DAY 10: OCT 15 ALJUCEN TO ALDEA DEL CANO (38 KM) 47,281 STEPS

The tenth day covered 38 kilometers under a blazing hot sun. The first half passed quickly as it was not overly warm early in the morning. The landscape consisted of holm oaks, pasture (the land is too rocky to be arable) and endless kilometers of scrub land. We stopped for a leisurely lunch in Alcuescar.

The rocky trail near Alcuescar

Franck near Alcuescar

The last 17 kilometers were pure hell! The only things that made it interesting were the occasional Roman artifacts that I saw as I walked along the ancient Roman Via de la Plata trail.

"Miliario" (Roman milestone) built into a stone wall

The authorities in Extramadura have installed "stepping stones"

in areas prone to flash floods

Hot, dusty and dry

The tiny albergue in Aldea del Cano had two rooms with two bunkbeds each and five mattresses for overflow sleeping on the floor. The two rooms were already occupied. Strangely one of the rooms had duffel bags - clearly not something a pilgrim would be using. It turned out that the four occupants had arrived by car. By rights they should not have stayed at the albergue but there didn't seem much point in arguing so Franck and I slept badly on the thin mattresses. But it didn't seem fair considering that we had walked 38 km to get there.