the only panaderia in town open on a Sunday. All in Spanish and somehow that’s what I got from the words I recognised.

Great wide open spaces with distant views of mountains in the distance. There are generally big distances between towns without villages or hamlets between. It’s quite usual to drive 20 miles or more through empty countryside with not even a cottage along the road.



Day 60 Monday 30 April

A definite dose of serendipity today ! Before we left England I’d seen that one of the towns near where we’d be at some time in our 3 months hosted the Spanish National Cheese Festival and then couldn’t find a mention of it in the guide book. Today we’d decided to drive to Trujillo - a pearl of a town, home of Pizarro and therefore like Caceres full of Conquisador spending. Checking in the book it turns out that Trujillo is where the Cheese Festival is held, and when ? At the end of April - it’s today !

It is a lovely town, not quite so perfect as Caceres and seemingly more naturally old and charming. The cheese festival was smaller that I thought and different from expected. Free to get in a nd look but tickets had to be purchased for tastings, one ticket per sample at 50 cents a piece. Two wine stalls too, so a lot of small samples of wine with small samples of cheese.


Day 61 Tuesday 1 May


We thought that yesterday was the public holiday of Labour Day, but no. Spain had the weekend, Monday was a normal workday and then 1 May, a Tuesday, was the public holiday. We drive northwards to Plascencia without a panaderia in sight. We’re on our way to the Monfrague Parque Nacional, somewhere that has had a lot of money spent on it and is a prime wildlife area.

Just as our geographical boundaries have expanded, our psychological ones have reduced. Focus is much more on today, rather than next week or month or what’s happening in the garden or with property. That’s probably why I said so much about the weather. The important items on a daily basis tend to be things like have we got fresh bread, water, is the washing dry. It’s very relaxing to have such short horizons because all problems are easily solved and a permanent travelling state could be quite seductive.

Day 62 Wednesday 2 May

Half the morning taken up with shopping and (narrow horizons indeed) we were really pleased to find a large Carrefour to go to.

Venture into Monfrague, which has a mountainous spine with lots of wooded areas and the River Tajo flowing through it. Huge interpretation centre. Info. Centre with four staff and no leaflets, water interpretation centre with large audio visual area and a Park interpretation centre. All custom built. Various trails from here with a leaflet. Like all the other places we’ve been, something about the mammals, reptiles and birds but nothing about the flora.

Went for a walk in the pouring rain rather than do nothing and the landscape looked very good even then. It stopped just as we finished and we disappeared off to a huge rock face for the vultures and various birds. Long conversation with a French birder who knew no English at all bugt who told us where to find a Spanish Imperial Eagle nest.

In the evening we had a huge thunderstorm with torrential rain and hail. We had to turn The Rolling Stones up to hear them sing ‘And the Rains Came Down‘ which really is on the latest album.


Day 63 Thursday 3 May

We’ve heard that Accionia have cancelled our return ferry and we have to try to book with P and O. We do but it’s about £200 more than Acciona. Considering that they cancelled the outward leg and our rebook with P and O was about £200 more, we are distinctly unimpressed with Acciona Ferries.

The Spanish Imperial Eagle (v v rare) was exactly where we were told and amazingly nesting only about 20 feet up a tree.

The landscape around here is really stunning especially with clear air and the distant views. The Sierra de Gredos to the north has snow on the tops and there are mountains in the distance all around. From the Castle of Monfrague on the top of one of the highest points, you can see that’s it’s empty with hardly a town to be seen.