“Uh-uh, a river ……”

“A deep, cold river, we can’t go over it, we can’t go under it….Oh no, we’ve hot to go through it !” ( From Michael Rosen’s Epic, ” We’re Going On a Bear Hunt ” )

From Banos, Roman Thermal Baths; quite touristy, we climbed out of the valley towards Bejar. Not as difficult as we thought and only light drizzle. Met a French couple, en route, and shared experiences; delightful  couple, great SOH. You would need it , listening to our French! Soon enough we made it to our Casa Rural, Calzada.

Renovated sympathetically , with some stonework going back to Roman times. Our host, Maria, epitomised the warm welcome Pelegrinos receive on the de la Plata. Warm fire and spacious rooms. We made our way to the only bar in this fascinating time warp of a village, along the Main Street, Via de la a Plata, with its overhanging balconies, some of which appeared to be on the point of imminent collapse. Encountering a Spanish-American couple, who made their way to the bar, with us. After a couple of beers and Tapas, it got lively and Darcy  demonstrated an amazing mixture of gymnastics and Pilates! On a full stomach, too. We were impressed…. Maria cooked us a great dinner, Norway, Spain and Holland, together; Maria , after much prompting, showed us a portfolio of her paintings of the locality – Naive Art, the unskewed eye; they were lovely and I would have bought one but for the impossibility of getting it back safely, in a rucksack.

Saturday dawned brightly for a welcome change and we made good progress until we met the river “Uh-uh”…..Divested of my shorts, socks and boots, I followed Mac across , in the freezing water, made up of snow melt from the nearby mountains ; he did a great impression of St Christopher and bravely made his way back across the submerged , stepping stones, to take my rucksack from me, thus allowing me to clamber across the last two stones and on to dry land. We laughed with relief and after 2 KM came across a bar, where we took coffee and got our socks and boots back on.

As if that was not enough, just before our next stop , we were caught in a hail storm – T G for Ponchos….As we entered Fuenterroble de Salvatierra, our host, Pacqui was waiting to usher us into his Casa Rural. Showered and warmed up we went down to Bar  Jorge and ……Today brought home to me the words of Albert Camus, when he wrote…..” Don’t walk in front of me, I may not follow. Don’t walk behind me; I may not lead. Just walk beside me and be my friend”.