Last night we had a wonderful evening – good food ( though very salty) and conversation.

From left to right – Massimiliano, Vittorio, Michael and me.


In the morning , being Sunday everything was closed except for a churros place that opened at 5.30 am everyday but was well off the track.

So almost everyone headed off at around 7.30am in the dark.

It was quite cool although it heated up later in the day. The lady at the cheese museum told me about a traditional shepherd’s hut on the edge of town that had been restored. I passed it in the dark so the photo isn’t the best.

Sunrise was beautiful .


The morning’s walk was very pleasant in the cool, with stone walls and lots of sheep . I imagine that this countryside hasn’t changed much for thousands of years.


These are merino sheep  and are similar to sheep  bought to Australia over 200 years ago to found the wool industry.


When things heated up it got a bit harder and I had a 16Km slog on the bitumin .


I passed work underway to build a high speed train line to the portuguse border. It has to cross a dam across the Tagus river.



Nearby were the ruins of a Roman bridge


After a 7 1/2 hour 31 km walk I arrived in Cañaveral. There are some even longer walks coming up over the next few days with no option to shorten them. My ankle is hurting more this evening and I’m a bit apprehensive about tomorrow.

At least I have a lovely place to dry the washing between the olive trees!