Today just may be my favourite day on the Mozarabe. I don't usually think in terms of favourite days - most days something special happens. But today as we walked along the ancient Vereda del Camino de Don Benito, suggested by Antonio, the thought came to me that this was my favourite day - and that was some hours before we arrived at our casa rural El Cercon in Magacela, where something truly special was waiting for us.
The sun shone, the path was beautiful and peaceful. And, armed with Antonio's 'map', we didn't walk on any modern roads. The alternative was to go via the large town of Campanario adding an extra 6 kms and lots of bitumen. For commercial and practical reasons sometimes - thankfully infrequently - the original Camino paths have been diverted to pass near or through larger towns providing options for shorter stages and more accommodation. We are delighted that thanks to Antonio we found ourselves instead on this ancient Way.
As Magacela has little accommodation, we also took the recommendation of our friend Pierre and phoned ahead to El Cercon casa rural. Pierre wrote in glowing terms about the casa and Isabel and her family. Merci beaucoup Pierre. Amities et bises.
Having left Castuera at 7.30, we made good time and arrived at the casa just after 2 - earlier than expected. There was no-one there so Domi called Isabel and she said she was about 20 minutes away. Pas de probleme. De nada. We still had one of the bocadillos that Antonio had prepared for us this morning - and there was a lovely stone 'table and chairs' outside the casa. So we ate our lunch and rested there in the shade until Isabel arrived.
Could this special day get any better? Si, Si. Tout est possible.
Later tonight or tomorrow I will post a separate entry about our casa rural.
Hasta luego.
J x
PS. Someone asked about the problems I've been having with the blog. I haven't overcome all the technology issues - there are a few gremlins for sure - but I have become a lot more patient with the workaround solution. It takes me a bit of extra time but most afternoons or evenings I have plenty of time. And Domi is happily writing his diary the old fashioned way. Needless to say, he's not likely to encounter any technical glitches - unless his pen runs out of ink.
PPS. And Domi spotted the tiniest 'tortue' on the path - alive and photo included. Extraordinaire!
